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How this work?Is this safe to try at home?

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hsieh

Thu Jan 13 2011, 08:09AM

Registered Member #1412 Joined: Thu Mar 27 2008, 04:07PM
Location: Taipei Taiwan
Posts: 278

How this work?Is this safe to try?I have read that skin effect dosen't work on human body.

Is the spark discharge current small enough to be safe?

Is this true(lighting 400w light bulb)?Or is only a magic trick?

If above demonstrations aren't safe, is this one safe to try?Can I try this with a very small SSTC(steve microSSTC)?

LIGHT

Thu Jan 13 2011, 09:03AM

Banned on 4/6/2011 for unsafe, irresponsible behavior.
Registered Member #3442 Joined: Fri Nov 26 2010, 04:09AM
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Posts: 114

Well touching a tesla coil IS dangerous, some novices touch it and dont feel anything, and think it's OK, because the frequency is so high out nerves cant react fast enough, and no shock is felt, but these is damage being sustained.

I think you can have muscular and nerve damage, and bad joints.

Ash Small

Thu Jan 13 2011, 09:14AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

I think Steve Conner is the 'resident expert' on this stuff. I wouldn't consider any of it until he's given his opinion.

JKowalski

Thu Jan 13 2011, 07:13PM

Registered Member #3595 Joined: Mon Jan 10 2011, 04:46AM
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Posts: 26

I've touched small low power sparks many times before but overall I stay away from them.

You have to watch out for low frequency oscillations. While TC's are high frequency resonators, they are fed off of pure AC (SGTC's) or badly/not at all filtered rectified AC (SSTC, depends on how it was designed).

The 60Hz is the truly dangerous part. The HF just burns you and (to me) generally does not feel pleasant.

Its interesting to note also that the lady with the tongue sparks etc. is sitting ON TOP of the tesla coil. She is floating, she has no good connection with ground... therefore the energy seems to be spread out through the body more evenly..? Not a direct path for the current to flow, it can only discharge to air. I am unsure of the effect that would have, but my guess is that it makes it a little less dangerous

The last video, is a plate charged with high voltage... the guy stands on it. He is floating off ground therefore his body is at a high voltage relative to the earth ground. Since he is only touching the plate, there is no easy path for the high voltage to float to ground. He would get a shock if he touched anything other than the plate. Holding a flourescent tube, there is a large voltage gradient from his body to the end of the tube and it lights.

The danger of the shock would be dependant on the method he used to create the high voltage. If it is DC, it's dangerous depending on the current capability. If it is low frequency AC, deadly. If it is high frequency ac, dangerous, maybe some small RF burns and discomfort.

Like I said, I stay away from touching sparks or getting into any situation with a HV potential across my body in any way. I'd prefer to play it safe and that's my suggestion to you.

Coronafix

Thu Jan 13 2011, 09:38PM

Registered Member #160 Joined: Mon Feb 13 2006, 02:07AM
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 938

Isn't that the guy that died from an arc grounding to a beam through him?
I'd therefore say do not try this at home.

Dr. ISOTOP

Thu Jan 13 2011, 10:32PM

Registered Member #2919 Joined: Fri Jun 11 2010, 06:30PM
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 652

If the arc connects to the primary (because of a lack of a strike rail, etc), you are almost certainly dead meat :(
I'd say don't try it. Even if it's "safe", the idea of 100's of KV through your body doesn't seem very pleasant.

hsieh

Fri Jan 14 2011, 12:10AM

Registered Member #1412 Joined: Thu Mar 27 2008, 04:07PM
Location: Taipei Taiwan
Posts: 278

Coronafix wrote ...

Isn't that the guy that died from an arc grounding to a beam through him?
I'd therefore say do not try this at home.

Some webpages say this is not the truth

Frosty90

Fri Jan 14 2011, 03:40AM

Registered Member #1617 Joined: Fri Aug 01 2008, 07:31AM
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 139

Many people say it is not painful to touch a small tesla coil discharge, but they clearly havnt tried it! My first tesla coil was a flyback driven affair, touching the output always resulted in a painful shock!

I once accidently had a 40cm streamer hit my hand from a 3" solid state coil, I was holding a pair of pliers in the hand (I was not trying to draw an arc to the pliers deliberately though), the unintentional reflex from the sudden jolt/pain caused me to fling the pliers across the room. The opposite end of the secondary was grounded to mains ground.

Is this true(lighting 400w light bulb)?Or is only a magic trick?

I have lit a small 12v 10 watt globe one side connected to an antenna 'close' to a small solid state coil and I was holding a wire attached to the other side. I remember a photo from a teslathon (I think it was richie burnett!) lighting a halogen globe in a similar way! But I have never done that since, and dont think Ill do it agian. it scares me too much to think that amount of current is flowing in my body!

I wouldnt reccomend deliberately touching the output of any coil!

Dzejwor

Fri Jan 14 2011, 03:52AM

Registered Member #2750 Joined: Sun Mar 21 2010, 08:47PM
Location: Poland
Posts: 46

I always thought that the touching sparks from small SSTC or DRSSTC is RELATIVELY safe but passing current through human body IS NOT SAFE at all. I tried this with my SSTC but I do not recommend this to anyone. Fluorescent tubes lights in the distance about 1 meter from my SSTC. Without any direct disharges to the tube. I somtimes use this to demonstrations and I realy dont know how much current flow through the tube.

Arcstarter

Fri Jan 14 2011, 04:16AM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

Here is a theory i came up with

. Anyway, people say you don't feel the sparks because of the nerves not registering any pain due to the high freq and some people say that it is skin effect that causes this. But then, you can pass tons of current through your body, too, with (seemingly) no ill effects. Maybe you don't feel it because of the nerves not responding to the freq, and you can pass so much current due to the skin effect, instead of either one being responsible for both cases.

I know i have passed as high as low as 10ma or as high as 100ma across my body with this HF vttc... But at 12MHz, i guess the majority of the current is across my skin, or maybe my dermis.

But then, if you look at how the layers of your skin are, the nerve endings are in between the epidermis and dermis, so if skin effect was valid, maybe the electricity does not penetrate the skin enough to stimulate the nerves...

So many theories but not yet a proven explanation, so i tend to think no one theory is completely right, but each one has a part of the puzzle. But then that is how i think about religion

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