home · Appliances · How to make a Tesla coil with your own hands. Bifilar Tesla coil. DIY Tesla coil - diagram and calculation of a simple DIY electrical decoration Simple 12 volt Tesla coil

How to make a Tesla coil with your own hands. Bifilar Tesla coil. DIY Tesla coil - diagram and calculation of a simple DIY electrical decoration Simple 12 volt Tesla coil

Many of us admire the genius of Nikola Tesla, who made such discoveries back in the 19th century that not all of his scientific heritage has yet been studied and understood. One of his inventions was called the Tesla coil or Tesla transformer. You can read more about it. And here we will look at how to make simple coil Tesla at home.

What is needed to make a Tesla coil?

To make a Tesla coil at home, at our desk or even in the kitchen, we first need to stock up on everything we need.
So, first we must find or purchase the following.
The tools we need are:

  • Soldering iron
  • Glue gun
  • Drill with thin drill bit
  • Hacksaw
  • Scissors
  • Insulating tape
  • Marker

To assemble the Tesla coil itself, you need to prepare the following:

  • A piece of thick polypropylene pipe with a diameter of 20 mm.
  • Copper wire with a diameter of 0.08-0.3 mm.
  • A piece of thick wire
  • Transistor type KT31117B or 2N2222A (can be KT805, KT815, KT817)
  • Resistor 22 kOhm (you can take resistors from 20 to 60 kOhm)
  • Power supply (Krona)
  • Ping pong ball
  • A piece of food foil
  • The base on which the product will be mounted is a piece of board or plastic
  • Wires for connecting our circuit

Having prepared everything you need, we begin making the Tesla coil.

Instructions for making a Tesla coil

The most labor-intensive process for making a Tesla coil at home will be winding the secondary winding L2. This is the most significant element in the Tesla transformer. And winding is a labor-intensive process that requires care and attention.

Let's prepare the base. For this purpose, we will use a PVC pipe with a diameter of 2 cm.

Mark the required length on the pipe - approximately from 9 to 20 cm. It is advisable to maintain a proportion of 4-5:1. Those. if you have a pipe with a diameter of 20 mm, then its length will be from 8 to 10 cm.

Then we cut off with a hacksaw along the mark left by the marker. The cut must be even and perpendicular to the pipe, since we will then glue this pipe to the board, and a ball will be glued on top.

The end of the pipe must be sanded with sandpaper on both sides. It is necessary to remove the shavings remaining from sawing off a piece of pipe, and also level the surface for gluing it to the base.

One hole must be drilled at both ends of the pipe. The diameter of these holes should be such that the wire that we will use when winding can pass through there freely. Those. these should be small holes. If you do not have such a thin drill, you can solder the pipe using a thin nail, heating it on the stove.

We pass the end of the wire for winding into the pipe.

We fix this end of the wire with a glue gun. We fix it from the inside of the pipe.

We begin winding the wire. For this you can use copper wire with insulation with a diameter of 0.08 to 0.3 mm. The winding should be tight and neat. Avoid overlaps. The number of turns is from 300 to 1000, depending on your pipe and wire diameter. In our version, 0.08 mm wire is used. diameter and 300 turns of winding.

After winding is finished, cut the wire, leaving a piece of 10 centimeters.

Pass the wire through the hole and secure with inside with a drop of glue.

Now you need to glue the manufactured coil to the base. As a base, you can take a small board or a piece of plastic measuring 15-20 cm. To glue the coil, you need to carefully coat its end.

Then we attach the secondary winding of the coil to its place on the base.

Then we glue the transistor, switch and resistor to the base. Thus, we fix all the elements on the board.

We make coil L1. For this we need thick wire. Diameter - from 1 mm. and more, depending on your reel. In our case, the thickness is 1 mm. the wire will be enough. We take the rest of the pipe and wind 3 turns of thick insulated wire around it.

Then we put the coil L1 on L2.

We assemble all the elements of the Tesla coil according to this diagram.


