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Building a solid state tesla coil

by spark light on November 28, 2010 Table of Contents Building a solid state tesla coil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Building a solid state tesla coil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: The overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Parts in parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: The Voltage Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: The interupter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 6: Antenna section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 3 4 6 8 9

Step 7: Gate drive section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Step 8: Gate drive transformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Step 9: Mounting mosfets to heatsink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Step 10: The half bridge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Step 11: Primary coil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Step 12: Setup/test! Yay!!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Intro: Building a solid state tesla coil

!This instructable is meant to give detailed instructions on building a solid state tesla coil based off of steve ward's mini sstc schematic. Ok, here's the disclaimer. ********************************************************* I do not hold any responsibility or your use or misuse of this information, in any way. I am not a trained professional and I cannot protect you from the voltages that are part of this project, and any damage this project may cause, wether it be to animal or material. The user assumes all responsibility for the actions they take. ********************************************************* Well, now that that's over, lets get on to what a tesla coil actually is. A tesla coil usually has these key components: *power source *Switching circuit *Resonant Capacitor (only for drsstcs, some vttc,s and regular spark gap type coils) *Primary coil *Secondary coil The tesla coil was invented around 1891 by Nikola Tesla. His original intention for the device was to create a wireless energy distribution system. Unfortunately, his design could not send power at even close to reasonable efficiency, as the power was almost all being wasted on corona and arcing. Today, we coilers take this to an advantage. But what males the tesla coil truly magnificent is the voltage it produces. A typical spark gap type coil takes (usually) the voltage from your wall socket, and steps it up to a couple thousand volts, where it then goes through the switching circuit, through the primary, and is seen on the secondary side as more that 200,000 volts! But how did tesla do this? The answer is resonance. A resonant circuit, usually consisting of a capacitor and inductor, is much like a slinky. (stretched out) When you give it a push, it bounces back and forth losing momentum with each pass. However, if you keep hitting it every time it comes back, it will start to move really far back and forth at the same speed. (Or frequency) The frequency at which you hit it is it's resonance. The secondary coil is like our spring. But how do we get voltage from it? Certainly not by hitting it. No, you have to use an oscillating magnetic field from the primary coil to excite it. A normal spark gap type TC would use a resonant capacitor and a spark gap to produce the oscillation, where as our coil (sstc) will use feedback from the coil itself to drive the primary. (using an antenna.) ~~for more info on how a tesla coil works, head on over to Richie Burnett's site or the wiki.

Image Notes 1. Sparkz!

Step 1: The overview

Our coil will be a solid state type. The schematic we are using was made by steve ward, and belongs to him. This circuit is a relatively simple circuit as far as tesla coils go, and is a good place to start for a coiler that is new to solid state drive. I will say that you should only attempt this if you are confidant that you can work with mains voltage, as this coil does have direct mains voltage running through part of it. Unfortunately, I cannot currently put up the steps to wind the secondary coil, but I will put up an intractable as soon as possible. But generally, what you need to do is wind many tight turns of thin magnet wire around a pvc form. Don't make it too tall. A good ratio for height is that the height is about 3 to 5 times the diameter. Anyway, what you will get out of this coil is approximately 7-8 inch sparks. (Depending on how you set the interrupter) I'll go over this later, but for now, that is what you can expect. Trust me, you'll have fun. *****EDIT: That mystery symbol appears because instructables cant handle the and ? symbol in pictures. go figure! it works here.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Step 2: Equipment
A tesla coil is a very interesting, and fairly complicated device. Aside from building this coil, There is some special equipment I highly recommend using if you power this little beast up. There are dangers involved in a mains-powered-hundred-thousand-volt-producing machine, as it turns out. :D We wil be doing a lot of soldering for this coil. And I mean a lot of soldering. I used up about five feet of solder at least! So, with that considered, our first items are a soldering iron and a desoldering iron/desoldering pump/soldering wick of some sort, that is, unless you can solder perfectly. Now, unless you have a fancy super durable soldering iron, It is likely that you will be using a radioshack iron. It has been my experience that the tips on these things, even with the most obsessive cleaning, these tips just get eaten away. So, buy an extra tip. ;) You will also want some flush lead clippers to trim down component leads. In case you don't have a store near you, here are some links: ****************** Soldering iron Desoldering iron Extra tip Lead clippers ****************** Now, As I said before, there is more to the coil than building it. When we test it, we should not just go and jam the plug into the wall socket. The equipment I say you must have before you power this thing up is a variac, or switch of some sort two protect yourself from full mains. What a variac is is basically a variable transformer. It allows you to alter the voltage that flows from the wall socket to your device, much like a gigantic kilowatt volume dial. You can find a good variac for around 80 dollars at a local electronics store, assuming they haven't completely turned ti consumer electronics, but I'd recumbent getting one online from say, Fry's electronics. They have two models. A low power one and a high power one. The low power on was enough for me to use on this project. ******************** Low power variac High power variac ******************** While this Is all the equipment I would require myself, It is nice to have an oscilloscope for measuring gate drive waveforms and looking at interrupter input. It is also nice to have a variable DC power supply for testing the low voltage electronics, but again, it is not required.

