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Re: Super simple beginner coils
Let me tell you a story of the first coil that I built-- and it wasn't
properly a T-coil--
In 7th grade I was considered the resident mad scientist at my middle
school-- and someone "commissioned" me to build a taser for them. I knew
the necessary materials I would need for a small battery powered one-- a
nine volt battery, an electromechanical buzzer, and a backwards wired
step-down transformer. Essentially the DC is broken by the buzzer, wired
in series-- which delivers pulses to the small induction coil. The output
couldn't be considered impressive-- 1 cm. at most, but the shock was
painful-- painful enough to get me suspended when Mr. Hanson, the
principle, caught me with it in the hall, showing it to my colleagues-- : )
My second coil was a DC jobby I built from plans from "lasers, ion rifles
&c." by our esteemed friend Robert Iannini-- this was a transistor driven
flyback-- still not a Tesla Coil, but powerful enough in current to drive a
plasma globe, which was fun for a time.
At any rate-- I think the possibilities for TC-like science fair projects,
w/o 60 cycle AC driven transformers is quite endless-- given a certain
level of technical knowledge on the part of the experimenter.
I'm almost glad that I wasn't able to get ahold of the larger transformers
until a little later-- at that point in my life I was less responsible than
I am now-- : ) which is, needless to say, very, very irresponsible.