Circuit diagram of a simple Tesla coil

We attach all elements and wires to the base using a glue gun. We also glue the Krona battery so that nothing dangles.

Now we have to make the last element of the Tesla transformer - the emitter. It can be made from a tennis ball wrapped in food foil. To do this, take a piece of foil and simply wrap the ball in it. We trim off the excess so that the ball is evenly wrapped in foil and nothing sticks out.

We attach the ball in the foil to the upper wire of the L2 coil, pushing the wire inside the foil. We secure the attachment point with a piece of electrical tape and glue the ball to the top of L2.

That's all! We made our own Tesla coil! This is what this device looks like.

Now all that remains is to check the performance of the Tesla transformer we made. To do this, you need to turn on the device, pick it up fluorescent lamp and bring it to the reel. We must see how the lamp brought to us lights up and burns right in our hands!

This means that everything worked out and everything works! You have become the owner of a Tesla coil made by yourself. If problems suddenly arise, check the voltage on the battery. Often, if a battery has been lying somewhere for a long time, it no longer works as expected.
But we hope everything worked out for you! You can try changing the number of turns on the secondary winding of coil L2, as well as the number of turns and thickness of the wire on coil L1. The power supply can also vary from 6 to 15 V for such small coils. Try it, experiment! And you will succeed!

Nikola Tesla, like many other physicists, studied the energy of currents and methods of its transmission, creating unique developments. One of them was a Tesla coil - this is designed to produce high-frequency currents.

Tesla was definitely a genius. It was he who brought the use of alternating current and patented many inventions. One of them is the famous Tesla coil, or transformer. If you have certain knowledge and skills, you can easily create a Tesla coil at home. Let's find out what the essence of this device is and how to create it at home if you suddenly really want it.

What is a Tesla coil and why is it needed?

As noted earlier, a Tesla coil is a resonant transformer. The purpose of a transformer is to change the voltage value of an electric current. These devices are respectively lowering and increasing.

Many are trying to repeat the numerous unique experiments of the great genius. However, to do this, they will have to solve the most important problem - how to make a Tesla coil at home. But how to do that? Let's try to describe it in detail so that you can do it the first time.

How to make a Tesla coil at home with your own hands

On the Internet you can find a lot of information on how to make a musical or mini Tesla coil with your own hands. But we will tell you and clearly show with illustrations how to make a simple 220 Volt Tesla coil at home.

Since this invention was created by Nikola Tesla for experiments with high-voltage charges, it contains the following elements: a power source, a capacitor, 2 coils (the charge will circulate between them), 2 electrodes (the charge will slip between them).

The Tesla coil is used in a variety of devices: from television and particle accelerators to toys for children.

To get started you will need the following parts:

  • power supply from neon signs (supply transformer);
  • several ceramic capacitors;
  • metal bolts;
  • hair dryer (if you don’t have a hair dryer, you can use a fan);
  • copper wire, varnished;
  • metal ball or ring;
  • toroidal shapes for coils (can be replaced with cylindrical ones);
  • safety bar;
  • chokes;
  • ground pin.

Creation should occur in the following stages.

Design

First, you need to decide what size the coil should be and where it will be located.

If finances allow, you can create a huge generator at home. But you should remember one thing important detail : The coil creates many spark discharges that greatly heat the air, causing it to expand. The result is thunder. As a result, the created electromagnetic field is able to disable all electrical appliances. Therefore, it is better to create it not in an apartment, but somewhere in a more secluded and remote corner (garage, workshop, etc.).

If you want to determine in advance how long the arc your coil will produce or the power of the required power supply, make the following measurements: divide the distance between the electrodes in centimeters by 4.25, square the resulting number. The final number will be your power in Watts. And vice versa - to find out the distance between the electrodes, Square root power must be multiplied by 4.25. A Tesla coil that will be able to create an arc one and a half meters long will require 1,246 watts. And a device with a one-kilowatt power supply can make a spark 1.37 meters long.

