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Questacon Tesla Coil in QTVR
Hi All,
Questacon in Canberra have finally gotten around to putting *some kind* of
an image of their coil (running) on the net... They've had it since around
1988/89.
The address is http://www.questacon.edu.au/force.html but you need to have
Apple's QuickTime plugin in your browser to see it - it's actually a 360
degree view of the "Forces Gallery" at Questacon - you'll have to "click
and drag" on the image to scan around the room to see the coil in the
corner of the gallery.
For historical background purposes, this is one of Bill Wysock's
(http://www.ttr-dot-com) Super Model 9 coil.
(Yep Bill, it's still working like a charm, Rod Browitt has looked after
it quite well... :-) ).
I've not only been to Questacon to see this coil in action, but actually
*inside* the cage also (not while it was running though :( ).
It was quite an awesome experience to see such a beautiful and
elegant peice of engineering close-up... The immaculate care taken in
design, materials and construction - a true artform!
Spec's-wise -
They're running the coil at 6.5KVA (12.5KVA Max), roughly 20KV on the
primary, tapped out at around 4 and 3/4 turns (5.5 turns in total).
Secondary is 800 turns, SRF at 80KHz, with a 30 inch toroid.
It has 2, either 0.1 or 0.05uF 50KV caps in parallel (been a while,
can't remember the values, sorry...Bill?).
12-point salient-pole synchronous rotary with 4 spark-gaps in series.
Throws arcs around 6-7 feet (free-to-air), and about 8-9 feet
(point-to-point) - why not take a look at Bill's page to see what this
baby's *really* capable of! :-)
They run the coil every 30 mins for a total duration of 19.5 seconds! It
has been operating on that basis every day (9-5) since they got it... Just
goes to show, a well-made, looked-after coil *will* last for ever!
Just thought I'd let you know, something new to see! :-)
Cheers,
Rod
Tesla Technology Australia Pty Ltd
http://www.tesla-technology-dot-com.au