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 #2418
Joined: Mon Oct 05 2009, 12:24AM
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana U.S.A.
Posts: 11
Hi all, I have finally built up a driver (although not yet tested) for my tesla coil! I have posted some pictures of my coil and driver. Also, on the coil picture, the capacitors on the primary coil were the original capacitors I used in my prototype. I know that these caps are not really suited for TCs, but they were the only ones that I had at the time. I will replace it with my 940C capacitor soon.
Any questions or concerns about my current setup? I need to post a schematic for this setup, but I don't have time to make one now.
looking good! is a 2kv mmc okay for a little coil? is there a formula for what the primary voltage might rise to?
tell us about your 12 to 150 volt power supply inverter i'm also planning a little coil that i want to run of some li-po batteries from my rc helicopter.
Registered Member #2418
Joined: Mon Oct 05 2009, 12:24AM
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana U.S.A.
Posts: 11
Hey guys, I have almost finished testing the driver and the results are looking really good. Although one of my scope probes had an open ground so that did not help with the testing, but otherwise, I am ready to build the controller with primary feedback. Both of the scope pictures posted have a time scale of 1uS per division so my test waveform is approximately 500KHz. I have posted pictures of my test setup, and pictures of the scope waveforms for the gate drive (10V/div) and the Output of the driver (20V/div). I am testing the driver with 35V.
Lightlinked said: "is a 2kv mmc okay for a little coil? is there a formula for what the primary voltage might rise to?" Do you mean your Tesla Coil or my Tesla Coil? My tesla coil uses only one 1.6KV .15UF Capacitor. As far as the formula for resonant voltage rise, There is really no solid formula that can calculate voltage resonant rise as it depends on lots of variables.
Registered Member #2418
Joined: Mon Oct 05 2009, 12:24AM
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana U.S.A.
Posts: 11
Hey guys, I have completed the wiring of the controller complete with a working feedback. I was not able to do primary feedback due to too much power wasted by the CT load resistor so I decided that secondary feedback is best for this coil. Its quite interesting watching the scope trace waveform shift as the tesla coil make bigger sparks.
I decided to wire up a very crude 12V to 120V inverter with PWM control and when I powered up the coil, the break rate is not stable due to noise on the controller, but I think I was able to get as big as 6" sparks from the topload! The inverter is not powerful enough to sustain sparks big enough, but once I build the better version of the inverter, I will focus on getting the electronics out of the prototype stage so I can achieve much better stability.
I will post pictures of the new setup soon but things will get interesting soon! So far, I did not destroy any components on my circuit, but I am well prepared for any failure in case it did happen.
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.
Starting on my First (official) DRSSTC