Next we study the terminology. To create such an unusual device, you will need to understand highly specialized scientific terms and units of measurement. And in order not to make a mistake and do everything correctly, you will have to learn to understand their meaning and significance. Here is some information that will help:

  1. What's happened electrical capacitance ? This is the ability to accumulate and hold an electrical charge of a certain voltage. Anything that accumulates electrical charge is called capacitor. Farad is a unit of measurement electric charges(F). It can be expressed as 1 ampere second (Coulomb) multiplied by a volt. Typically, capacitance is measured in millionths and trillionths of farads (micro- and picofarads).
  2. What is self-induction? This is the name for the phenomenon of the occurrence of EMF in a conductor when the current passing through it changes. High-voltage wires carrying low-ampere current have high self-inductance. Its unit of measurement is henry (H), which corresponds to a circuit in which changing current at a rate of one ampere per second creates an emf of 1 Volt. Typically, inductance is measured in milli- and microhenry (parts per thousand and parts per million).
  3. What's happened resonant frequency ? This is the name of the frequency at which losses in energy transmission will be minimal. In a Tesla coil, this will be the frequency of minimum losses when transmitting energy between the primary and secondary windings. Its unit of measurement is hertz (Hz), that is, one cycle per second. Typically, resonant frequency is measured in thousands of Hertz or kilohertz (kHz).

Gathering the necessary parts

We have already written above what components you will need to create a Tesla coil at home. And if you are a radio amateur, you will certainly have some (or even all) of these.

Here are some features of the necessary parts:

  • the power source must supply, through an inductor, a storage or primary oscillating circuit consisting of a primary coil, a primary capacitor and a spark gap;
  • the primary coil should be located near the secondary coil, which is an element of the secondary oscillating circuit, but the circuits should not be connected by wires. As soon as the secondary capacitor accumulates a sufficient charge, it will immediately begin to release electrical charges into the air.

Making a Tesla Coil

  1. Choosing a transformer. It is the supply transformer that will decide what size your coil will be. Most of Such coils are powered by transformers capable of delivering current from 30 to 100 milliamps at a voltage of five to fifteen thousand volts. Find required transformer can be found at the nearest radio market, on the Internet, or taken from a neon sign.
  2. Making a primary capacitor. It can be assembled from several smaller capacitors, connecting them in a circuit. Then they will be able to accumulate equal shares of charge in the primary circuit. True, it is necessary that all small capacitors have the same capacity. Each of these small capacitors will be called composite.

Buy a capacitor small capacity can be found on the radio market, on the Internet, or taken from an old TV ceramic capacitors. However, if you have golden hands, you can make them yourself from aluminum foil using polyethylene film.

For achievement maximum power It is necessary that the primary capacitor is fully charged every half power cycle. For a 60 Hz power source, charging needs to occur 120 times per second.

  1. Designing a surge arrester. To make a single arrester, use a minimum of six millimeter (thick) wire. Then the electrodes will be able to withstand the heat that is generated during charging. In addition, it is possible to make a multi-electrode or rotary spark gap, and also to cool the electrodes by air blowing. An old household vacuum cleaner is perfect for these purposes.
  2. We make the winding of the primary coil. We make the coil itself from wire, but you will need a form around which you will have to wind the wire. For these purposes, varnished copper wire is used, which can be bought at an electronics store or simply removed from any old unnecessary electrical appliance. The shape around which we will wind the wire should be conical or cylindrical (plastic or cardboard tube, old lampshade, etc.). Due to the length of the wire, the inductance of the primary coil can be adjusted. The latter should have low inductance, so it should have a small number of turns. The wire for the primary coil does not have to be solid - several can be fastened together to adjust the inductance during assembly.
  3. We assemble the primary capacitor, spark gap and primary coil into one circuit. This circuit will form the primary oscillatory circuit.
  4. Making a secondary inductor. Here we also need a cylindrical shape where we need to wind the wire. This coil must have the same resonant frequency as the primary, otherwise losses cannot be avoided. The secondary coil should be higher than the primary coil, because it will have more inductance and will prevent the secondary circuit from discharging (which can lead to the primary coil burning out). If there is a shortage of materials to create a large secondary coil, a discharge electrode can be made. This will protect the primary circuit, but will cause that electrode to take the majority of the shocks, resulting in no visible shocks.
  5. Create a secondary capacitor, or terminal. It should have a rounded shape. Typically this is a torus (donut-shaped ring) or sphere.
  6. Connecting the secondary capacitor and secondary coil. This will be the secondary oscillating circuit, which should be grounded away from the house wiring that powers the Tesla coil source. What is it for? This will prevent high-voltage currents from wandering through the wiring of the house and subsequent damage to any connected electrical appliances. For separate grounding, it will be enough to simply drive a metal pin into the ground.
  7. Making impulse chokes. You can make such a small coil that can prevent the spark gap from breaking the power source by winding copper wire around a thin tube.
  8. We collect all the details into a single whole. We place the primary and secondary oscillatory circuits side by side, and connect the supply transformer to the primary circuit through chokes. That's all! To use the Tesla coil for its intended purpose, just turn on the transformer!

