[Home][2019 Index]
Hi An old video of my first little tesla coil. Ignition coil powered, 4 cm diameter secondary, 20 cm long with 0.25 mm enamel wire, 6-7 turns primary, 7 cm dia. sphere topload aluminium foil covered, 3.6 nF primary cap, 3-4 inches arcs. Many thanx go to Bert Hickman for help. It was a nice coil to play with. It is disabled now, but the secondary is used in one of my tiny VTTCs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS-iRY3H5S0 vasil > > -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 1/16/19, Gary Lau <glau1024@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Subject: [TCML] Let's Get Small To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 3:08 AM With apologies to Steve Martin, I was hoping to inspire some discussion on the small end of the Tesla Coil spectrum. Not to suggest it's easy but everyone knows if you throw 10KVA into a coil, you're eventually going to get some big sparks. Not much has been shared about the other end of the spectrum. Several years ago I threw together a palm-top sized coil powered by a yard sale bug zapper transformer. Bug zapper transformers are built just like NST's, current limited but tiny. Inspired by the recent Little Coil thread, I dusted it off and made some primary coil tweaks and adjustments, and finally got around to taking some pictures. The performance is OK-ish, maybe 2" to a nearby screwdriver, but I was really hoping to get some similar sized sparks just wandering about the topload. Yeah I have plans to tweak some more, although such a small 4-turn primary is difficult to adjust. Looking for that round tuit. Well, I was hoping to hear other successes in the micro-sized league and what might be attainable. Pictures and a short video are at: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1q83wHgtXXlpcKSobd8bXSQ1ZlmvlK3zp Specs: Power source: 4.8kV/8.7mA Bug Zapper Transformer, modified to remove the potted built-in ceramic capacitor across the secondary. Primary C: .0094uF/8KV MMC (5x 47nF/1600V) Primary L: Helical 4 turns PVC insulated 18AWG solid wire Secondary L: 0.84”D x 4.43”L x #38AWG – 3.37mH Top load: Pine disk, turned on drill press to form .75” x 3.4” pseudo-toroid, Al tape covered Spark gap: Single cylinder gap, .020” separation Performance: 2.25” to a screwdriver blade (very little tuning performed) Regards, Gary Lau MA, USA _______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla _______________________________________________ Tesla mailing list Tesla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://www.pupman.com/mailman/listinfo/tesla