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Registered Member #1523
Joined: Sat Jun 07 2008, 02:05PM
Location:
Posts: 97
I was watching some singing tesla coils on You Tube, and I have a few questions.
First is simple, many of those coils are very large. I didn't think SSTC's or even DRSSTC's could be built that large. Or have they found some way to use SGTCs to make the music?
On to my second question, many of those videos don't have one, but two coils. Where one coil will play a specific set of notes, and the other coil will play anouther set of notes.
I interpret this to mean that a coil can be talored to play a specific set of notes very well.
Which does that imply that the smaller range of notes the coil is desined to play, the better it sounds?
Where I am going with this is a Tesla Coil Organ. Would it pay off to make a set, of say ten, tesla coils. Each coil desined for a small set of notes? Would this sound better than just two coils?
Registered Member #1643
Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039
Well, I've seen people do Guitar, and piano on a tesla coil.. So I'm sure its very possible if you take the time, with just 1 tesla coil. Using 2 could possibly allow you to have 'stereo' with one left channel, and the other right channel.
Guitar: Piano:
I beleive the piano one is just a simple audio input to the circuit that allows it to do music. I've never done any, so I cant say do SSTC or DRSSTC...I only built my first one a week ago, and its just a mini SSTC, no music. Someone else can help you there!
Registered Member #1900
Joined: Fri Jan 02 2009, 06:44PM
Location: Texas
Posts: 29
If you are referring to ArcAttack's coils, it's simply a stereo configuration of 2 DRSSTCs. I'm pretty sure that when it comes to DRSSTCs the larger the better, since the operating frequency will be lower and therefore less stress on the IGBTs.
You might get better high frequency response with a larger coil, since with a higher note the on-time will be longer and the primary current larger.
You must be a rich man to think of building 10 of them.
Registered Member #1225
Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253
There is no limit to how big a drsstc can be built, nor a sstc. It is simply a matter of your materials at hand. Spark gap Tesla coils can not play music, at least not any good. It would be *possible* to make a triggered spark gap, either electrically or mechanically trigger play the music in a DC resonant charging Tesla coil setup, but pretty impractical.
The bigger the coil does not mean the better it will play low notes or anything, but as Killa and Angstrom both suggested, it is pretty much just for stereo. Most people use two coils that are the same size, but if you have a big and a small, then it would work just as well.
Ten coils would be like 'surround sound' depending on where they where placed, but using each coil for a specific frequency range would likely not help anything. Two coils would sound just fine, each playing one channel, left and right. Then, if you wanted, to play the very low notes, a subwoofer.
Registered Member #95
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:57PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 1308
The choice of using more coils is for show, because it just looks more awesome with different channels/instruments being played by different coils. In a DRSSTC system more coils relieve the stress on each individual coil, as more notes means more ON-time which DRSSTCs aren't well suited to handle.
For the best music quality the resonant frequency of the Tesla coil should be as high as possible to avoid it causing audible interference with the audio signal. How is 20kHz modulated at 40kHz going to sound? The Tesla coils designed for optimal sound quality run in the many MHz range and use amplitude modulation like a good old class-A amplifier.
As far as I know no one has made an audio modulated SGTC yet. I imagine the geek-cred earned from doing so would bring you close to this guy.
Registered Member #1134
Joined: Tue Nov 20 2007, 04:39PM
Location: Bonnie Scotland
Posts: 351
I built a DC spark gap coil once, with a rotary gap. The "note" it produced depended on the speed of the rotary, so I guess a disruptive discharge coil could be used to produce music, simply by having multiple gaps running at different speeds, and switching between them. But this seem rather inelegant next to µC controlled DRSSTC`s!
Registered Member #1134
Joined: Tue Nov 20 2007, 04:39PM
Location: Bonnie Scotland
Posts: 351
EvilTesla-RG wrote ...
What about cords? I don't know alot about music, but wouldn't more coils be able to play cords better?
Yes, you would use multiple coils to produce chords. I split chords in midi files, and assign each note of a chord its own channel. It is possible to play two notes at the same time on one DRSSTC, but I don't do this because of duty cycle concerns, besides a small bunch of DRSSTC's playing is very cool!
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Tesla Coil Organ?
In a DRSSTC system more coils relieve the stress on each individual coil, as more notes means more ON-time which DRSSTCs aren't well suited to handle.