Image Notes 1. Damp paper towel for tip cleaning 2. Soldering and desoldering irons 3. Tip 4. Lead trimmers

Image Notes 1. GIANT DIAL OF AWESOMENESS 2. Power in. 3. Controllable output

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Osilloscope

Image Notes 1. Yup. 2. Voltage control. 3. Current control 4. Voltage out. 5. Current used. 6. Ground 7. Voltage plus.

Step 3: Parts in parts

As you can see from the schematic, there are plenty of parts to this circuit. So, lets get starter with the fundamental power components: ****************************** 25v 2a transformer bridge rectifier lm7805 lm7812 50v 2200 F capacitor (X2) 25v 1000 F capacitor 5.6k? resistor 2.2k? resistor Blue LED (X2) ****************************** Now, the Interrupter components: ******************************** 0.1 F decoupling capacitor NE555 10k? linear potentiometer (X2) 1n4007 diode (X2) 2.2k? resistor 0.1 F capacitor (This can actually be any value you like, It will simply alter the arc appearance/interrupter speed.) ********************************* Next, we move on to the antenna section: *********************************** 0.1 F decoupling capacitor 74hc14 hex inverter 6-8 inch long piece of wire 1n60 diode (X2) 0.1 F capacitor *********************************** Now, we move on to the gate drive components:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

********************************* UCC37322 UCC37321 1 F decoupling capacitor (X2) 0.1 F capacitor 2 foot long strand of wire (X3) Ferrite toroid ********************************* Now, for the scary mains filter: ****************************** Bridge rectifier 200v 680 F capacitor ****************************** Finally, the muscle of this circuit, the half bride: ************************************************* IRFP260N mosfet (X2) 200v 0.68 F capacitor (X 2) 5? 2W resistors (X2) Insulating thermal pads (X2, TO-247 type)** Heatsink with two matching screws and holes* Thick non-stranded wire, about five feet ************************************************* ALMOST FORGOT! don't forget **************************************** SOLDER **************************************** These are the necessary components. I used digi-key because they are easy to use. *I got my heatsink from an old atx power supply. There are full of useful stuff! **Usually also found in tax power supplies. I also recommend getting some terminal connectors. They make everything so much easier. *********************** Terminal connectors ***********************

Image Notes 1. 2200uF 50v capacitors 2. 1000uF 25v capacitor 3. LM7812 12 volt regulator 4. LM7805 5 volt regulator 5. LEDs 6. Low power bridge recitier 7. Terminal 8. 2.2k and 5.6k resistors were supposed to be here.

Image Notes 1. NE555 2. 0.1uF decoupling capacitor 3. 2.2k resistor 4. 1n4148 diode 5. 1n4148 diode 6. 10k potentiometer 7. 10k potentiometer 8. 0.1uF capacitor

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Actual antenna 2. 74HC14 3. 0.1uF capacitor 4. 1N4148 diodes 5. Not pictured: 0.1F decoupling cap

Image Notes 1. UCC37322 2. UCC37321 3. 0.1uF capacitor (I actually used a 0.4 one.) 4. 2.2uF decoupling capacitors

Image Notes 1. 0.68F capacitors were supposed to be here. 2. 5.0 2W resistors 3. 680uF filter capacitor 4. High power bridge rectifier 5. Mosfets were mounted with... ----> 6. these to the heatsink 7. Heatsink

