Solid state tesla coilhigh voltage generator this is a fun and useful circuit for demonstrating high frequency high voltge. The most common way of supplying power to a tesla coil or resonant transformer is through a spark gap. As you can see in this design of the components have a big tolerance, so you can build almost of the components, which are at home. Originally invented by nikola tesla in the late 1800s, tesla coils have progressed from sparkgap circuits to designs involving modern solid state switching devices such as mosfets and igbts. While these are cheap and high temperature tolerant, they are susceptible to voltage spikes caused by the inductive nature of the load ignition coil. A pair of car ignition coils are used to provide around 20kv for charging the capacitor bank. Tesla coil is the popular short name for a resonant air core transformer originally invented by the serbian born scientist nikola tesla.
Unlike a conventional dampedwave tesla coil, the solid state tesla coil is capable of producing considerable amounts of sustained rf power. About tesla coils about applied tesla technology, inc atti. Our tesla coils come in all different sizes and power options, our musical tesla coils are grest fun for all the family. There are many possible configurations for the solid state driver, but the following sections describe the behaviour of a simple halfbridge switching arrangement feeding. This is tightly coupled to the secondary winding with a coupling coefficient of approximately 0. Using power mosfets to drive resonant transformers. The 2n3055 is a silicon npn power transistor intended for general purpose applications. Apr 06, 2014 mini tesla coil 12v using transistor 2n3055. Solid state tesla coil is simple,easy to build with 10% fail.
Solid state tesla coil with 555 timer circuit wiring. The solid state tesla coil is sold as a minimal kit requiring the purchaser to assemble the device in order to make it operable. A 2n3055 npn power transistor is pulsed with a square wave signal that comes from the 555 timer ic. New projet omegadr dual resonant solid state tesla coils drsstc davekni. Mar 21, 2015 here is a very simple circuit that will provide high voltage 1540kv sparks using a common ignition coil. How to make a mini tesla coil 9v wireless power transmission. The aim of this design was to get the highest voltage or longest arcs possible from a single self contained unit. A tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor nikola tesla in 1891. Portable quarantinecw tesla coil dual resonant solid state tesla coils drsstc weston may 04, 2020, 10. Ideally it would be a schottky diode but a common one like a 1n will provide some protection. Tesla coil 1 40mm tesla coil 2 4 tesla coil 3 arstc tesla twins 3 tesla coil 4.
Igbts keep dying dual resonant solid state tesla coils drsstc davekni may 02, 2020, 06. This provides good power throughput, with an acceptably low magnetising current. After about 20khz you will only get very low current on most ingition coils when using a 12v supply. That is what produces the corona discharge at the end of the secondary coil. Flyback driver circuits high voltage with a television flyback transformer. The voltage rise is not given by the turns ratio like in a standard transformer, but is proportional to the rate of change of current in the primary circuit. C ford fuel pump fuel pump relay fuse block fuse box fuse holder fuse layout fuse map fuse panel headlamp horn horn relay ignition coil ignition switch instrument cluster power power supply power window radio relay. By adjusting r2 and r4, various discharge patterns can be obtained. A driver can also be built from discrete parts, like the bjt totem pole driver described in the mosfet pwm driver guide and used in eirik uzzors2ks 555 driver mkii. Drsstc driver guide onetesla diy tesla coil kits home page. Unlike the other circuit, this one does not use two huge power transistors and high wattage resistors. It can produce up to about 30kv, depending on the transformer used. Solid state tesla coil wireless electricity if you want to change the capacitance by connecting capacitors togetherconnecting them in series will reduce the capacitance. As mentioned, the secondary circuit is a coil of wire, one end of which is grounded, and the other end is connected to some kind of topload metallic volume at the top of the tube.
Ignition coils are a type of induction transformer based on the tesla coil invented by nikola tesla in 1891. Solid state tesla coil this is my first sstc the solid state tesla coil. It is actually a white pvc pipe covered by a lot of enameled wire. My first tesla coil mosfet version silicon junction. In many ways, cheap modern fets do make a perfect tesla coil driver. Tesla coils have been around for almost 100 years and, with th exception of vacuumtube driven coils, not much has changed from the way nikola tesla invented them. The most common method for switching power into the resonator is a halfbridge or fullbridge of transistors typically mosfets or igbts for their high power capabilities.
The interrupter is an important part of a solid state tesla coil of any type including drsstcs. The design was very simple, yet he seemed to have achieved good results, so i thought it would be a good first solid state coil. Wireless demo kit in action please note that the video above shows a higher frequency resonator, however performance is the same as sstc 1. Driver circuit structures powerguru power electronics information portal runde, portal. As it collapses a current is induced back into the coil in the other direction which then charges the capacitor again. Here is a very simple circuit that will provide high voltage 1540kv sparks using a common ignition coil. The 2n3055 transistor is mounted on a 30 x 10 cm aluminium profile, this is just about enough to keep it alive doing long runs.
