Holy crap, this is some tight tesla coil action!

The 6 inch coil has performed better than expected with sparks reaching 8 feet (0.5 million volts). The photo above shows 7 foot sparks to the closest point of the ladder. This is with a large topload and a tank capacitance of 92 nF (0.092 uF) at a power in excess of 5 kVA. A lot of smoke comes from my spark gap at runs of over 5-10 seconds at the highest powers. I suspect it is metal oxide from the tungsten stationary electrodes and the brass dome nuts and steel bolt heads that form the rotary electrodes. There was no sign of any polycarbonate frame or Tufnol wheel overheating. Despite the leaf blower cooling, the tungsten rods become hot enough to have a visible glow though the yellow polypropylene box after turn off. The 8 foot (96 inch) spark is exactly 3 times as long as the 32 inch secondary coil that generates it.

via via

Rate

 Loading ...