Tesla' s Radiant Energy Device

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Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,501
I was hoping the heck you would find this Matt.

Matt has likely built more Tesla Coils than I have ever seen or read about in my lifetime and I am old! :) Heed anything Matt tells you.

Ron
 

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don'tknow

Joined Feb 5, 2015
107
Thank you for your concern , really appreciated. I will do my best trying not to get killed ;) and i will do more research for sure. I know what it does and all but i'm not good with all of these modern components we have ..every coil i look on videos around seems working connected differently.. all those parts.. etc..

you know the small ones they selling in glass balls for fun and decoration ? is that one working on the same principle as real tesla coil?
 
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DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Thank you for your concern , really appreciated. I will do my best trying not to get killed ;) and i will do more research for sure. I know what it does and all but i'm not good with all of these modern components we have ..every coil i look on videos around seems working connected differently.. all those parts.. etc..
That's just it--Every coil IS different. While they all follow the same general circuit, they have to be adjusted in different ways in order to make it work. Primary coil length and capacitor have to match perfectly to the secondary coil and topload, and the capacitor has to match with the primary AND the transformer, the spark gap has to be just the right width, and so on. I don't have a problem helping people build Tesla coils, but only if they show even a basic understanding of how they work. I'll help you, but first you must be able to explain to me exactly how one operates, and the theory behind it. We can pick it up again from there. Check back in a month or two and let me know what you've learned.

you know the small ones they selling in glass balls for fun and decoration ? is that one working on the same principle as real tesla coil?
Not exactly. Plasma globes do not use Tesla coils. Tesla coils are high voltage, high frequency, air-cored resonant transformers. They do not have an iron core like traditional transformers. Plasma globes use a high voltage transformer with an iron core and is not based on resonance. Plus, the plasma globe is filled with gases that make arcing easier at much lower voltages. A Tesla coil requires a very high voltage in order to ionize the surrounding air. Again, when you do some research this will make a lot more sense to you.

Regards,
Matt
 

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don'tknow

Joined Feb 5, 2015
107
Thank you. i'm not giving up on this project . can't die without having one. i'm already winding another one with calm hands this time .. :) i know it works on the magetic field created by the primary .. i can lie about the theory behind it using google .. I don't know much. but i am scared of high voltage if that helps . . so i wont die for sure. i check 7 times when it comes to changing a light bulb .. . i know the coil itself should'n harm me .. but i'm aware a capacitor could .. you have to help me with this one when I set it all up . i will tell you the details you need about the hight and number of turns and all . and you can tell me what is the lowest power supply i can use for this one to work and the capacitor i should use ..etc to make it safest possible (ok not too safe) and so on.. Ok then.. when i come back you help me ok. ? ;) but not a month .. people die young ..

I have water heater wires sticking out in my shower my whole life ;) what I wanted to say, i'm not very good in knowing all the parts of any devoice.. but i have the picture in my head behind it. so so ..

are trophies good or bad news ?
 
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DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
don'tknow, I'll be honest--you clearly don't know what you're dealing with. It's not as simple as you're making it out to be. I can "google" your response on the theory to see if you plagiarized it (I've done that sort of thing before, so don't put it past me). I want you to go into detail about how a Tesla coil works. Simply saying "It works on the magnetic field created by the primary" doesn't tell me anything--That describes EVERY SINGLE TRANSFORMER ever made.

Read my first blog post: http://www.electro-tech-online.com/blog-entries/building-a-drsstc-pt-1-background.753/

It describes (briefly and in simple terms) how a Tesla coil works.

How can you already be winding a secondary when you don't know anything about the coil you're trying to build? EVERY PIECE DEPENDS ON EVERY OTHER PIECE! You cannot build one without making plans for all of the other pieces as well.

Trust me, it will probably take a month of research before you even begin to understand how Tesla coils work. I studied for about 3 years before I built my first working Tesla coil.
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Again, you need to learn how it works. Then you'll know how to find the information you need.

Do some research on your own. I can't help you until you have a basic understanding of what makes a Tesla coil tick.
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Yes, you will NEED to know how many turns are on the secondary. That's why I said you should do the planning before you start building. It is possible to calculate the number of turns but it's fat less accurate and the Tesla coil may not work as well for this reason.
 