If the primary coil is too large in diameter, you can place the secondary coil inside the primary.

And here is the entire sequence of assembling a Tesla coil in pictures:

Tip 1: if you want to control the direction of the discharges that come out of the secondary capacitor, place any metal object in such a way that there is no contact between both. In this case, the contact will take the form of an arc stretching from the capacitor to the object. Interestingly, if you place a fluorescent lamp or incandescent light bulb nearby, thanks to the Tesla coil they will begin to glow.

Tip 2 : If you want to design and create a quality reel, you need to do complex mathematical calculations. However, if you cannot do them yourself, look for helpers or formulas from the Internet.

Tip 3 : You should not start creating a Tesla coil if you do not have the appropriate engineering experience or knowledge of electronics.

Tip 4 : The latest generation of neon signs contain semiconductor power supplies with an integrated device protective shutdown. This makes them unsuitable for creating a Tesla coil.!

The world of physics and electronics is fraught with many secrets and beauty, which, with the proper experience and knowledge, anyone can recreate with their own hands. So, following all the tips listed above, you can always create the legendary Tesla coil at home, amaze your guests and seduce the opposite sex. And if a brilliant mind and thirst for inventions prevent you from studying, just use the services of services for students!

Some images taken from source:

Tesla Coil consists of two coils L1 and L2, which sends a large pulse of current to coil L1. Tesla coils do not have a core. More than 10 turns are wound on the primary winding. The secondary winding is one thousand turns. A capacitor is also added to minimize spark discharge losses.

The Tesla coil produces a high transformation ratio. It exceeds the ratio of the number of turns of the second coil to the first. The output potential difference of a Tesla coil can be more than several million volts. This creates such discharges of electric current that the effect is spectacular. The discharges can be several meters long.

Tesla coil principle

To understand how a Tesla coil works, you need to remember the rule in electronics: it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times. The Tesla coil circuit is simple. This simple Tesla coil device creates streamers.

A streamer flies out of the high-voltage end of a Tesla coil. purple. There is a strange field around it that causes a fluorescent lamp that is not connected and is in this field to glow.

A streamer is the energy loss in a Tesla coil. Nikola Tesla tried to get rid of streamers by connecting it to a capacitor. Without a capacitor there is no streamer, but the lamp burns brighter.

The Tesla coil can be called a toy, which shows an interesting effect. She amazes people with her powerful sparks. Designing a transformer is an interesting business. One device combines different physics effects. People don't understand how a reel works.

A Tesla coil has two windings. The first is supplied with alternating current voltage, which creates a flux field. The energy goes to the second coil. The action of a transformer is similar.

The second coil and C s form oscillations that sum up the charge. The energy is held in the potential difference for some time. The more energy we put in, the output will have a greater potential difference.

The main properties of a Tesla coil:

  • Secondary circuit frequency.
  • Coefficient of both coils.
  • Good quality.