Step 4: The Voltage Supply

So, the first part of the circuit I chose to solder was the voltage supply. This was primarily because it is connected to every other part of the circuit. Anyway, I first soldered in the terminal for connecting the transformer in, right next to it, the low voltage bridge rectifier. Luckily, they match up! *A tip for soldering long or high current connections: Lay down a piece of metal wire to the path you want to solder. It makes it much easier to apply. PARTS: ****************************** 25v 2a transformer Bridge rectifier LM7805 LM7812 50v 2200 F capacitor (X2) 25v 1000 F capacitor 5.6k? resistor 2.2k? resistor Blue LED (X2) ******************************

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Transformer 2. Bridge rectifier 3. 2200F cap. 4. 12 volt regulator 5. 5 volt regulator 6. I actually used 2200F 7. 1000F capacitor Image Notes 1. 2200uF 50v capacitors 2. 1000uF 25v capacitor 3. LM7812 12 volt regulator 4. LM7805 5 volt regulator 5. LEDs 6. Low power bridge recitier 7. Terminal 8. 2.2k and 5.6k resistors were supposed to be here.

Image Notes 1. Terminal block 2. Bridge rectifier

Image Notes 1. Mah' getto solder wires 2. Bridge rectifier 3. 2200F cap 4. 12v regulator 5. 2200F capacitor 6. 1000F capacitor 7. 5v regulator 8. LED indicator. Showing 12v is OK. 9. LED indicator. Showing 5v is OK. 10. Terminal

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Terminal 2. Ground 3. 2200F capacitor 4. 12v regulator 5. 2200F capacitor 6. 5v regulator 7. 1000F capacitor 8. Bridge rectifier 9. Filtered transformer voltage. 10. Filtered 12 volts. 11. Filtered 5 volts

Step 5: The interupter

Next, we move to the interrupter. This is the part that turns the coil on and off. (we need to limit the onetime so that we don't completely wear out those mosfets. The reason we have chosen to make this part before the rest (After the power supply) is so that we can test it before finalizing any connection to turn on the coil. PARTS: ******************************** 0.1 F decoupling capacitor NE555 10k? linear potentiometer (X2) 1n4007 diode (X2) 2.2k? resistor 0.1 F capacitor (This can actually be any value you like, It will simply alter the arc appearance/interrupter speed.) *********************************

Image Notes 1. I used 0.1F 2. 'Scope this 3. Potentiometers 4. 1N4148 diodes 5. 0.1F decoupler capacitor 6. 2.2k? resistor 7. NE555 brain

Image Notes 1. NE555 2. 1N4148 diode 3. 1N4148 diode 4. 0.1F capacitor 5. 0.1F decoupling capacitor 6. 2.2k? resistor 7. 10k? potentiometer 8. 10k? potentiometer

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. NE555 2. OUTPUT 3. 2.2k? resistor 4. 1N4148 diode 5. 1N4148 diode 6. 0.1F capacitor 7. 10k? potentiometer

Image Notes 1. NE555 2. capacitor 3. potentiometers 4. OUTPUT

Image Notes 1. Ontime 2. Off time 3. about 55% ontime 4. This is why I recommend an oscilloscope.

Step 6: Antenna section

Now, we will put together our antenna section. This part of the circuit is designed to capture feedback from the secondary to keep the circuit resonating. Because we use feedback to provide the signal to our halfbridge, the coil is always in tune! No worrying if you have that pesky 555 on the right frequency. *********************************** 0.1 F decoupling capacitor 74HC14 hex inverter 6-8 inch long piece of wire 1N4148 diode 0.1 F capacitor ***********************************

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. un-inverts the signal 2. Inverter/buffer takes the analog signal and turns it into a digital one, inverts the wave. 3. Clamp the input to the rails so as to protect the IC. 4. Limits input 5. 0.1F decoupling capacitor

Image Notes 1. Actual antenna 2. 74HC14 3. 0.1uF capacitor 4. 1N4148 diodes 5. Not pictured: 0.1F decoupling cap

Image Notes 1. 74HC14 2. Capacitor 3. Antenna goes here 4. 1N4148 diode 5. OUTPUT 6. POWER and GROUND

Image Notes 1. 74HC14 2. Decoupling capacitor 3. 1N4148 diode 4. 1N4148 diode 5. 0.1F capacitor 6. Antenna

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Step 7: Gate drive section

In this step, we will assemble the part of the circuit that combines and amplifies the interrupter and feedback signals to drive the gate drive transformer. These parts can fail more than others, so it's not a bad idea to instal sockets. ********************************* UCC37322 UCC37321 1 F decoupling capacitor (X2) 0.47 F capacitor *********************************

