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Re: Garage door opener vs. Tesla coil

Original poster: Frank <fxrays@xxxxxxxxxx>
Modern electronics are not as robust as earlier ones. With the advent of the FET and CMOS, they are very easy to blow for any reason. Chances a TC arcing to the opener will blow the logic is very real, even with the power off, grounded, etc! I have had VTTC running and draw short arcs off near by lamps. The RF field can and will induce fairly high voltages in surrounding metals. The foils on PCB's in openers and other electronics can act as antennas and voltages can be induced into the IC"S causing damage. A friend of mine just blew up both his DVD players in 2 separate rooms running a small 10" coil.
I have one antique medical Oudin that is quite spectacular with about a 2.5 KVA input (20 KV transformer, oil filled caps) where the secondary is only about 100 turns of #14 wire. It will throw a healthy 10" arc and wiped out a lap top 20 ft away as well as blanked out security on a campus!
If you run it in the garage, the best suggestion is to remove the electronics from the opener or better yet, run it outside.
Be very cautious too where your breaker panel is as you can get induced voltages back into your house wiring and possibly wipe out other electronics! 

Thanks, Frank

At 05:34 PM 1/21/2007 -0700, you wrote:

Original poster: otmaskin5@xxxxxxx
Thanks everybody for the many suggestions on protecting garage door openers and also for ideas on not getting the wife mad about coiling mishaps (as a side note - surprisingly, she didn't get as upset this time as she did the last time my TC destroyed something. Maybe she's getting used to it...at any rate, I don't want to push it).
I will try a number of your suggestions. I guess the salient point is that coiling at increased power eventually gets to a point where you just don't plug it in & go. Set up & damage prevention measures now seem to be taking more time than the time I spend actually running the thing! Dennis Hopkinton MA 



-----Original Message-----
From: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 12:53 AM
Subject: Re: Garage door opener vs. Tesla coil
Original poster: "James Zimmerschied" <<mailto:zimtesla%40msn.com>zimtesla@xxxxxxx> 

Dennis,
I had a similar experience with loss of a garage door opener circuit card from my TC operations. The coil was far enough away that it did not strike the opener but the receiver apparently did not like the TC RF emissions. The replacement card was $90 and my wife was not too keen on using the push button operator I rigged while waiting for the new card.
I now always unplug the door opener when I run small coils in the garage. When I run my medium coil (which does strike the opener rail), I unplug it and remove the PC card. - after dozens of runs at different times there has been no further loss. 
Jim Zimmerschied
----- Original Message -----
From: <<mailto:tesla%40pupman.com%3eTesla>mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>Tesla list
To: <<mailto:tesla%40pupman.com%3etesla%40pupman.com>mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>tesla@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 6:13 PM
Subject: Garage door opener vs. Tesla coil
Original poster: <<mailto:otmaskin5%40aol.com%3eotmaskin5%40aol.com>mailto:otmaskin5@xxxxxxx>otmaskin5@xxxxxxx 

I looks like my coil murdered my garage door opener. While running
the coil in the garage, the garage door opened on it's own & then
died. I now have to open & close the door manually. I was careful to
position the coil far enough away so that no arcs could strike the
opener or anything connected to it, and it still seems to have
succumed to the coils effects somehow.

My question is, other than unplugging the opener, are there any
preventative measures I can take to protect the garage door
motor/receiver? Or is there just no safe way to run the coil indoors?
I imagine the repairs won't be cheap so I'd like to avoid a
repeat. Thx for any advice. Dennis Hopkinton MA

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