The coupling coefficient determines the speed of energy transfer from one winding to the secondary. The quality factor gives the time the circuit saves energy.

Similar to a swing

For better understanding accumulation, a large potential difference in the circuit, imagine a swing swinging by the operator. The same oscillation circuit, and the person serves as the primary coil. The progress of the swing is electricity in the second winding, and the rise is the potential difference.

The operator swings and transmits energy. Over several times they accelerated greatly and rose very high; they concentrated a lot of energy in themselves. The same effect occurs with a Tesla coil, an excess of energy occurs, a breakdown occurs and a beautiful streamer is visible.

You need to oscillate the swing in accordance with the beat. Resonance frequency is the number of oscillations per second.

The length of the swing trajectory is determined by the coupling coefficient. If you swing a swing, it will swing quickly and move away exactly the length of a person’s arm. This coefficient is one. In our case, a Tesla coil with an increased coefficient is the same.

A person pushes the swing, but does not hold it, then the coupling coefficient is small, the swing moves even further. It takes longer to swing them, but it doesn't require force. The coupling coefficient is greater the faster energy accumulates in the circuit. The potential difference at the output is less.

Quality factor is the opposite of friction, using the example of a swing. When friction is high, the quality factor is low. This means that the quality factor and coefficient are consistent for greatest height swing, or the largest streamer. In the transformer of the second winding of the Tesla coil, the quality factor is a variable value. It is difficult to reconcile the two values; it is selected as a result of experiments.

Main Tesla Coils

Tesla made one type of coil, with a spark gap. The base of elements has improved much, many types of coils have emerged, after which they are also called Tesla coils. Species are also called in English by abbreviations. They are called abbreviations in Russian, without translation.

  • A Tesla coil containing a spark gap. This is the initial conventional design. WITH low power these are two wires. With high power - arresters with rotation, complex. These transformers are good if you need a powerful streamer.
  • Transformer on a radio tube. It works smoothly and gives thicker streamers. Such coils are used for high-frequency Teslas; they look like torches.
  • Coil on semiconductor devices. These are transistors. Transformers operate constantly. The type varies. This reel is easy to control.
  • There are two resonance coils. The keys are semiconductors. These coils are the most difficult to tune. The length of streamers is shorter than with a spark gap, they are less controlled.

To be able to control the view, a breaker was created. This device was used to slow down so that there was time to charge the capacitors and reduce the temperature of the terminal. This is how the length of the discharges was increased. Currently there are other options (music playing).

The main elements of a Tesla coil

IN different designs the main features and details are common.

  • Toroid– has 3 options. The first is to reduce resonance.
    The second is the accumulation of discharge energy. The larger the toroid, the more energy it contains. The toroid releases energy, increases it. This phenomenon will be beneficial if a breaker is used.
    The third is the creation of a field with static electricity, repelling from the second winding of the coil. This option is performed by the second coil itself. The toroid helps her. Due to the field repulsion of the streamer, it does not hit the short path to the second winding. The use of a toroid benefits from pulse-pumped coils with interrupters. The outer diameter of the toroid is twice the size of the second winding.
    Toroids can be made from corrugation and other materials.
  • Secondary coil– the basic component of Tesla.
    The length is five times the diameter of the skein.
    The diameter of the wire is calculated, 1000 turns fit on the second winding, the turns are wound tightly.
    The coil is varnished to protect it from damage. Can be coated with a thin layer.
    The frame is made from PVC pipes for sewerage, which are sold in construction stores.
  • Ring of Protection– serves to get the streamer into the first winding without damaging it. The ring is placed on a Tesla coil, the streamer is longer than the second winding. It looks like a coil of copper wire, thicker than the wire of the first winding, grounded by a cable to the ground.
  • Primary winding– created from copper tube, used in air conditioners. It has low resistance so that high current flows through it easily. The thickness of the pipe is not calculated, take approximately 5-6 mm. Wire for primary winding used with large size sections.
    The distance from the secondary winding is selected based on the availability of the required coupling coefficient.
    The winding is adjustable when the first circuit is defined. Place, moving it adjusts the value of the primary frequency.
    These windings are made in the form of a cylinder or cone.

