Re: Electronic damage

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Pete Whitfill by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pete-at-whitfill-dot-net>

I ran my coil (~5kW...40 to 50 inch streamers) for a play called
"Requiem for Tesla" here in Austin.  We did a lot of work with sheilding
where we could but there were a large number of incandescent lights
in close proximity to the torroid which were controlled by a computer
controled "light pack (or dimmer)".  This was a very expensive piece
of equipment that was loaned to the production so there was quite a
bit of risk involved but "the show must go on".  The dimmer pack survived a
strike to one of
the
bulbs early in the testing phase with no damage (all lights on the dimmer
did go to full brightness after the strike...looks like the control electronics
got confused by all the RF and thought the control board was sending
the signals to turn all the lights up).  We found in future rehearsals that
even without any strikes, the control electronics seemed to get confused
and would either dim or brighten the lights from their settings unpredictably.
An alarm would also be tripped in the dimmer pack which basically points
to bad control signals from the board which was cleared by resetting the pack.
Therefore, during the runs we totally disconnected the dimmer pack from
the mains to avoid the problem of all lights coming up during the run of the
coil.  We also had video, audio and other equipment in the area during
firing of the coil with no problems...


Also, when I first built the coil in High School (14 years ago) I accidentally
left a cordless AT&T phone on the base of the coil about 4 inches from the
flat spiral primary...There were no direct strikes to the phone but as I am
sure all of you can guess, the phone did not work any more after that :)


>From what I can tell from my experiences so far, I don't think you can ever
be sure that sensitive equipment of any kind is Totally safe around a running
coil...I think that most of the time you will not have a problem but every now
and then you will probably find things just don't work any more...so try to
work
with equipment that you don't mind getting ruined.

My $0.02,

Pete


--
Peter Whitfill
Whitfill-dot-net conslulting
pete-at-whitfill-dot-net

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Gary.Lau-at-hp-dot-com>
>
> I saw a surf-rock band, Man or Astro-man?, playing in a small night club.
> At the end of their closing number, a small-medium-sized (~24" diameter
> toroid) Tesla Coil was fired up on the small stage, in very close proximity
> to all of the sound gear.  Perhaps they save it to the end just in case
> anything _does_ toast, but it didn't.  Being a coiler and not knowing
> anything about them using a coil in advance, it was a real surprise and a
> treat!
>
> Gary Lau
> MA, USA
>
> Original poster: "Anthony by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
> <firework-at-firework.co.nz>
> <snip>
> But has any one had a computer blown?  I realise that in a small garage
> damage is easily done, but has any one ever run a coil on stage in a
> theatre with all the lights and sound gear up and running?
>
> Any one fried all the nearby cell phones or killed a walkman or blitzed the
> lighting dimmers on the wall?
>
> I see how damage is possible but does it occur easily in practice?
>
> Interested to hear of your actual experiences in the matter as I am so out
> of touch now.
>
> Kind Regards     Anthony Lealand             Firework Professionals
> Ltd          Web   www.firework.co.nz

--
Peter Whitfill
Whitfill-dot-net conslulting
pete-at-whitfill-dot-net
512-431-0430