Image Notes 1. UCC37322 2. UCC37321 3. The 0.1F capacitor, but I chose 0.47F instead. It improves gate drive! 4. 1.0F decoupling capacitor 5. 1.0F decoupling capacitor

Image Notes 1. UCC37322 2. UCC37321 3. 1.0F decoupling capacitor 4. 1.0F decoupling capacitor 5. 0.1F capacitor 6. Ground rail 7. 12v rail

Image Notes 1. where the gate drive transformer connects 2. 0.1F capacitor 3. UCC37322 4. UCC37321 5. Interrupter in 6. Signal in

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Step 8: Gate drive transformer

The gate drive transformer does exactly what it's name implies. It takes the signal from the UCC's and sends it to the mosfets, as well as isolating the low voltage side from the high voltage side. To make the transformer, first, take your three pieces of wire, and twist them together. This creates a trifler winding. Next, wind the wire around the ferrite toroid 16 times. (Each time the wire passes through the center is one turn) after that, cut the wire so there is about 2 inches on each side of the transformer. Now, take two ends of wire of the same color, and solder each to one output of the gate drive section. ******************************** 2 foot long strand of wire (X3) Ferrite toroid ********************************

Image Notes 1. Ferrite toroid 2. Wires

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Primary (one wire) 2. Secondary 1 3. Secondary 2 4. Toroid

Image Notes 1. Twisting wires together.

Image Notes 1. Tightly twisted.

Image Notes 1. That's a nice looking transformer.

Image Notes 1. ~2 inches, separated out. 2. ~2 inches, separated out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. GDT connected to the gate drive section. (pin 6+7 of one ucc, and same through a capacitor on the other.) 2. Transformer

Image Notes 1. where the gate drive transformer connects 2. 0.1F capacitor 3. UCC37322 4. UCC37321 5. Interrupter in 6. Signal in

Step 9: Mounting mosfets to heatsink

Now, when you switch 120 volts at hundreds of thousands of times per second, It is almost indefinite that you will generate some heat. We use a heatsink to channel that heat away from the mosfets, and into the air. To mount them is simple, but DO NOT FORGET YOUR THERMAL PADS. they keep the mosfet drains from shorting out. PARTS: ********************************** Mosfets Thermal pads Heatsink and matching screws **********************************

Image Notes 1. Mosfets 2. Mounting screws 3. Thermal pads 4. Heatsink

Image Notes 1. Thermal pads

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Mosfets tightly screwed on

Image Notes 1. The mosfet pis are a lithe fat, so I drilled the holes out a little bit where I wanted to place my mosfets.

Image Notes 1. Soldered in place.

Step 10: The half bridge.

Here is the muscle of this coil, the half bridge. what this is are two mosfets that alternate switching on and off to produce alternating current. They do this at a high voltage, mainly so we can pump power trough the primary. this causes a magnetic field to be formed that excites the secondary coil (resonator) and the resonant rise builds up the high voltage. Once it is high enough, it breaks out into air. PARTS: ************************************************* IRFP260N mosfet (X2) mounted to heatsink 200v 0.68 F capacitor (X 2) 5? 2W resistors *************************************************

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Mosfet's are connected opposite of each other. 2. Protecting/damping resistors 3. Mosfets 4. Not needed. The IRFP260s have built in protection diodes. 5. Bridge capacitors 6. Tesla primary 7. GDT 8. Terminal block

Image Notes 1. Mosfet 2. Resistor 3. Make sure the two mosfets are connected to the GDT opposite of each other!

Image Notes 1. Make sure the two mosfets are connected to the GDT opposite of each other! 2. Mosfet 3. Resistor 4. Filter capacitor

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Bridge cap 2. Bridge cap 3. Terminal 4. Mosfets+heatsink 5. Terminal 6. Bridge rectifier 7. Filter capacitor

Image Notes 1. Mosfet 2. Mosfet 3. GDT connection 4. GDT connection 5. Bridge rectifier 6. Filter capacitor 7. Terminal (AC input) 8. Terminal (to primary) 9. Bridge cap 10. Bridge cap 11. Resistor 12. Resistor 13. GDT connection 14. GDT connection 15. HV ground 16. HV posotive

