Holiday Project: DRSSTC :D

G'day blokes,

Im on holidays So that means all projects will be in overdrive!

Ive always wanted a tesla coil for the pure awesomeness!

So i bought the Microbrute kit from eastern voltage research.



Kit arrived:



Now this kit is a 110V job, and Australia being 240V i bought a 2kW 110V step down tranny.



The kit came with a plastic top load must be laced with aluminum foil, which doesn't look too bad but i really love the spun aluminum toroid's out there so i bought one 8" x 2.25". This will increase the secondary capacitance but i can tune the primary to suit.



I also need a cooling fan to the heatsink cooling the 2 IGBT's so i bought a 6" Dayton rated at 239CFM.




So far Ive built and tested the interrupter remote:



Made a winding jig and wound the secondary by hand (30AWG 10" length, 3.22" diameter)



Here's a enclosure idea im designing:






Ive started assembling the the PCB board but havent completed it yet!

I made a little video of how i tested the modulator:




Wound the primary and wrapped the top load in aluminum duct tape.





Got a 4" cooling fan until my 6" one arrives:




Finished the circuit board:



More to come, stay tuned!

Whoooaa!



Looks sweet!

Wow, nice! I regret selling my little DRSSTC now

Definitely keep us updated, I've hovered over the buy button on those kits many times now.

Oh, and watch out for the pesky capacitors! They'll have your hearing ringing for hours if you short them out!

I wish i was aware when you old mate was selling that kits that you bought.
haha funny you say that ive 'hovered' too

The capacitors have discharge resistors across em so i wont be getting a boot!
hopefully will all be going well, the fan i have coming is going to blow a lot of air over everything

Yea, they were great little kits. Unfortunately the guy got caught up in work.

They were only like $240USD for the entire kit too, including the spun toroid and 12VAC transformer. I dunno how he could even turn a profit. The IGBT's for that thing were $13 each! (Know that from blowing so many up )

I've always wanted to build a MicroBrute. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Would be cool to see you do a Midi Modulator.

Things said:

Yea, they were great little kits. Unfortunately the guy got caught up in work.

They were only like $240USD for the entire kit too, including the spun toroid and 12VAC transformer. I dunno how he could even turn a profit. The IGBT's for that thing were $13 each! (Know that from blowing so many up )

Click to expand...

Dam, yeah he just kind of up and left, i think i bought his last 2 kits, the coil gun and plasma speaker.

Haha IGBT murderer!

Pilgor said:

I've always wanted to build a MicroBrute. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Would be cool to see you do a Midi Modulator.

Click to expand...

Oh i reckon, i think ill need to buy a keyboard


Added: Testing the Modulator see OP.

Nice job on winding the secondary and the winding jig setup..


Jerry

You can contact us at any time on our Website: J.BAUER Electronics

Thanks Jerry! i got the wood for the jig out of the scrap bin at the hardware store

Looks good! :beer:
Good luck with your project!

Jim

Looks dangerous. I want it too
Let it charge your laser maybe it will gain some power !

I've built this kit before..

I recommend moving the fan the other side of the enclosure, you want to directly cool the IGBT heatsink before much else - plus the caps get warmer than any other component on the board before that.

Spend lots of time tuning it. It might seem like its up and running, but when its all said and done, you should be able to pull 20" sparks off of it.

Oh, and spray that secondary with some polyurethane for its protection. Have fun! Be safe!

Wow thanks kool meatball.
I thought having the fan on that side but thought the capacitors woulds block most of the airflow before it got to the heatsink.

I plan to spray the secondary today

I was thinking last night but am not sure, when i put a bigger top load on, to adjust the primary to suit, i need to put more winds on the primary coil?

Hmm... wo = 1/Rt(LC) so if C increases on one side, and can't increase C on the other side, then you would increase inductance so yes, more turns. Prepare to buy a longer length of 12 Ga. because the length included does not allow much extra length for good reason.

ok thanks, whats the good reason?

Fiddy said:

Dam, yeah he just kind of up and left, i think i bought his last 2 kits, the coil gun and plasma speaker.

Click to expand...

If I remember right he was hit by flooding or some hurricane last year and as a result a lot of his merchandise and stuff was damaged... so he has a reason to not want to sell them anymore.