Tesla Coil Build Thread

[argon]

I would like to share with you a small DRSSTC I built last year. Spark legnth is a bit more than 1 meter. The coil is not optimally tuned and I didn't take the time to build it entirely with case and so on, because I'm in the building process of a small QCW DRSSTC at the moment, which will be more fun I think.

The driver:

The interrupter:




Small fullbridge with FF400R12KT3 Bricks:



Infineon IGBT-halfbridges:



Some pics of the resonator:







... and the primary cap:

Thanks for your interest
argon

 

[Sigurthr]

Excellent build! That's a pretty MMC! Have you noticed any heating from lack of airflow on the central ones?

 

[ped]

>>>>>>>>>>>

Sorry ionlaser , couldn't resist

 

[argon]

Many thanks for your kind feedback, Sigurthr!
Heating was not an issue at the MMC, but after a longer run I realized, the nails in the primary were heating enough for melting the plastics of the primary holders for the copper tube. I didn't solve this so far. Also the bleeder resistors on the MMC are still missing. Anyway, the output of the coil could be much better and I didn't improve anything more because of the new project I'm working at the moment.

Have a nice day
argon

 

[crazyspaz]

>>>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>

Meth, not even once?

 

[Sigurthr]

Sorry ionlaser , couldn't resist

You know; I kind of really like his style though. It's like abstract art for electrical engineers. >.>

 

[ped]

You know; I kind of really like his style though. It's like abstract art for electrical engineers. >.>

Oh absolutely.

You should see some of the abominations I've wired up in the past!..

I was dj'ing at a rave in '89 when one of the sub amps decided to pop it's zobel network.
Faced with 600 ravers wondering why their listening to tweeters, I frankenwired the output section of the amp with hand wound inductors ect, and it worked perfectly.


You look at it and think, there is no way that's gonna work.

But it does .

 

[Sigurthr]

Oh absolutely.

You should see some of the abominations I've wired up in the past!..

I was dj'ing at a rave in '89 when one of the sub amps decided to pop it's zobel network.
Faced with 600 ravers wondering why their listening to tweeters, I frankenwired the output section of the amp with hand wound inductors ect, and it worked perfectly.


You look at it and think, there is no way that's gonna work.

But it does .

Interesting! Don't the networks for speakers usually consist of a capacitive element in parallel, to cancel the inductive reactance of the voice coil? I assume you only had inductor (supplies) on hand and as such had to just try to do quick impedance matching instead of inductance cancelling. IIRC Zobels are quite parts intensive to fully implement.

 

[DashApple]

Sorry ionlaser , couldn't resist

HaHa : P , Its true that was a messy build , neatness wasn't my first call xD .


Nice DRSSTC argon and board too : P : )

 

[ped]

Interesting! Don't the networks for speakers usually consist of a capacitive element in parallel, to cancel the inductive reactance of the voice coil? I assume you only had inductor (supplies) on hand and as such had to just try to do quick impedance matching instead of inductance cancelling. IIRC Zobels are quite parts intensive to fully implement.

Alls I knew is an inductor had done an impressive impersonation of a stick of dynamite on a hotplate.

I stripped down some mains cable formed it round a screwdriver shaft, bared the ends and soldered it to what was left of the pads and it worked.

I was high as a kite on various substances I care not to mention at the time.

We'll leave it at that .

Ped

 

[Sigurthr]

Alls I knew is an inductor had done an impressive impersonation of a stick of dynamite on a hotplate.

I stripped down some mains cable formed it round a screwdriver shaft, bared the ends and soldered it to what was left of the pads and it worked.

I was high as a kite on various substances I care not to mention at the time.

We'll leave it at that .

Ped

Haha, fair enough! I follow now, it wasn't the whole network that blew just one of the inductors. Yeah, when things are ripe for it you can get some impressive booms!

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

Yeah. Transistor packages and even solder
joints can mysteriously grenade themselves
sometimes. 180J discharge into an LED can
make a pretty interesting "light show".

 

[DashApple]

Not strictly TC related but ,

Built a simple 50% duty cycle variable clock source / gate drive stage on copper clad , its based on the LTC1799 SOT-23 oscillator , clock side is at 5V and opto isolated to the gate drive side at 15V . I do have plans to do another one that will support FM for audio when driving flybacks .

Currently this one drives a full bridge that pulls 30 Volts at 15A to drive 2 flybacks at 25Khz , No heatsinks on regulators / gate drivers is needed at this speed .

IMG_1097[1] by TwirlyWhirly555, on Flickr

 

[Sigurthr]

...based on the LTC1799 SOT-23 oscillator...

Looks like a SOT-223 to me! I saw the email notification for your post and thought "woah he's gonna stripboard a sot-23?!" Hehe.

Anyway, nice work on it.

 

[DashApple]

Looks like a SOT-223 to me! I saw the email notification for your post and thought "woah he's gonna stripboard a sot-23?!" Hehe.

Anyway, nice work on it.

Haha , Thanks : D

Its definertly a SOT-23 or as quoted for data sheet, 5-Lead Plastic TSOT-23 : P

Mounting it on copper clad wasn't too bad as I drew the circuit with etch resistant pen

IMG_1100[1] by TwirlyWhirly555, on Flickr

 

[Sigurthr]

Yup that's a 23 alright. My mistake! I saw that 6 or 8 pin chip in the center of the pic and thought you meant that one (which could be a pdip now that I look more).