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Red Alert Tesla project

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LAN_403

Reaching

Sun Sept 30 2007, 01:43PM

Registered Member #76 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 10:04AM
Location: Hemer, Germany
Posts: 458

i dont understand, why do you want to "simulate" a stategy games fiction on teslacoils. those threads are tend to drop the seriousness of this forum and his members. what do you guess a guy would think if he just searches the forum for pics without reading the text?? I mean, this thread has the potential to make a joke out of seriousÂ´s pictures in the eye of an amateur. well, its just a fake, but do you mean a guy would know this? NO!

Seriously, this thread belongs to chatting or somewhere else, not to teslacoils

ragnar

Sun Sept 30 2007, 04:32PM

Registered Member #63 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425

I'll have to admit that I rather enjoy the trick photography.

When I moved into my apartment this year, my flatmate's only exposure to Tesla coils was RA1, the popular computer game. He got pretty excited when he saw my 13.56MHz coils and my CW stuff, and even more fired up when I used an interrupter. Quite often he gives me suggestions involving high voltage for photographic effect, but because I don't have the inclination or my own camera, I don't do it.

Peter is (to my knowledge) the only person who has put in the effort (and 90% of that effort probably isn't apparent in the pictures) to 'mock up' a decent real-world imitation of the conceptual RA1 Tesla coil. I think it's a neat private joke, and we can all have a giggle at nobody's expense.

The "long exposure and draw-wire" may be obvious at first sight to us, but the coil and the sparks really do look great. Keep it up, Peter

Tesladownunder

Sun Sept 30 2007, 04:55PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Reaching wrote ...

i dont understand, why do you want to "simulate" a stategy games fiction on teslacoils. those threads are tend to drop the seriousness of this forum and his members. what do you guess a guy would think if he just searches the forum for pics without reading the text?? I mean, this thread has the potential to make a joke out of seriousÂ´s pictures in the eye of an amateur. well, its just a fake, but do you mean a guy would know this? NO!
Seriously, this thread belongs to chatting or somewhere else, not to teslacoils

Hmmm.. Harsh criticism of new Tesla techniques not previously seen on the net.
Perhaps you would criticize Tesla himself for using a double exposure in his famous spark photo. Or perhaps you would keep your own exposures to 1/30th second rather than your unrealistic spark photos like in your avatar which are clearly long exposures.

If you don't understand people's interest in Red Alert, and you can't understnd why I might have an interest in this then you will have no interest in this thread and you can exercise your right not to visit it.

Are you saying my "fake" photos make a joke out of serious Tesla photos? So name me a more serious Tesla photographer than I am. My TC photos are probably taken with a similar exposure time to yours, yet mine are "fake". That is a pretty solid insult.

You are concerned about people just searching 4HV for pictures. People looking for Tesla coils Google directly for the 13000 pictures (of which my "fake" Tesla coil on a car accounts for about 1% of these). That won't take them here to 4hV which Google picks up 300 images only.

If you feel I should be sent to Chatting or worse, then discuss this with the mods or set up a poll to find out if others feel as you do. If you don't feel strongly about this then it is getting a bit close to flaming for my liking.

TDU

Reaching

Sun Sept 30 2007, 05:32PM

Registered Member #76 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 10:04AM
Location: Hemer, Germany
Posts: 458

maybe a bit harsh

but, there are so many fools out there looking at your pics and saying "wow a big military defence people grilling mashine or so" . i see it everywhere and all day on my own forum which has over 240 german members interestet in teslacoils. i always wanted to show the "nature" of teslacoils. your pics are great and i like them, but i worry that many people out there are not concerned about "what they are"... they look at the pics found on google or somewhere else and look like this O_o ... long exposures etc,, everyone here photographes their teslacoils with a long exposure. you have great ideas, but why do you explain how youve done it so lately in this thread? are you like the comments of people thinking about how youÂ´ve done it? and if thats not enough you compare a teslacoil with a men killing mashine in one of thousand silly computergames digging out the old imbecility, teslacoils can kill people over a long distance etc.
youÂ´re right. this thread is nothing for me, and i doubt that there are other members who are thinking like me about this.
fact is, we, as a community have the task to show people what teslacoils really are.
you, on the other side, show people with your pics what a teslacoil really isnt

Kizmo

Sun Sept 30 2007, 07:15PM

Registered Member #599 Joined: Thu Mar 22 2007, 07:40PM
Location: Northern Finland, Rovaniemi
Posts: 624

http://4hv.org/e107_files/public/1191080970_10_FT0_teslara18fttrial1000.jpg

On the top end of your secondary, that bright spot, is that inter turn arcing or is that just reflection? I just broke my secondary with that kind of failure :)

Tesladownunder

Sun Sept 30 2007, 07:27PM

Registered Member #10 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424

Reaching, your attitude has been shared by others For example Steve Connor was unhappy about me giving a name to an effect (Eye of Sauron) until he remembered his most recent TC is named after a Norse gods hammer

Some people on this forum should realise there are possibilities after you use the science to get the sparks that you want. Many seem to stop there which is fine. Some, however go on to actually use the coil to do other things. However, the public, which you seem to imply are idiots that have to be educated, are by and large, NOT interested in another Tesla coils sparks or the science behind them.

