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lpfthings

Thu Apr 01 2010, 10:43AM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

I have a small, pulsed, DRSSTC. I have seen the output of one of these coils being contacted in a demonstration video, however I'm wanting to become familiar with what is happening before I attempt something like this.

The coil runs at about 1BPS, and outputs about 30cm sparks to a grounded rod.

I have been told that because of the high frequency, you don't feel anything. Well, that's all good, but ...

I have also been told it can cause things such as internal RF burns?

Does this mainly apply to coils running at much higher BPS rates however? I'm not seeing how a coil running at maybe 1BPS could have enough sustained energy to cause any permanent damage?

I know you wouldn't do it for hours at a time, but would contact to a few sparks cause any permanent damage?

Do all tesla coils run at frequencies too high to feel (Apart from the heat of the spark) ?

Cheers,
Dan

Marko

Thu Apr 01 2010, 11:30AM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

Hello -

Being infamous for conducting large amounts of current through myself, I could say a few words apart from just general discourage rant about touching tesla coil output...
I wouldn't want to touch the output of a disruptive coil with a toroid.
You can't feel the continuous RF current but you will feel the DC charge of the toroid discharging through you in a brief but very high-current pulse - not unlike touching a van-de-graff generator with a topload of same size producing equal voltage. I don't know whether you find this pleasant or not, and it depends a lot on size of your topload.

If you're fine with that I'd admit that otherwise the danger is very low. At 1bps I don't thing you'll manage to get any burns no matter how hard you try. Just make sure you don't trip and make contact with mains voltage or something like that.

Marko

lpfthings

Thu Apr 01 2010, 11:42AM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

Hi Marko, thanks for the helpful reply :)

I dunno if this helps, but this is the size of the toroid (and coil) compared to a coke can (Can is not part of the topload)

In the youtube video, he doesn't seem to have any visible effect when the sparks hit his fingers (No twitching fingers etc), but it could just be that he is used to the little shocks

Cheers,
Dan

Kizmo

Thu Apr 01 2010, 12:35PM

Registered Member #599 Joined: Thu Mar 22 2007, 07:40PM
Location: Northern Finland, Rovaniemi
Posts: 624

I have long history of burning my fingers with high power SSTC.

Stupidity? Maybe but im still alive and well apart from recieving some nasty RF burns.

lpfthings

Thu Apr 01 2010, 12:56PM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

Ouch! :-o

How many BPS was your coil running at when you did that? Or is it just from the power of the coil overall?

Heh, I wanna touch my coil, though I'm not sure what to expect!

Kizmo

Thu Apr 01 2010, 12:59PM

Registered Member #599 Joined: Thu Mar 22 2007, 07:40PM
Location: Northern Finland, Rovaniemi
Posts: 624

It was running CW from halfwave rectified DC. Total power was about 2.5kW. Sparks like this wont hurt at all (except form burning..)

But interrupted (100-1000bps with low duty) WILL hurt like hell

lpfthings

Thu Apr 01 2010, 01:13PM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

Hmm, so lower BPS rate, higher peak power?

Goodchild

Thu Apr 01 2010, 02:55PM

Registered Member #2292 Joined: Fri Aug 14 2009, 05:33PM
Location: The Wild West AKA Arizona
Posts: 795

Ive touched my DR before and it's 4 times the size of yours and I live to tell the tail. When I touched mine it was at very low power (only about 1 inch sparks) but the topload on my DR is rather big (18x4.5 inches) so it kinda hurt, but I did not receive and burns or discoloration of the shin. Also personally BPS has almost nothing to do with how bad it hurts it's all about the size of the topload and sparks. So with the size of your coil I would say it would hurt, but I would touch it

AmonRa

Thu Apr 01 2010, 08:40PM

Registered Member #2704 Joined: Mon Mar 01 2010, 04:48AM
Location:
Posts: 6

lpfthings, we've talked before, I have the same coil. I allow the output to contact my hands with that coil with absolutely no ill effects. It hasn't given me any burns, just a fairly light shock. Its very similar to, but lighter than taking a hit from one of those gas grill piezo igniters. No problems with that coil, I do, however, stand way back from my minibrute, wouldn't want to take a hit from it for sure.
Start with your hand out of reach of the arc, and slowly bring it towards the breakout point until the arc makes contact. I wouldn't go sticking your hand close to the breakout point, just at the maximum reach of the arc and you'll be fine.
The designer of that kit demonstrates this in one of his videos included with the manual while at the same time writing in the manual "Do not touch streamers"

Do so at your own risk

lpfthings

Fri Apr 02 2010, 12:15AM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

Hi AmonRa, thanks for the info :)

Could be something interesting to try out later today then

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