Image Notes 1. 0.68F capacitors were supposed to be here. 2. 5.0 2W resistors 3. 680uF filter capacitor 4. High power bridge rectifier 5. Mosfets were mounted with... ----> 6. these to the heatsink 7. Heatsink

Step 11: Primary coil

The primary coil is where all of that work pays off. The signals are amplified and pushed through here to make the secondary make sparks. To make the primary, first, find a circular object about the diameter of your primary, and wrap your thick wire around it five times, leaving ~6 inches on each end. then, using a twist tie, or you hands (If you don't have an easy method of securing it) Hold it together. Get your secondary coil, and put the primary around the base of the secondary. ****As there will be high voltages present on the secondary, (Hopefully) put some kind of insulator between your primary coil and secondary coil if at all possible. However, if you don't have any, just keep the primary as close as possible to the bottom, possibly using hot glue.**** Once that is done, we can move on to our first test!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Wire stripped at each end

Image Notes 1. My circular object is delicious on cake!

Image Notes 1. Nice and coily

Image Notes 1. OH Nooo! I let it go.

Image Notes 1. Pressure is the only thing holding my primary together....

Image Notes 1. It's hard to see, but I have a transparency there to protect the coil

Step 12: Setup/test! Yay!!!!

Now, we're ready to set up for the test of our coil, or the "first light!" 1. Attach your transformer of variable dc power supply to the low voltage in, and set to above 15 volts. 2. Attach the two leads of the primary coil to your output terminal near the bridge 3. Grab an ac cord that you wont ever want and strip it open, putting the hot and neutral wires into the AC in terminal. 4. Connect the bottom wire of your secondary to the mains ground, if you do not happen to have a better earth growing connection. 5. Plug in your variac and DC power supply and set the variac to zero volts, turned off. 6. Turn on your DC power supply 7. Plug the ac cord into your variac. 8. Turn on the variac 9. cross your fingers and slowly turn up the voltage. If you did it correctly, you should see arcs coming out of the breakout point! Good luck! And thank you for reading my first Instructable.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

Image Notes 1. Lovely lightning 2. My hand on the variac 3. Secondary 4. I did not use a top-load in this test.

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Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 146 comments

bobthebanana says:

Jun 28, 2011. 11:58 PM REPLY Hi, can I use a plug in light dimmer instead of a variac? Also, i could only find 100v .68uF caps for c7 and c8. Will they work if I don't crank it too much?

spark light says:

Jun 29, 2011. 1:20 AM REPLY Do not use a dimmer. It does not work the same as a variac. (It'd probably catch fire) If at all possible, use caps rated for double the input voltage, as this will key you much more safe from fires. If you need to find a supplier, you could use digiKey, they have always been awesome for me. http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=495-3187-ND But if you can't do that, you could try to series up two 1uF caps rated for > 120 volts in the place of each 0.68uF. If you're absolutely sure about your soldering and are able to verify somehow that the circuit works, go ahead and and just hook it up. The variac is just a large safety buffer, and as long as you have some kind of circuit breaker, you should be fine. Best of luck!

aweis says:

Apr 14, 2011. 3:49 PM REPLY um aboit the tesla coil efficiency, it was actually more efficient than the methods now, for your information, he powered a light bulb from a kilometer away, using barn power. it is also a safer provider for public electricity, unless of course ou decide to walk up to the machine spitting out hundreds of millions of volts, and who would really walk towards a tower shooting out lightning bolts. but the reason it was not used, is because people where terrified of it, and he bacame bankrupt.

spark light says:

Apr 14, 2011. 4:13 PM REPLY mind elaborating on barn power? from what your implying, it sounds like tesla could break the laws of physics. I have done a lot of research on tesla and his inventions. i don't remember anything that said his system worked more efficiently than the standard today. tesla was less recognized because ben franklin would hold rigged demonstrations that would kill animals w/ ac and not dc, which was a fear campaign to get people to prefer direct current.

allthegoodnamesaretaken says:
Pretty sure that was Edison that did that. Him and Tesla were direct competitors.

Jun 11, 2011. 11:42 PM REPLY

spark light says:

Jun 12, 2011. 1:38 AM REPLY Maybe. I am remembering this from a show by the american museum of radio and electricity (Pretty cool place actually) but it was a year or too ago. i might not be correct.

M4industries says:
Is tuning necessary for this coil?

Jun 9, 2011. 6:24 PM REPLY

spark light says:

Nope. this coil is feedback based, so it tunes itself.

