DIY Mini Tesla Coil


Posted on Feb 5, 2014

This coil operates from 12V or 24V SLA batteries. A pair of car ignition coils are used to provide around 20kV for charging the capacitor bank. The ignition coils are driven by a variable frequency square wave from a 555 timing chip and four large transistors (2N3055). Using Butane gas and air, a blue flame can be used as an interesting discharge


DIY Mini Tesla Coil
Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

terminal. The heated CO2 emissions provide a low pressure channel to conduct the electricity more easily than air. This produces a large plasma column above the flame. At certain spark gap discharge rates the plasma column can be made to resemble a stable double helix formation. Small quantities of other gasses such as neon or helium can be mixed with the butane to produce slightly different colours and effects. The table below should help you find some of the components needed for this project. Capacitor Bank- The capacitor used in this project was made by combining a large number of lower valued capacitors. By connecting smaller capacitors in series the overall voltage they will tolerate is increased. To obtain a higher storage capacity (capacitance) the capacitors can be connected in parallel. This type of capacitor bank is known as an MMC (Multi Mini Capacitors). The next version of this project will use specially designed large pulse discharge capacitors. These capacitors can be more efficient than an MMC, but they can be expensive and hard to find. Primary Transformer- Ignition coils (Induction coils) obtained from a scrap yard are used for this design. The old ignition coils provide a very cheap way of generating a high voltage for charging the capacitor. The voltage increase in an ignition coil is not determined by the turns ratio like in normal transformers. The secondary voltage depends upon the rate of change of...




Leave Comment

characters left:

Related Circuits

  • New Circuits

    .

     


    Popular Circuits

    Tandem dimmer
    H bridge switch for small motors
    Duplexing wireless series transmission scheme of the one-chip computer
    mosfet Driving LED strip from microcontroller
    wide range current pumps for precision
    100w quad car amplifier
    11W Stereo/22W Mono Power Amp Using TDA1519C
    Summing CT Measurements
    Digital centigrade thermometer
    Household voice recording circuit
    Broadband high frequency amplifying circuit



    Top