Ahh yes, but they are powerful and indestructible!I would but those are huge and heavy.
But Tesla coils don't use a HV supply. It is a HV transformer by itself. You just supply high frequency pulses to the primary.
While the build article called it a Tesla coil, it really is a Oudin coil. Similar but not the same thing.My Tesla coil uses a 5000 volt neon light transformer to excite the primary
I was basing my comment on the fact that it doesn't use a 'capacitor tank'.Actually, the Oudin coil is considered an autotransformer.
The resonant frequency of the typical Tesla coil is low radio frequency range, depending on individual characteristics.What bands do spark gaps typically emit?
I dont want to use a filter which will impede resonant cap current.
Can anyone here suggest a capacitor to be used with a 3KV/30MA NST to produce a good crackle?I have never used ferrite beads for high voltage such as this. I wouldn't know how many to use or how to place them.
Maybe someone else on here might be able to advise you.
I acquired one of those "super efficient" neon sign drivers also, with similar specifications. It seems to function correctly, but I have not been able to verify the efficiency yet. Perhaps that should be in a thread, as we analyze those remarkable devices.There is an entirely different variety of Tesla coil that uses an oscillator to drive the primary instead of a spark gap and high voltage source. They are quite a bit more complex but they can be more powerful and they generate a lot less broadband radiated noise. The oscillator circuits vary from those using old-style transmitting tubes to those using FET power transistors.
The only one that I ever actually touched was built by a junior-high classmate and the high voltage source was an old model"T" spark coil. So there is another option.
Present day neon sign supplies are amazing devices, I have one that lists the input power as 75 watts and the output power as 12000 volts at 20 Ma, which by my math is 240 watts output.
While the posted electronics magazine article is pretty old my first experiments with Tesla Coils were around 1964 based on a few Popular Electronics articles titled Big TC and Lil' TC. The first used a Neon Sign Transformer having a 120 VAC primary and a 15 KV @ 30 mA secondary. That was the typical spark gap type but keep in mind the transformer was the old type and certainly lethal. Here is an example of an old one I have laying around.It appears every UL listed NST has ground fault protection rendering them useless for tesla coils.
by Jake Hertz
by Duane Benson
by Duane Benson
by Duane Benson