Jun 11, 2011. 4:52 PM REPLY

MadScientist101 says:
where did you get your perf board/ PCB from, it looks very easy to work with?

Jun 9, 2011. 9:05 AM REPLY

spark light says:

I just bought a per board from radio shack, but there are many places to get this stuff.

Jun 11, 2011. 4:51 PM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

M4industries says:
I have the schematic for one on a T-shirt given to me by Joe from Arc Attack.

Jun 7, 2011. 11:15 AM REPLY

spark light says:

Arc attack is awesome. :D

Jun 7, 2011. 4:14 PM REPLY

M4industries says:

Jun 8, 2011. 3:14 PM REPLY And while I have your attention, I need to ask a technical question about audio modulation. If I built this SSTC, and used pulse width modulation to send a MIDI signal from a laptop into it, how would you recommend I isolate the laptop to prevent damage to it?

spark light says:

Jun 9, 2011. 1:36 AM REPLY Well, one way people have used reliably is to get a fibre cable, an LED and photodiode to transmit the pulses. that you could even halve the modulator USB powered.

M4industries says:
Thanks.

Jun 9, 2011. 10:26 AM REPLY

florinandrei says:

Jun 7, 2011. 3:31 PM REPLY I'm sorry, I'm having trouble figuring where does the antenna go, physically. Is it just a straight wire that you run close to the big coil? How big of a wire and how close?

spark light says:

Jun 7, 2011. 4:13 PM REPLY I usually keep my antenna about a foot away from the coil. Just some standard hookup wire. maybe 5-8 inches. around 22AWG is fine.

carnotricecooker says:

Mar 2, 2011. 7:51 PM REPLY If I wanted to audio modulate this using pulse repetition frequency (PRF) modulation off a microcontroller, do I have to run the AC through the primary and secondary at a specific frequency and voltages?

spark light says:

Mar 3, 2011. 12:23 AM REPLY You can't really use prf audio modulation on this coil. You would have to completely redesign the drive circuit using some kind of phase locked loop and DAC. I would go with using PWM to audio modulate this. For one thing, PWM is MUCH more efficient with this design. PRF would not work even if you had a pll design, because the way this coil keeps kicking itself into oscillation is by interrupted drive. every time you enable the gate drive chips, it sends a short pulse to the primary. For PRF modulation to work, you would need continuos drive, a mode that unfortunately, is not supported with standard feedback coils reliably. I would not recommend using a micro controller unless it has high clock speeds, as it does take some time to read an analog output, and you will want a high frequency pwm signal do as to preserve a high sample rate. If you wanted to use PWM, A better way to do this is to use an oscillator that supports PWM ilk the tl494 (I think) Because it can oscillate at high frequencies and is very reliable. The key thing about tesla coils is there voltage and frequency. If you have anything giving input, make sure it is isolated, or at least use something that you won't mind if it gets damaged. Stay safe, and make some beats!

florinandrei says:
Could you elaborate a bit more on the PWM mod for this coil? This is not a DRSSTC design, is that correct? What (if anything) would have to change to allow PWM with this coil?

Jun 6, 2011. 7:04 PM REPLY

(I'm actually fairly knowledgeable with electronics, my brain is just completely fried this afternoon and I'm having a hard time following the schematics. I would appreciate a few pointers to help me understand the changes. Thank you.)

spark light says:

Jun 6, 2011. 8:40 PM REPLY How you could use PWM on this coil is to completely skip the interrupter section and to replace it with a voltage controlled PWM circuit that oscillates at 30-80 Khz. Simple put Audio on the control pin. You are correct, this is not a DRSSTC.

florinandrei says:

Jun 7, 2011. 3:11 PM REPLY Oh, I see. Replace a fixed-fill-factor oscillator with a variable fill-factor, and modulate it. That's easy. Now, if this is correct, I would expect your original design to make a sound that grows louder or more quiet if you tweak its fill factor manually - is that what happens? Are there any limits to the fill factor? You mention somewhere that the MOSFETs may blow if you don't limit the on-time. What is the frequency that your original design oscillates at?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

spark light says:

Jun 7, 2011. 4:03 PM REPLY The interrupter oscillates at around 20-200 Hz if i remember correctly (which is very variable due to on/off time controls being separate.) The reason you don't want to have a very high to full duty cycle is because in order for this thing to start oscillation, it needs the slight kick that happens when the interrupter is enabled. This prevents it from going into a grey area on the mosfets. I was actually able to solve this by putting a weak square wave through a 20K resistor and 22pF cap to the input pin on the 74HC14. So basically, as long as there is some way to start the oscillation dynamically, you're golden. :D

carnotricecooker says:

