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Registered Member #1517
Joined: Wed Jun 04 2008, 06:55AM
Location: Chico CA
Posts: 304
J. Aaron Holmes wrote ...
lbenson wrote ...
I was wondering what i would have to do in order to be able to hook it up to a keyboard. New spark gap? or is it even possible?
1) Plug coil into Clapper(tm) 2) Duct-tape headphones to Clapper(tm) 3) Plug headphones into keyboard 4) Set keyboard to percussion 5) Crank up volume on keyboard 6) Go to town
Of course, the coil output will be all syncopated and weird, but it wouldn't be cool if it sounded like everybody else's
Cheers, Aaron, N7OE
priceless
i rofl'd in my pants
But on a more serious note, try using Google for info. Look for Solid State Tesla Coils. Look for "Richie's tesla coil page" and deep fried neon, they are both sites that will help get you started.
90% of a tesla coil is theory the rest is just slight of hand.
Registered Member #477
Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546
lbenson wrote ...
What effect would painting the toroid have?
Well, besides changing the color, it might provide something for the streamers to ignite, or at least burn small holes and tracks in. Streamer color near the surface of the toroid might be altered a bit due to the combusting finish. Performance would be unlikely to be impacted due to the extreme voltages in play, although I don't know if the Steves or Terry have properly accounted for gaseous carbonized paint in streamer models; it may effectively form breakout points leading to shorter streamers, or it may contribute to topload capacitance, lowering the coil's resonant frequency and throwing it out of tune. This might be remedied by painting your spark gap.
Cheers, Aaron, N7OE
(Ok, please only pay attention to the first half of the above.)
Registered Member #477
Joined: Tue Jun 20 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 546
lbenson wrote ...
Loving the sarcasm.. Dorothy and Toto give their regards.
Sorry. As others have alluded to, the best way to get what you're after here is to exude at least some basic intuition for the subject matter, such as might be gotten from reading a Tesla coil design page or manual. The Web is literally wallpapered with the basics. This place is better suited to the esoteric stuff, which builds squarely on the former.
lbenson wrote ...
Also, What does the second smaller toroid on some coils do? And what are the benefits of a rotary spark gap?
The smaller toroid, if not there for aesthetics alone, often serves either to add topload capacitance, prevent breakout from the top of the secondary coil form itself (breakout loves to form around sharp edges), or both of the above. Regarding spark gap types, here is an example of something you'll find information on virtually everywhere. Our own 4hv Wiki has a page on the subject: http://wiki.4hv.org/index.php/Spark_gap
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BTC40
Slow *something*, anyway... 
Aiming for a different thread, maybe?