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Re: Super simple beginner coils
Hi, Terry, All
Neat idea with the beginners TC. They wouldnīt be real TCīs but still the guy
or gal could find out if they are really interested in HV/HF stuff.
Xformer:
I would go for a HEI ignition coil or better yet (ferrit core) a boob toob
flyback xformer.
(cheap, easy to find, rugged)
Driver circuit suggestion:
Build up a single 555 multivibrator. Make the frequency variable. This gives
beginners something to play with, w/o getting hurt. Let the 555 drive a
darlington or better still a 4 MOSFET bridge, which in turn feeds the ig. coil
or ferrit xformer.
(cheap, easy to find, extremely rugged)
555īs are cheap and the most versatile IC, (you wouldnīt believe what I have
built with these suckers) Iīve seen.
Besides 555 and MOSFETS can take some serious mishandling before death.
(Beginners are bound to make mistakes and hopefully learn from them)
The idea of using a Poloroid film battery (or even flash batteries, like you
said) is intriging, too.
Poloroid batts are still as good as new after running the camera for the
single film. And they put out almost as much power as a NiCd if shorted. Best
of all they are free and give you 6 volts.
I have a few schematics of homemade circs and from others sources, too.
(If anyone is interested.)
Such a small beginners coil could be built for under $30-$40, no problem. That
way if it fails, or if they arenīt interested in TCīs anymore, there is no big
loss of money.
Coiler greets from Germany,
Reinhard
>
> Hi All,
>
> I have received a number of off-list requests for a simple beginner
> Tesla
> coil that could be built by someone at say the junior high level. No big
> high power sparks or pole pigs, just a nice little easy to make table top
> coil that would be good for science fairs (and getting an A in science).
> Preferably nothing super lethal but be able to make a few inch spark and
> demonstrate the principles of operation. It would have to be simple,
> cheap, and use standard parts so that a set of easy plans would work for
> everybody. Of course, getting consistant parts is the key.
> What I was thinking of is this. A GM ignition coil is cheap and
> easy to
> get at the cheap auto parts store or junk yard. Not quite a Tesla coil,
> but real easy to get and solves a lot of problems building the primary and
> secondary to specs (they are pretty consistently made I hear). A little
> plumber's putty could be used to seal a tube with a small terminal on the
> output (copper toilet float perhaps). The primary could be run from a
> small home made dry cap to a set of easy plans (foil and poly between
> planks of wood). The spark gap would probably be any two nails probably
> very close together. The power perhaps could come from a discarded
> disposable camera flash unit. Of course, the primary could also be a
> relay
> operating as a set of breaker points as in a car. But, perhaps, that
> would
> be a little too non Tesla coil like. Old TVs also have HV rectifiers that
> can be very useful for turning sparking things into something that could
> charge a primary cap (this probably would not be a 400BPS rotary gap
> machine :-))
> I would think there is a good chance of whipping something like this
> up
> that anyone could build. If anyone has any ideas this would really help
> the "real" newbies out!
> I have a bunch of GM coils laying about so I'll try to tinker with
> this.
> If anyone already has it done, well... that would make it real easy :-))
> They have iron cores and such, so there is a bit of "real" engineering
> that
> needs to be looked into to be sure it would work.
>
> Of course, if anyone has any super easy beginner coil plans available,
> please mention them.
>
> Any ideas would be appreciated by many of those that rarely post (the
> other
> 90% of us) :-))
>
>
> Terry
>
>
>
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Subject: RE: Super simple beginner coils
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