Arguably, the most tedious part of any Tesla coil construction is the winding transformer. Winding the thin thread in the proper form to make everything neat and to ensure that it is intact electrically and mechanically is a proposition of success or failure, both in terms of the function and aesthetics of the final product. Therefore, this high-output printed circuit Tesla should eliminate some boring and uncertainty.
Nowadays, PCB coils are nothing new-we have seen a large number of examples for everything from motors to speakers. We even saw some PCB Tesla coils, but as [Ray Ring] pointed out, most of these coils are low-output coils and cannot bring heat. His printed coils produced some very serious streamers-in some cases a foot long (30 cm). The secondary of the coil has 6 mil traces with 6 mil spacing, and a total of 240 turns. Mainly a single 240 mil trace on the other side of the circuit board, the whole thing is encapsulated in a transparent two-part epoxy to prevent arcing. Driven by the non-resonant half-bridge driver on the PCB below it, the coil can really work. The complete schematic and construction information can be found in the link above, and the video below shows its features.
To be honest, we would love to try the amount of work saved by PCB coils. It may not have the classic look of manually wound coils, but it can definitely get the job done.
Cool build, but I don't think I will test it next to a bunch of test devices like this!
I suspect this will be a problem in most cases because the metal housing is/or should be grounded, in this case this is the same as the Faraday cage. Plastic enclosures will be a different issue, but unless there is something or somewhere where the arc can enter or pass, the arc will not be attracted to that place, which is obviously metal or carbon in some cases , It probably needs to be connected to drain/ground. It is still prudent not to do so. Can I suggest what metal you hold in your hand while standing in the water, or a grounded metal pipe? Also note the number of times the word "case" is used here. In my opinion, it is also a good idea to use a "case" around the main part of the circuit, in case the high voltage output arcs to that part of the circuit, which basically burns the Tesla circuit. If someone is as curious as I am, how many volts will one of them generate to make the arc travel so far? I have seen about 50kv reaching 1 to 1-1/2 inches. Working around the ignition coil of a new car
Can't you add an audio input to make it "sing"? That would be a great feature!
Just like in the movie "The Apprentice" by N. Cage.
Yes. The H-bridge should be driven by a high-frequency PWM signal, and its pulse width is modulated by the audio signal, so that the high voltage intensity is proportional to the audio input voltage.
An interesting side note, the PCB of one of the circuit boards on starlink uses a similar PCB inductance design.
The length of the spark at 30 cm from the needle source is about 180KV. His driver inputs 120V into a bridge rectifier, applies a voltage of approximately 160 volts to the primary, multiplies it by 240 turns, and produces 38,400 volts on the secondary.
http://www.kronjaeger.com/hv/hv/msr/spk/
In this configuration, the coupling between the primary/secondary *may* be high, assuming K = 1.0, then the Q factor of his coil is about 4.5. In other words, multiply 38.4KV by the resonant Q factor of 4.5 to generate 180KV.
Therefore, the Q value of the secondary coil printed on the PCB is about 4.5, which is not large. By designing higher quality coils, he can easily double or triple the voltage.
Nonetheless, this is a neat project, and compared to many Tesla coils seen online, throwing a 1-foot spark is impressive.
The problem then becomes that for the secondary, the distance between the traces is 6 mils. Of course, he treated it with epoxy resin to increase the dielectric strength, but this is more or less just a surface coating. According to his height, 10kV can jump a long distance.
The surface coating is indeed very different. 6 mil epoxy should have a dielectric strength of approximately 3 kV, while 6 mil air is only 500 V.
I want to know whether these PCBs can be effectively double-wired and then stacked in reverse polarity, thereby eliminating self-capacitance and increasing Q and allowing the use of lower resonant frequencies. The conductor can also be tapered, because when you get close to the output, you don't need to deal with as much current, so you can increase the track pitch and the number of turns without increasing the diameter of the flat coil. Enameled copper wire is a bit tricky, but since this is a PCB, experimenting may be a fairly simple matter.
Can Tesla coils be installed on BattleBots?
It is tempting to hold any outdoor event and have everyone sign a death and injury waiver.
Very cool! The next step...make a two-level multi-layer!
It may also help keep squirrels away from bird feeders. At the same time, make sure that the coyotes and wild animals have enough food.
Just add some interesting aspects to the discussion of voltage and arc length: Remember that AC arcs at hundreds of KHz are completely different from DC arcs. Then considering that they are produced by resonant transformers, the air gap breakdown guidelines are no longer so suitable.
Quasi-continuous wave coils (QCW) are fascinating in this regard, and Steve Ward, loneoceans and others have done interesting work. According to my rough and simple understanding, these coils initiate an arc and then raise the primary bus voltage within a few milliseconds. This produces a thick, twisted, sword-like arc that can be up to 10 times the height of the second level (!!). The theory believes that once the arc is started, each continuous cycle will slightly increase the existing arc channel, and as the bus energy increases, many cycles will produce a long arc. However, the voltage remains at a fairly low level. Therefore, you only need 80kv to get a 3-foot arc.
I am planning to build one of them, just after I won the lottery (and returned from shopping on the island), because I finally have enough free time :)
Forgot to add, one of the coilers observed that as the arc lengthened, the resonance frequency would drop; since the existing arc is conductive, as it grows, it will effectively increase the size of the top load. I find that very charming.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_fTC_Ud_k3U
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