On the other hand they ARE interested in the Art of Tesla coils. Witness the spectacular success of Steve Ward's musical Tesla coil. The public understand music and this was a new approach to it. Sure it is not new stuff ( I bought a plasmasonic board from EVR years ago) but it was in the right place at the right time.

Similarly, my Tesla coil on a car was recognisable as a thief deterrant that people can relate to. Neither relies on a knowledge of the science.

Similarly again, the worlds number one real time strategy game had a Tesla coil that was understandable. It zapped you if you got too close. A good message, I think.

However people who are interested will come to the site or to blogs and some will end up with a better knowledge of the science.

So I have chosen to go down that path. I am purely interested in getting the best single exposure picture that is instantly recognisable as a Red Alert Tesla coil. It will still be a photo and not a computer graphic. It will be just as valid as your photos that don't represent what you would see in a video. Once I have the final product, I will put it out to the public. I anticipate it will be popular and hopefully again have enough website hits to slow 4HV down again.

I put my construction and progress on 4HV as there are some people who will find the techniques and construction interesting. This is after all new. You have decided new and bad. I will let the public decide.

Kizmo, you are right about the short between adjacent windings. I was horrified to see it. I scratched around with a pocket knife and gave it a dob of polyurethane and have not had further problems yet. It will probably breakdown in time and I will have to remove a winding. Unfortunately, it is on the dark side of the coil and I might not notice it letting the smoke out.

TDU

Kizmo

Sun Sept 30 2007, 07:48PM

Registered Member #599 Joined: Thu Mar 22 2007, 07:40PM
Location: Northern Finland, Rovaniemi
Posts: 624

--offtopic--

Tesladownunder wrote ...

Kizmo, you are right about the short between adjacent windings. I was horrified to see it. I scratched around with a pocket knife and gave it a dob of polyurethane and have not had further problems yet. It will probably breakdown in time and I will have to remove a winding. Unfortunately, it is on the dark side of the coil and I might not notice it letting the smoke out.

TDU

I had exactly same kind of thing with my 8" coil. I was behind camera and failure was at opposite side. My brother noticed it first and he cut the power but it was too late. I got now few carbon tracks and deep burns around my secondary. I'm going to try fix that, i just unwound damaged part away and i will grind all carbon and burn marks away, fill those holes with epoxy and coat that with few layers of polyurethane. Then i just re-wind it with new wire and put few layers of polyurethane over it :)

I have no idea if it works but i think i have nothing to loose.

--offtopic--

But anyway, nice pictures!

Reaching

Sun Sept 30 2007, 10:27PM

Registered Member #76 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 10:04AM
Location: Hemer, Germany
Posts: 458

TDU. If youre up for more hits on your pics, do it... share your stuff with other people. yeah, those people who tell their parents and friends that theyÂ´ve seen a teslacoil which produces balls of lightning and 19 foot long streamers like in red alert that can kill people etc. dont you think theres enough confusing commercial stuff out there?
be proud of living in australia. would ive done something like this here in germany, a swat team already had inprisoned me.
it would have been in all news that a mad scientist build a people killing teslacoil like in red alert. the politicians would have released a law against those videogames. be proud of living on that continent with the smallest population per kmÂ²...

a guy on my forum who uploaded a video of his coilgun had been arrestet a few days later. they took his coilgun and other stuff just for the video on youtube!!!
Be careful with this pics and be careful about yourself, especially about your good name here in this community.

Capper

Sun Sept 30 2007, 10:49PM

Registered Member #914 Joined: Fri Jul 20 2007, 06:22PM
Location: South Bend, IN
Posts: 85

Well, I'm sorry if I upset you with my comment. I looked at the photo and I could tell it wasn't a 19 foot spark. Sparks don't just end at places (and 90 degree angles) with nice hot thick white spots - I know, because I've only been able to make 12 footers myself, and that was at 25kW of input power. I've also spent quite a bit of time taking pictures of sparks, and I know what they look like.

If you want to make a 19 foot spark, tape a few dozen CDs to some thick fishing line and string it between the hoop and the coil. It looks cool, but makes a mess of the driveway (and coats the secondary with tiny pieces of aluminum).

Someone did it once with a sheet of mylar coated with some sort of magnetic material at one of the Cheesehead 'thons way back also.

C@P

ragnar

Mon Oct 01 2007, 01:16AM

Registered Member #63 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425

I'd prefer the appropriate comments on this thread to be moved into an appropriate thread in the moderating forum.

wrote ...
...we, as a community have the task to show people what teslacoils really are...

No, we don't have a "task" to educate anyone. We are not accountable to the whims of "the people". We as one "community" do not owe or submit to the ignorance of another "community".

wrote ...
...you, on the other side, show people with your pics what a teslacoil really isnt...

Peter kindly offers to show his neat photographic techniques in a closed-membership forum. Aren't we lucky?

I don't believe we are any "safer" in Australia than in the US or Germany from overzealous public servants and law enforcers. Comparing a long-exposure photo of a Tesla coil to a video of a coil gun is a bit of a long shot.

I'd suspect that fabricating a device that launches a projectile faster than a certain velocity (or otherwise defined) may be plainly ILLEGAL in Germany. It should come as no surprise that the police exercised their power to confiscate it.

A coil gun is a GUN, intended to launch a projectile as fast as possible. A Tesla coil is often-used in theatrical special effects. Compare the tangible killing power.

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