  • Grounding- This is an important part.
    The streamers hit the ground and short-circuit the current.
    If there is insufficient grounding, the streamers will hit the coil.

The coils are connected to power through the ground.

There is an option to connect power from another transformer. This method is called "magnifer".

Bipolar Tesla coils produce a discharge between the ends of the secondary winding. This causes the current to close without grounding.

For a transformer, grounding is used as grounding with a large object that conducts electric current - this is a counterweight. There are few such structures, they are dangerous, since there is a high potential difference between the ground. The capacity from the counterweight and surrounding things negatively affects them.

This rule applies to secondary windings whose length is 5 times greater than their diameter, and with a power of up to 20 kVA.

How to make something spectacular using Tesla's inventions? Having seen his ideas and inventions, a Tesla coil will be made with his own hands.

This is a transformer that creates high voltage. You can touch the spark, light the light bulbs.

For production we need copper wire in enamel with a diameter of 0.15 mm. Anyone will do from 0.1 to 0.3 mm. You need about two hundred meters. It can be obtained from various devices, for example, from transformers, or bought on the market, this will be better. You will also need several frames. Firstly, this is the frame for the secondary winding. Perfect option- this is 5 meters sewage pipe, but anything with a diameter from 4 to 7 cm and a length of 15-30 cm will do.

For the primary coil you will need a frame a couple of centimeters larger than the first one. You will also need several radio components. This is a D13007 transistor, or its analogues, a small board, several resistors, 5.75 kilo-ohms 0.25 W.

We wind the wire onto the frame about 1000 turns without overlaps, without large gaps, carefully. Can be done in 2 hours. When the winding is finished, we coat the winding with several layers of varnish or other material so that it does not become unusable.

Let's wind the first coil. It hangs on the frame more and is wound with a wire of about 1 mm. A wire of about 10 turns is suitable here.

If you make a transformer simple type, then its composition is two coils without a core. On the first winding there are about ten turns of thick wire, on the second - at least a thousand turns. When manufactured, a do-it-yourself Tesla coil has a coefficient tens of times greater than the number of turns of the second and first windings.

The output voltage of the transformer will reach millions of volts. This gives a beautiful sight of several meters.

It is difficult to wind a Tesla coil with your own hands. It is even more difficult to create the appearance of a reel to attract viewers.

First you need to decide on a power supply of several kilovolts and attach it to a capacitor. If there is excess capacity, the value of the parameters of the diode bridge changes. Next, the spark gap is selected to create the effect.

  • The two wires are held together with the bare ends turned to the side.
  • The gap is set based on the penetration of a slightly higher voltage of a given potential difference. For alternating current, the potential difference will be above a certain level.
  • Connect power to the Tesla coil yourself.
  • Reeling in secondary winding 200 turns per pipe made of insulating material. If everything is done according to the rules, then the discharge will be good, with branches.
  • Grounding the second coil.

The result is a do-it-yourself Tesla coil, which you can make at home with basic knowledge of electricity.

Safety

The secondary winding is under voltage that can kill a person. The breakdown current reaches hundreds of amperes. A person can survive up to 10 amps, so do not forget about protective measures.

Tesla Coil Calculation

Without calculations, it is possible to make a transformer that is too large, but spark discharges greatly heat the air and create thunder. Electric field disables electrical devices, so the transformer must be located further away.

To calculate the arc length and power, the distance between the electrode wires in cm is divided by 4.25, then squared, to obtain the power (W).

To determine the distance, the square root of the power is multiplied by 4.25. A winding that creates an arc discharge of 1.5 meters must receive a power of 1246 watts. A winding with a power supply of 1 kW creates a spark 1.37 m long.

Bifilar Tesla Coil

This method of wire winding distributes more capacitance than standard wire winding.

Such coils cause the turns to be closer together. The gradient is cone-shaped, not flat, in the middle of the coil, or with a dip.