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don'tknow

Joined Feb 5, 2015
107
The big one i save for later. in smaller one i have 490 turns exactly , the tube is 4,5 cm in diameter . hight is 24, 5 cm . that means the wire is half a mm tick. that means the length of the wire is.. idk
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Tell you what--

Explain to me, in your own words, how a Tesla coil works (the flow throughout the circuit). Once you do that I will show you a few tricks and tools that will make designing the coil much, MUCH easier :)

Regards,
Matt
 

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don'tknow

Joined Feb 5, 2015
107
it is made from primary and secondary coil. secondary coil is grounded and not connected with the primary , the isolation between them is air. primary coil has to be tuned on the same frequency as the secondary in order to work. it is tuned (i guess with the number of primary windings , that is what i don't know.. ) what it does . primary coil is connected with the capacitor , capacitor makes the oscilations, when that happens voltage is building up in the secondary because of the magnetic field created by the primary. step by step. after it builds all the way up ,the secondary starts releaising it trough the air, for maximum voltage torus or a sphere is used . best efect in the secondary is when it has same oscilation period as the primary. ( how is that managed i don't know) primary has to oscilate , that is why the capacitor is used. what capacitor , how much current , on what depends the current needed, what capacitors I need i don't know, ( i know i don't want them to blow up ) .. . :/
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Ok, well you're missing a few major points but you're getting there. Do you know what an LC circuit is? You keep saying that the capacitor is used to create the oscillations, but that's only part of it. A capacitor on its own does not oscillate. What causes the oscillation?
 

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don'tknow

Joined Feb 5, 2015
107
I think the oscillation is caused when the capacitor is discharging trough the spark gap into the primary. I will check about Lc circuit a little bit better, i know a little about it but not enough. will do that. can you look at this video in the meantime, can you tell me what this is. this is what also confuses me... .. is it Tesla .. or is it not..
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
I think the oscillation is caused when the capacitor is discharging trough the spark gap into the primary. I will check about Lc circuit a little bit better, i know a little about it but not enough. will do that. can you look at this video in the meantime, can you tell me what this is. this is what also confuses me... .. is it or is it not..
Ah, i have seen that video. I will have to watch it again to remember how he drives it. I believe it's just a simple oscillator that excites the gases in the bulb, causing it to light up. If it IS a Tesla coil, it is horribly out of tune and extremely inefficient.
 

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don'tknow

Joined Feb 5, 2015
107
ok. Thank you . I checked out the LC circuit, I Think i see where you going with it. do I have to make one specially designed for the coil i have or ? and if that is to complicated .. can the coil perhaps be tuned without it by shortening or extending the primary ? . . maybe that has nothing to do with that but i need that answer for better understanding .
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
Ah, i have seen that video. I will have to watch it again to remember how he drives it. I believe it's just a simple oscillator that excites the gases in the bulb, causing it to light up. If it IS a Tesla coil, it is horribly out of tune and extremely inefficient.
Isn't that an Oudin coil instead of a Tesla?
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
ok. Thank you . I checked out the LC circuit, I Think i see where you going with it. do I have to make one specially designed for the coil i have or ? and if that is to complicated .. can the coil perhaps be tuned without it by shortening or extending the primary ? . . maybe that has nothing to do with that but i need that answer for better understanding .
You can tune the coil by shortening-lengthening the primary coil, but you still have to match it closely to the secondary LC circuit first. Here are some points I think you are missing:

An LC circuit (L = Inductance, C = Capacitance), also referred to as a "Tank circuit", oscillates at what's called its "resonant frequency". Capacitors and inductors are both considered "storage devices". If you charge the capacitor (with a pulse of electricity) and then disconnect power, current will flow from the capacitor to the inductor, which will then also "charge". When the magnetic field in the inductor collapses, it generates a current which then flows back into the capacitor, which will recharge it. This cycle repeats at the "resonant frequency", based on the inductance (L) of the inductor and the capacitance (C) of the capacitor. Here's a simple animation:



This is how you get an oscillation with a capacitor and an inductor.

In a Tesla coil, there are two of these LC resonant circuits: the primary tank circuit consisting of the primary coil (L) and the primary capacitor (C), and the secondary tank circuit consisting of the secondary coil (L) and the topload (which has a capacitance with respect to ground--It is one "plate" of the capacitor, and the ground is the other "plate"). The trick for getting a Tesla coil to work is to make sure that the resonant frequency of the primary tank circuit (LC) matches the resonant frequency of the secondary tank circuit (another LC).

You'll notice that the secondary coil is very long (usually ~1000 turns) whereas the primary is very short (usually ~10 turns). In order to make the resonant frequencies of both LC circuits match, the low value inductor (primary coil) must be connected to a relatively high capacitance (primary capacitor), and the high value inductor (secondary coil) must be connected to a low value capacitor (the topload).

Hopefully this makes more sense to you now. Here's the formula for finding resonant frequency:



where f is the resonant frequency, L is the inductance (in Henrys), and C is the capacitance (in Farads).

Isn't that an Oudin coil instead of a Tesla?
I don't believe so. An Oudin coil is very similar to a Tesla coil, except that the secondary coil is directly connected to the primary coil. There is no isolation.
 
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