Tesla Coil Build Thread

[Fiddy]

nice and big

soon, just gota hook it up, gota modify the break out points, they are too close atm.

 

[Speedy78]

Question for the smart people. I checkee the output of the variac with a DMM and at 95V written on the top ring I get the mains 110. Analog volt meter on the unit also says 110. Should I cease all movment past this 95V point or will the load determin where I reach the 110 winding? I opened it up and im hitting 110 before the tap. Also can hit close to 150V when its only supossed to go to 130V.

 

[Sigurthr]

Awesome, both of you!

Speedy that dial is probably percentage of incoming voltage, not direct voltage. So 95 would be 95%. Most of the US is on 120V service, not really 110, but they say 110 colloquially. Most variacs designed for 120V go to 140V, and if yours is designed for 110, then you'll get slightly more out.

Just remember to not over-volt your devices. I do NOT trust onboard meters.

As mains are a voltage source, and not a current source, there will be relatively low voltage sag due to loading (it can happen, usually at the 10kW level or so).

Oh, and I really need to get a new variac eventually, I'm still using a 500VA one that I've repaired three times now. It screams when you pull 3KW through it, haha!

 

[Speedy78]

Yeah I just wanted to know my limit for mains voltage on the dial. I didnt even think to meter to outlet. Ran the vacuum on it. I can get it to turn on at about 5V! Ran it up to 150V for the hell of it for a second and all works fine.

 

[Fiddy]

Sigurthr is right, trust the handheld multimeter not dial on the variac!

 

[The Lightning Stalker]

Got the new variac in the mail today!

Aww! That is so cute. It had a baby!

 

[Fiddy]

Wooo pretty happy for a throw together.

 

[Speedy78]

Nice! Any reason they are offset like that?

 

[Fiddy]

yeah havent cut em to size yet

 

[Speedy78]

123.4VAC on the mains. I grew up thinking it was always 110. I feel like I have been lied to my entire life I wonder what my "220" outlet is.

 

[DashApple]

123.4VAC on the mains. I grew up thinking it was always 110. I feel like I have been lied to my entire life I wonder what my "220" outlet is.

My "230" Volt AC is at 249.5 Volts AC , 230 in the Uk is the "norm" but it varies -6% , +10%

 

[Sigurthr]

Awesome, Fiddy! You should see about selling bipolar resonator kits, that really came out outstanding. Which driver is that btw?

 

[Sigurthr]

Um. Yeah. You guys should see this. Zilipoper is known for making REALLY high performance coils, but damn. This one is scary.
DRSSTC - YouTube


Also, I set up my large (18" x 4.5") secondary for re-coating today after the pri-sec near-flashover when corona destroyed the insulation on and between the primary and secondary. The wire was fine but the polyurethane needed sanding and coating. It's drying the second coat now, coming out nice too, but boy did I have to cobble together a rig, haha. This new Poly I got is much thinner and needs rotation while drying to not bead up. I don't mind beads on small coils but this big one it would come out terrible on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7afTwi8nkeE

 

[Fiddy]

Awesome, Fiddy! You should see about selling bipolar resonator kits, that really came out outstanding. Which driver is that btw?

Hehe thanks! Its the plasma speaker driver V1.0
...V2.6+ should be a bit better ;-)

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Wow!! That is a really crazy coil.
I'd really like to see the circuit that they are using. It's got me interested.

That's a huge output for such a tiny coil. I wonder what ga of wire they are using.

 

[Sigurthr]

Zili is well known on 4HV. Crazy awesome Russian bloke. He's pioneered HF (as in TENS of MHZ) sstcs. He hardly ever gives up his circuit designs though =/. Might be a language barrier thing though.

In other news I've updated my design for my MCU interrupter along with proper implementation files. See the F/S thread (it's with the USSTCC) or my blog: Sigurthr Enterprises