The current capacity does not change. Due to the proximity of the sections, the potential difference between the turns increases during oscillations. Consequently, the resistance of the capacitance at high frequencies decreases several times, and the capacitance increases.

Write comments, additions to the article, maybe I missed something. Take a look at, I will be glad if you find anything else useful on mine.


The project to create this completely crazy design is not finished yet, so you won’t find any diagrams or beautiful photos meter lightning.

If dear reader thinks that I was joking when I said that Tesla's design for this transformer is completely crazy, then he is mistaken, this is not a joke. The extent of my stupidity becomes clear after reading the list of problems that needed to be solved.

Problems that needed to be solved when creating this Tesla transformer
1) Convert 12 volts to 3500 volts or more with output currents of 0.1 amperes or more.
2) Shielding digital and signal low-current electronics from powerful electromagnetic and electrostatic fields and interference.
3) Unwinding the spark gap disk while controlling the rotation speed and setting its value.
4) Disabling the converter 12 to 3500 for the time until a breakdown occurs in the arrester (arc is burning).
5) Selecting a communication channel between the remote control and the device, taking into account strong electromagnetic and electrostatic fields and interference.
Tesla transformer design
The entire structure consists of separate blocks, while some blocks are interconnected signal lines(shielding and all that), and some with high voltage transmission lines (insulation, lack of sharp corners and so on).


Actually the simplest unit from an electrical and electronic point of view and the second most complex unit from a mechanical point of view.
It is very tedious to wind a thousand turns on a pipe with a diameter of 100 mm, a length of 500 mm, turn to turn, then cover the wound with epoxy, figure out how to fasten it, and even so as not to form short-circuited turns either by the frame or the fastener, which could get into the field of the primary circuit.

Converter to high voltage (12 volts to 3.5 kilovolts) and logic


Perhaps the most complex unit from an electronics point of view, since on one board it combines high voltage (kilovolts), power electronics (key transistors), a microcontroller that parses signals from the remote control, sets and controls the rotation speed of the spark gap disk and the receiver of IR messages remote control.
The converter itself is made according to the push-pull scheme, the ferrite of the transformer is from an 850-watt computer power supply. The control signals for the converter keys are generated by the KR1211EU1 microcircuit.
Output circuit of the converter: multiplier - doubler.
The operating frequency of the converter is about 90 kHz.
The microcontroller that controls everything: ATtiny2313.

Rotary spark gap




The most complex unit from a mechanical point of view, it was especially difficult to balance the disk. The difficulty is that due to the low supply voltage of the primary circuit (only 3.5 kilovolts), it is necessary to select a very small spark gap, and in combination with a rotation speed of up to 8000 rpm, the need to isolate the rotating contacts from the engine, this another problem.
In addition to the spark gap itself and the control circuit for the brushless motor from the hard drive, an arc ignition control unit (optical) is also installed here. The light from the arc illuminates the photodiode, the signal is amplified by a high-speed amplifier to the level of a logical one and is then used to turn off the converter while the arc is burning.

Ballast and HF decoupling choke


Above is “version 2, improved and expanded”, below is “version 1”.
The task of this part is to decouple the power source providing 3.5 kV DC voltage and RF voltage pulses in the primary circuit.
In addition, the choke eliminates delays in turning off the converter by the arc ignition control unit; therefore, it has greater inductance than would be required to simply decouple these two circuits.
Winding is sectional to increase the breakdown voltage and reduce its own capacity.

Primary Circuit Capacitor (MMC)
Source "material" for MMC


Complete MMC block assembly:


Everything here is trivial, MMC is assembled from film capacitors To 78-2, rated 0.033 microfarads at 1600 volts, a total of 24 capacitors (8 groups of 3), each tied with a 9.1 megaohm resistor. In general, the MMC is tied with varistors to protect it in case a spark gets from “the top”, where many thousands of volts enter the primary circuit, where it is a measly 3.5 thousand.
Total MMC capacity: 88nF
Rated operating voltage at DC: 4.8KV.

