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The energy transmission of the tesla coil

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Vilon

Mon Feb 16 2009, 08:13PM

Registered Member #1975 Joined: Mon Feb 16 2009, 08:10PM
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Posts: 5

What i only want to do is to measure the the sparks and the voltage by using a fluorescent lamps. I'm gonna try to measure the illuminance while it's near the tesla coil. When I have that information i'm going to find out the amounts of watts that is required to light up the lamp to the same illuminance.

I just want confirmation that this method works, and I want some of your opinions

Thanks Vilon

Plasma Lover

Tue Feb 17 2009, 02:20AM

Registered Member #1911 Joined: Mon Jan 05 2009, 06:30PM
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA
Posts: 165

I'm sorry, Vilon, but this will not work to get anywhere near a fairly accurate power reading. The amount of power transmitted into radio waves will get higher and higher the larger the top load capacitance you use and will cause the power wasted by streamers to fall down sharply. It all depends on what you're looking for. Unless the streamers are arcing to it, you'll get very little energy from a Tesla coil without a top load. I advise arcing to some kind of grounded object and seeing how far you can get the arcs to go, this will be a good basis for judgment of voltage and, as for current, it's very difficult to even estimate the current running through a TC's secondary.

Here's a table for judging spark length Vs. voltage -

Rollingblackout

Tue Feb 17 2009, 04:19AM

Registered Member #1524 Joined: Sun Jun 08 2008, 05:25PM
Location: Grand Junction, Colorado
Posts: 38

The power output from a TC is radio frequency. If you were to roll up a coil that represented a portion of the wavelength couldn't you
make a receiver coil and if there is a common earth grounding wouldn't this allow you to measure current from the ungrounded receiver coil terminal through a known load and back to earth?

Herr Zapp

Tue Feb 17 2009, 04:24AM

Registered Member #480 Joined: Thu Jul 06 2006, 07:08PM
Location: North America
Posts: 644

PlasmaLover -

Unfortunately, the table shown in your link is for DC or low-frequency AC, and is not applicable to the radio-frequency discharges produced by a Tesla coil. Equally unfortunate, there is no simple and accurate way of determining the peak output voltage voltage of a Tesla coil, based on discharge length. The resonant frequency of the coil, the break rate, and the dimensions of the discharge terminal will all modify the voltage vs spark length relationship.

Regards,
Herr Zapp

Vilon

Tue Feb 17 2009, 08:56AM

Registered Member #1975 Joined: Mon Feb 16 2009, 08:10PM
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Posts: 5

So there's a connection between the emission of radio frequency and the discharges?
Less discharges, means more powerful radio frequency ?

But isn't there any practical way to measure the power output in the air..anything?

The thing is that my tesla coil doesn't release any discharges unless there's a metallic object nearby the terminal, maybe this is better, because it seems to me that it's hard to measure the discharges, what output the radiowaves. Would it be easier to measure that instead?

Plasma Lover

Tue Feb 17 2009, 05:41PM

Registered Member #1911 Joined: Mon Jan 05 2009, 06:30PM
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA
Posts: 165

Herr Zapp wrote ...

PlasmaLover -

Unfortunately, the table shown in your link is for DC or low-frequency AC, and is not applicable to the radio-frequency discharges produced by a Tesla coil. Equally unfortunate, there is no simple and accurate way of determining the peak output voltage voltage of a Tesla coil, based on discharge length. The resonant frequency of the coil, the break rate, and the dimensions of the discharge terminal will all modify the voltage vs spark length relationship.

Regards,
Herr Zapp

While it's true that the ionized column gets larger and larger, the initial strike should be a somewhat good measurement, if the initial strike is the first streamer emitted from the coil. Don't you think?

It is possible to set up an identical secondary/primary system to measure the energy, but it only receives a fraction of the total energy released y the coil.

Good luck,

Christopher

Arcstarter

Tue Feb 17 2009, 08:02PM

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

Always remember air breaks down much easier at high frequency. for example, my 6kv 60hz NST has very little corona even when the leads are near each other. however, my homemade flyback with about 6kv out at well above audible frequency range, has breakout without any grounded source near it. Seeing that tesla coils are most often on the order of a few hundred khz, the voltage might be much lower than the spark length suggests. This is probably the same condition with the excitation of gases, such as neon and stuff like that.

Not too sure though, as i have done little experimenting with that kind of thing.

Vilon

Wed Feb 18 2009, 07:12AM

Registered Member #1975 Joined: Mon Feb 16 2009, 08:10PM
Location:
Posts: 5

What if I built another LC-circuit, which is oscillating at the same frequency as the coil, as a reciever. Would this work?

LithiumLord

Wed Feb 18 2009, 03:22PM

Registered Member #1739 Joined: Fri Oct 03 2008, 10:05AM
Location: Moscow, Russia
Posts: 261

Well, a stand-alone grounded secondary of the same Fres as the coil will even shoot some somewhat long sparks ;) What are you going to achieve anyway? Measurements can be done with a correctly calibrated antenna attachment rigged to a scope. If you are up to energy transmission, you should use a more common RF transmitter that is more effective from that point - or even, if you are doing this project just for fun, just make a receiving oscillator tuned to some radio station so it will be a "free energy receiver" (as long as you don't have to pay for energy I call it free, pretty logical ;) ). As far as older power supply-free receivers could drive a headphone, such a construct can work for a LED strobe pretty well ;)

Vilon

Wed Feb 18 2009, 04:49PM

Registered Member #1975 Joined: Mon Feb 16 2009, 08:10PM
Location:
Posts: 5

LithiumLord wrote ...

Well, a stand-alone grounded secondary of the same Fres as the coil will even shoot some somewhat long sparks ;) What are you going to achieve anyway? Measurements can be done with a correctly calibrated antenna attachment rigged to a scope. If you are up to energy transmission, you should use a more common RF transmitter that is more effective from that point - or even, if you are doing this project just for fun, just make a receiving oscillator tuned to some radio station so it will be a "free energy receiver" (as long as you don't have to pay for energy I call it free, pretty logical ;) ). As far as older power supply-free receivers could drive a headphone, such a construct can work for a LED strobe pretty well ;)

My intentions with the tesla coil is to measure energy from the sparks or the RF-energy. So what I need is a antenna rigged to a scope or a receiving oscillator tuned to the resonant frequency of the tesla coil. That's what you're saying?

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