A modulating voltage on pin 5 of ic1 will modulate the output and create more interesting visual effects. It is used to produce highvoltage, lowcurrent, high frequency alternatingcurrent electricity. Dc 12v mini diy tesla coil kit arc wireless electric power transmission lighting. A tesla coil is a simple coil that creates a high voltage electric field in the air when a small input power 9v is provided, this electric filed is strong enough to glow small light bulbs. Automatic battery charger circuit part 2n3055, 7812, 1n4148, 7805, 1815, relay, related. The ignition coil driver circuit shown below shows how the signal from the 555. Singing tesla coil or musical tesla coil this is a tesla coil which can be played like a musical instrument, with its high voltage discharges reproducing simple musical tones.
Simply put, a normal solid state tesla coil sstc is simply a power amplifier driving a primary coil at the resonant frequency of the secondary coil. Jan wagners page on solid state tesla coils with a half bridge. For clarity, it omits the decoupling capacitors, indicator leds, and power supplies. It is the type of tesla coil utilizing the transistors mosfets. A while ago, i built an ignition coil driver like this one, but it used a. On this website i will explain my recent sstc solid state tesla coil effort, resulting in a reliable, highly controllable, userfriendly coil that can be configured to put out an astounding variety of different spark effects up to 9. The driver is built on a piece of vero board with multiply resistors to obtain the needed wattage rating, this is far from optimal as the load sharing between them is horrible, to ensure better sharing. A half bridge flyback driver is a neat project for any beginner hv enthusiast, which reflects much of the way a commercial high voltage power supply might be made. This article describes how to build a sparkgap tesla coil, which is different from a solid state tesla coil and cannot play music. There are different topologies of tesla coils with their own abbreviation drsstc. Here is the final version of a 555based ignition coil driver i built. Fetcoil ii and the driver box, which encloses the circuitry with plenty of room to spare. There are many ways cpil build a solid state tesla coil.
It consists cathoderay tube tv high voltage transformer driven by a high frequency inverter, in order to obtain hv output. A solid state tesla coil is made by four main parts. Solid state tesla coil richies tesla coil web page. Solid state coil driver theory richies tesla coil web page. The schematic for the solidstate tesla coil the high voltage is due to a high current flowing through a high reactance remember that the inductance is large and the capacitance is small, creating large reactances in each component at a given frequency.
It was introduced in the early 1960s by rca using a hometaxial power transistor process, transitioned to an epitaxial base in the mid1970s. Nov 30, 2017 sstc tesla coil single transistor tip3055. The drive voltage pulses applied to the primary are modulated at an audio rate by a solid state interrupter circuit, causing the arc discharge from the high voltage. You will need a large capacitor, the larger the better. Building this clone of steve wards sstc5 was a great introduction to solid state tesla coils, i now have a understanding of how it works from interrupter to driver. Solid state tesla coils, in their earlier stage see my old projects were basically just a power amplifier driving a secondary coil at resonance. This circuit is a relatively simple circuit as far as tesla coils go, and is a good place to start for a coiler that is new to solid state drive. All parts can be obtained easily from radio shack, including the mosfet.
Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations consisting of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits tesla used these circuits to conduct innovative experiments. Solid state tesla coil wireless energy demonstration kit ebay. This is the detail of how to design a good solid state coil driver. The mosfet driver rapidly transitions the transistor from the off state, to the saturated state, without spending any time in the middle. Schematic of solid state tesla coil sstc with igbt. A diy mini tesla coil dc powered with plasma output. The lowcurrent output of the solid state tesla coil is not an extreme hazard to healthy adults. Pricing and availability on millions of electronic components from digikey. One of the simplest ways to make a battery powered high voltage power supply is to use a common car ignition coil.