The output (high-voltage) circuits of the converter, the inductor, the MMC battery, the primary circuit coil - everything is covered with 3 layers of urethane varnish with an electrical strength of 110KV/mm.



Actually an ordinary remote control from an ancient TV tuner.
As it turned out when writing the firmware and parsing its commands, it works based on the NEC protocol.

The first launches of this Tesla


Embossing parameters
Operating frequency250 kHz
MMC capacity88 nF
Primary winding5 turns copper pipe diameter 7mm; cone - larger diameter 220mm, smaller diameter 140mm
Secondary winding1000 turns of 0.38mm wire on a frame with a diameter of 105mm, winding length 400mm
Toroidouter diameter 300mm, inner diameter 100mm
Primary voltage3.5 kV
BPS (Bits Per Second) Adjustment Range2 ... 500
Power input to the primary circuit<400 ватт
Why isn't everything ready yet?
In general, this is a project from the beginning of 2010, it seems like a lot of time has passed since then, but I still don’t think it’s ready because:
+ I want to assemble and install an MMS with an operating voltage of about 16 kilovolts.
+ Assemble and install a new, more powerful converter, with an output voltage of about 7-8 kilovolts.
Problems that prevent me from doing this:
- There is not enough space in the existing frame on which everything is assembled, you need to order the production of a new frame (you can’t get around to it).
- High voltages at the output of the converter, high currents in the 12 volt power circuit (for the output 7 kilovolts with a current of only 0.1 amperes, currents in the 12 volt circuit will be about 75 amperes, this is close to the limit for a battery from an uninterruptible power supply, which is used for testing launches).

... So we are still working in this direction.

The Tesla coil is probably familiar to many from computer games or feature films. If anyone doesn’t know, let’s clarify this, this is a special device that creates high voltage at high frequencies. To put it simply, thanks to a Tesla coil you can hold a spark in your hands, light a light bulb without wires, and so on.

Before you start making our reel, we suggest watching a video

We will need:
- 200 m of copper wire with a diameter of 0.1 to 0.3 mm;
- wire with a diameter of 1 mm;
- 15-30 cm of plastic sewer pipe with a diameter of 4 to 7 cm;
- 3-5 cm of sewer pipe with a diameter of 7 to 10 cm
- transistor D13007;
- radiator for the transistor;
- variable resistor 50 kOhm;
- constant resistor of 75 Ohm and 0.25 W;
- power supply 12-18 volts and current 0.5 per ampere;
- soldering iron, solder and rosin.

A long piece of pipe is needed for the secondary winding, and a short piece for the primary. If you cannot find a pipe of this diameter, you can replace it with ordinary tape, as the author does. Copper wire can be obtained from old transformers or simply purchased on the market.

Now that you have sorted out the materials, you can start assembling. According to the author of the video, it is better to start the assembly not from the primary, but from the secondary coil, that is, a long pipe. To do this, we take a pipe, which from now on will be the frame, and fasten the wire to it.

Now you need to wind about 1000 turns, making sure that there are no overlaps or large distances between the turns. The author claims that this is not as difficult to do as it might seem at first glance, and if you wish, you can finish the job in an hour and a half.

When the winding of the secondary frame is finished, it is recommended to cover it with varnish or simply cover it with tape so that the structure does not deteriorate over time.

Now you can proceed to the primary winding. It is made with ordinary wire with a diameter of 1 mm. Absolutely any wire can be used. You need to wrap about 5-7 turns.

We attach the D13007 transistor to the radiator, then solder the wire going from the secondary winding to one contact of the transistor.

We solder a constant resistor to the same contact.

At the second end of the constant resistor we solder a variable resistor.

Now we take the primary winding, insert the secondary into it and solder two wires that go from it to the variable resistor and resistor D13007.

We connect the positive and negative wires to the same resistors and connect our tesla coil to the source. If the desired effect is not observed, then you just need to swap the wires coming from the primary winding.