Mar 3, 2011. 2:35 AM REPLY Please excuse my ignorance, but how exactly does PWM work with a SSTC? My goal is to use an arduino microcontroller to play a set of musical notes off the SSTC much like in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSa0nGmHT8E

spark light says:

Mar 3, 2011. 7:21 AM REPLY Trust me, this is no easy thing to understand. How PWM makes a tesla coil produce sound is my varying the amount of power that is going through to coil .(And thus the streamers) Because there are more intense arcs when there is a larger amount of power (so to speak) You can vary how hot the air is in it's ionization path. Because the arc makes the air hot, you are able to control the density, and because there is no air added or removed, it occupies a larger or smaller volume according to how much power you want to put through it. So, if you vary the pulse width, you are varying the level that the wave is at. To produce sound, you then raise and lower the duty cycle at the frequency of the sound you want to make. However, if you want to produce sound like that video, it is a lot simpler. That video is producing square wave output, so all you have to do is turn the whole coil on and off at the frequency of the sound you want to produce. (So, if you wanted to make the note for middle C, you would turn the coil on and off at 440Hz, or have 1/220th of a second of it being on and being off, repeated for as long as you would want the note to play.)

nol888 says:

Mar 4, 2011. 8:06 PM REPLY If I wanted to take, say, an analog signal from a TRS connector, can I use PWM with this design to do so? If I replace the 555 with the output from a PWM controller IC, such as the TL494, sent over a fiber link and connect that to pin 3 on the MOSFET drivers, would that possibly work? I'm not quite understanding how PWM would work differently than a plain "turn the coil on and off 440 times a second."

spark light says:

Mar 4, 2011. 9:20 PM REPLY The difference between PWM and just switching output, Is that switching output means that you can only make square waves. PWM gives out a constant, high frequency square wave that has a varying percentage of on-time and off-time. Therefore, you can vary the total "Power" flowing through the system. To create sound, you vary the percentage on-time according to the input level. That way you can play actual audio, like play a song through your tesla coil.

nol888 says:

Mar 5, 2011. 9:21 AM REPLY Is there a guideline to the frequency of the PWM base signal? I'm worried about the duty cycle being too high and overloading the coil. Also, what exactly makes the solid-state electronics driving the coil not need to be EM shielded? There are a few ICs in the circuit, but perhaps they're not complex enough to require shielding?

spark light says:

Mar 5, 2011. 2:40 PM REPLY Generally, you want to have a pwm frequency at about 30-80 khz. It is hard to overload this coil, as the primary coil while in oscillation acts as a heavy inductive load. It "absorbs" most of the power and transfers it to the secondary. As for the shielding, these ic's are very simple, as well as the fact that the coil actually doesn't output as much emf as one might think. I have yet to set up a proper field density test, but at about 1 foot away from the coil, the voltage seen on the probe is +- 2 volts. As well, the chips are mostly simple logic and analog devices. Analog is much more robust. (assuming proper decoupling.)

joehudy says:
how much ded it cost is it over $100

May 26, 2011. 8:14 PM REPLY

carnotricecooker says:
I can't get a hold of thermal pads. Is it possible to just run the variac at a lower voltage and not need thermal pads?

Mar 11, 2011. 4:20 AM REPLY

spark light says:

Mar 11, 2011. 3:56 PM REPLY Unfortunately, the irfp260 has it's heatspreader connected to the drain to facilitate heat transfer away from the device. this means that without insulation, you will instantly beer short circuiting one mosfet, leaving the other to conduct your entire supply voltage. You can't use the irpf260 for this without the pads, but you could certainly use a mosfet with insulated heatspreader. One good source to find heat pads is in ATX computer power supplies.

carnotricecooker says:

May 11, 2011. 2:52 PM REPLY For the sake of searching for heatsinks for the mosfets, I just bought 2 800V 6.5A mosfets that happen to come with heatsinks. http://www.goldmineelec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G15881. Will these work just as well as the IRPF260's? I also bought the following ferrite core toroid, though I don't know whether it will work. http://www.goldmine-elecproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16460

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

spark light says:

