If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #6006
Joined: Sat Aug 04 2012, 08:50AM
Location:
Posts: 22
Dear 4HV, I thought this was worthy of a second thread:
I've noticed that there aren't many cheap Tesla Coil designs that you can find online to buy. By this I mean being able to buy a kit, or the entire coil. There were really only two that I found. One was from easternvoltageresearch and the other was straight from this forum called oneTesla. Out of these two oneTesla was by far the best for it's price and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to buy a coil kit.
I decided to take on a project of my own. I would like it to be a DRSSTC, but I'm still not completely sure how these work. So I went ahead and designed a PCB for my version of my SSTC. You can see the schematic I made at the bottom, it's called RevSix.pdf
Anyway, I should probably start with my goal of this venture: I want to create an easy modular PCB that people can use to create their Tesla Coils. I took note of some common SSTC's and noticed that the gate drive components, the antenna section, and the interrupter are usually always the same between everyone's design. So I included all of these in my PCB, but I also threw in a PWM controller for audio. That was the only think that I saw missing in oneTesla. I also wanted to make the PCB entirely modular so anyone could easily switch out parts to fit their specific design, and more importantly, easily replace parts when something breaks. I purchased a bunch of IC sockets that will be used with my PCB. I want to make these PCBs as cheap as possible, and as easy as possible for everyone to use.
Attached is my first design (all of the Gerber files and NC drill files located in the TeslaCoilSch.zip file). I would really appreciate it, if you happen to look at it, if you would leave me your feedback. This could be some error you see or if you would just like to see something changed.
My plan in the future, after I'm done prototyping, is to order around 100 of these boards, so I can get them for cheaper, and send them out to whoever wants them. If DRSSTCs deem to be more popular then I'll move close to making a PCB for that.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and your comments are greatly appreciated. Here are some I've already received: Could you just have the driver section as a separate PCB? Would you consider making a board for a DRSSTC instead? Would you consider changing the PWM to a 555 timer for audio?
And this is a question that I have an answer for: Why do you have 3 holes for every 2 pinned connection? Well, the smallest IC socket I could find on digikey (that I liked) was a 3x1 socket, so I just designed the board around this socket. I figured the tap points would be nice for testing too.
Thanks again everyone! ]revsix.pdf[/file] ]teslacoilsch.zip[/file]
Registered Member #2919
Joined: Fri Jun 11 2010, 06:30PM
Location: Cambridge, MA
Posts: 652
Can you post screenshots or Eagle files of your bridge layout? There are a couple tricks to routing a good fullbridge that are pretty essential to reliable operation. I would also strongly recommend ordering prototypes or etching some boards before sending out for 100 - oneTesla went through at least three or four etched versions before I sent it out.
Registered Member #6006
Joined: Sat Aug 04 2012, 08:50AM
Location:
Posts: 22
Yeah, I am doing that don't worry. I'm on my first prototype right now. Also, I don't even have my full bridge on the PCB, just everything up to the GDT. I also designed my PCB in altium, not eagle, but I'll see what I can do about the screenshots.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
Revision Six
