Not sure but, dosen't it also have to fit with the coil top load diameter? Seems I remember that that has an effect in the complete tank circuit equation.what impacts and effects i the primary tesla coil diameter?
But the ones without don't work to full potential.But I have seen quite a few Tesla coils with no top dome at all, often a cap that looks a lot like a funnel.
I have no clues about that assertion. A Tesla coil is a high frequency device, while the VanDeraff generator produces high voltage static electricity. Two totally different things. Clearly the Tesla coil does need to be resonant at the drive frequency, perhaps the dome serves as a capacitor to help with the resonance. A web search may possibly turn up some correct information, I know there was a thread here a few months back about some fake version of a Tesla coil, rather devoid of any technical understanding about such things as oscillators and resonance.But the ones without don't work to full potential.
Yeah a lot of what is on Youtube being called a Tesla coil is not. And the young people today don't understand that it isn't.I know there was a thread here a few months back about some fake version of a Tesla coil, rather devoid of any technical understanding about such things as oscillators and resonance.
You might like my Jacob's LadderI love sparks. The Van de Graaff was used in the early development of the atomic bomb.
The (usually toroidal) hat on a Tesla coil is a capacitive load, very much like the capacity hat on a short HF mobile antenna. It’s there for the tank circuit in the secondary.Clearly the Tesla coil does need to be resonant at the drive frequency, perhaps the dome serves as a capacitor to help with the resonance.
About a half of the pictures that I found showed domes, many of the torroid-shaped ones seemed to be made of the expandible aluminum duct material, some wrapped in aluminum foil, some not. None of those looked especially smooth.The (usually toroidal) hat on a Tesla coil is a capacitive load, very much like the capacity hat on a short HF mobile antenna. It’s there for the tank circuit in the secondary.
So, you have that right.
The only reasons they'd need to be smooth is to avoid discharge from pointy edges but unlike the VDG generator, the "dome" is not for accumulating charge. In the case of the VDG, pointy bits cause discharging in a way that isn't very relevant to the Tesla coil.About a half of the pictures that I found showed domes, many of the torroid-shaped ones seemed to be made of the expandible aluminum duct material, some wrapped in aluminum foil, some not. None of those looked especially smooth.
by Jake Hertz
by Jake Hertz
by Aaron Carman
by Duane Benson