May 14, 2011. 11:27 PM REPLY The blue core may work. I haven't tried these yet. Although the mosfet's probably won't end well. You want to go for something with at least 200V and at least 20 amps to be safe. maybe 25. If they do work, KEEP THEM COOL. if they heat up, you'll want a fire extinguisher on hand.

carnotricecooker says:

Apr 12, 2011. 2:24 AM REPLY Um, any reason the bridge rectifier on D9 wasn't connected to the variac too instead of straight to the 120V AC outlet? I'm also curious as to how the capacitor on C6 should be modified to improve gate drive as stated in the schematic.

spark light says:

Apr 12, 2011. 7:26 AM REPLY D9 is supposed to be connected to the variac. It is not shown in the schematic because the original designer decided not to use one. However, I highly recommend it because it can prevent some nasty situations. To improve gate drive, you could increase the value of the capacitor in order to make more current flow. Something like 0.47uF is a.good option.

carnotricecooker says:
Out of curiosity, how did you make your top load toroid?

Apr 10, 2011. 12:15 AM REPLY

spark light says:

Apr 10, 2011. 1:08 AM REPLY I made my topload using flexible aluminum ducting and aluminum tape, creating the initial shape by bending the ducting, and then smoothing it out with the tape. Dec 26, 2010. 2:01 PM REPLY

robot797 says:
i has a question what hallens when you use this when you live in a country were mains is 230V AC?

panic mode says:

you replace main transformer withg one that has 230V primary, everything else stays the same.

Dec 26, 2010. 7:35 PM REPLY

Polonium-210 says:

Apr 5, 2011. 8:08 PM REPLY You would also need to change the mosfet's to a higher voltage rating (IRFP460). You cloud also use some 60N60 IGBT's as I do for a more rugged halfbridge. http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbyron/

spark light says:

Dec 26, 2010. 3:37 PM REPLY well, It it is RMS voltage, then 1/2 half of that is 115 volts, times 1.4 is 161 volts filtered. As long as you use a transformer that still outputs under thirty volts on the low voltage side, but higher than 14, everything should be fine there. However, seeing as the IRFP260 is a 200V mosfet, You should be fine there, but You will need to get higher voltage capacitors on the high voltage side. Optimally 300 volt rated capacitors. When testing, turn up the variac slowly, and if possible, use an infrared thermometer to measure the heatsink temperature.

carnotricecooker says:

Mar 16, 2011. 2:50 AM REPLY I couldn't exactly get the ferrite toroid listed in step 3, so I bought toroidal magnets from radio shack instead, but since the inner diameter wasn't large enough to fit 16 loops of 24 gauge wire, I used two magnets of 8 windings to make the toroidal transformer. This should work the same, no?

spark light says:

Mar 16, 2011. 3:47 PM REPLY These parts can't be magnets, as they need to act as a core for a transformer. a magnet would impede one side of the pulse and have a poor waveform out. It really is best to go all out when you go to GDT's, because they are like the main communication between the drive and sense circuits.

carnotricecooker says:

Mar 17, 2011. 2:33 AM REPLY Would something like this work? http://www.frys.com/product/2320999?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG I don't know how the MHz rating effects the transformer, but this one's a 30-100MHz toroid core. There's also a 2-30MHz, and 10-50MHz Toroid core.

spark light says:

Mar 19, 2011. 2:29 PM REPLY I don't exactly know, but considering that this thing is rated 30-100 mhz, i wouldn't go with it, because it could saturate. if at all possible, go with the goldmine electric core.

carnotricecooker says:

Mar 30, 2011. 1:08 AM REPLY FYI, the goldmine electronic core link for the ferrite toroid no longer exists. Could we possibly salvage this item from like an old desktop computer power supply or something? It's a really hard to find item, especially since I don't know what the specs should be.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/

spark light says:

Mar 31, 2011. 9:54 PM REPLY well, as a broad idea of what you want, go for things NOT cased in plastic, and NOT formed from powder. This means no ATX power supplies and such. thanks for telling me about the link, i'll work on finding a better supplier.

RachelGerrits says:
i'm wondering if i am missing something.... where is the transformer on your pictures here....

Mar 22, 2011. 10:45 AM REPLY

spark light says:

Mar 22, 2011. 10:00 PM REPLY I used a variable power supply to test because i needed to verify if the ground would allow it to respond to a floating point input.

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-solid-state-tesla-coil/