The solid state tesla coil has enough power to drive decorative plasma lamps. This is a simple mechanical assembly, but necessary to stay in compliance with fcc regulations which allow any entity business or individual to assemble up to 3 radio transmitters without requiring a license. It greatly appears to me that a good decent power opamp will work well for a solid state tesla coil of low impedance primary feed type. New tesla coil driver board finished music tesla coil solid state tesla. How to build solid state tesla coilhigh voltage generator circuit. This one uses the ic to produce square wave pulses at a variable frequency, and applies the pulses to a 2n3055 transistor, which connects and disconnects the ignition coil to the power supply. I actually made working solidstate tesla coils this way as long ago as 1978 and did. I was teaching a senior elective course at kansas state university where we talked about power mosfets and topics related to high voltages and currents. The basic purpose of a drsstc driver is to generate the drive signals for the inverter, synchronized with the zero crossings of the primary current. A fixed gap is used for smaller sizes, while a rotating mechanical commutator is used with the larger sizes. Tesla coils are always a blast to see and are relativity simple to build. Now for the big 921922 2008 update on use of a power opamp. How to build solid state tesla coilhigh voltage generator. Since the leakage inductance of the transformer provides the current limiting, and there is never dc component on the primary, arcs can be safely drawn from the transformer without.
A solid state tesla coil is operating on the edges of what is possible for the components in use, it is a very tough job for the electronics, you will have shortened life time on all components in the primary circuit due to high temperature transients during high current switching. Gate drive transformers many driver circuits also use gate drive transformers gdts to drive the gates of. While there are plenty of sites on the subject, michaels newest instructable breaks building a solid state tesla coil. It assumes that you have read the previous section about the load presented by a tesla coil to the driver. One side is connected to ground, high voltage comes through the other side. In the tesla coil, a spark breaks out and discharges the circuit once the voltage is high enough.
After having learned a lot about solid state tesla coils, and having played with drsstcs producing big sparks, i started to grow nostalgic towards the unique beauty of cw plasma. Zvs gives a lot of power, but the voltage is not great. Firstly, the base of the secondary became very hot due to the high rms current flowing through the fine wire. Q1 2n3906 general purpose pnp silicon transistor q2 mje34, nte197 or similar, audio freq. This is an efficient flyback driver circuit, a good and fairly efficient flyback driver circuit. About a month ago i read where someone was using a stun gun to launch potatoes. The optimum supply voltage is around 50v, but this amp work from 30 to 60v. In 1998 he build one of the worlds first solid state tesla coils. This is the schematic of the solid state tesla coilhigh voltage generator.
Nov, 2019 this can be done by using a simple device known as a tesla coil tuner. Be it an ordinary high school project or a mind blowing arcing project, a tesla coil is always fun to build and will definitely make your project look cool and attractive. Similar to the two transistor solid state tesla coil already on this site, this solid state tesla coil design uses a normal flyback transformer to generate its high voltage output. The onetesla 10 coil employs a doubleresonant topology, hence. How to build a solid state tesla coil sstc 2 by loneoceans labs. Since there is no capacitive discharge involved, the arcs produced are thin and blue. Introduction a flyback driver is a common amateur high voltage generator. Instead it uses a 555 timer to more efficiently drive a single mosfet. This article describes how to build a sparkgap tesla coil, which is different from a solidstate tesla coil and cannot play music. One thing that makes our tesla coil unusual is that the coupling to the secondary coil is by a direct electrical connection rather than by magnetic fields. Johnson manhattan, kansas some years ago i developed an interest in tesla coils. Jan 14, 2020 used in applications from particle accelerators to televisions and toys, a tesla coil can be made from electronics store equipment or from surplus materials.
Q1, q2 2n3055 npn power transistor t1 24v 5a transformer see. A tesla coil is a device that uses resonant circuits and alternating current to produce extremely high voltages. Zvs inverter or mazzilli inverter is the best flyback driver using irfp250. There are many ways to build a solid state tesla coil. The schematic we are using was made by steve ward, and belongs to him. Jun 23, 2019 solid state tesla coil wireless electricity if you want to change the capacitance by connecting capacitors togetherconnecting them in series will reduce the capacitance. I also tried with a mje09 transistor, many years ago, but if i remember correct i had the same issues, i think it has to do with the internal construction of the mje09 that have a much higher voltage rating than the 2n3055 and it has been seen they are harder to drive in self resonant circuits without a designated driver.
Solid state tesla coil circuits electronics projects. Solid state tesla coilhigh voltage generator aaron cake. Aron koscho has spent much of his life studying the works of nikola tesla. On this website i will explain my recent sstc solidstate tesla coil effort, resulting in a reliable, highly controllable, userfriendly coil that can be configured to put out an astounding variety of different spark effects up to 9 long. Pretty much any power transistor, igbt or mosfet can be used in this circuit as. This driver circuit is based on the commonly used 2n3055 transistor due to it high power switching capability. The first and simplest driver designs generally consisted of a single silicon switch driving the transformer in flyback mode, which turns out as quite. Producing considerable cw sparks requires a lot of power, and hence from start i designed this project as a large and powerful coil, for power levels exceeding 10 kw. This solves problem number one in the slayer circuit, and means we can deliver much more power to the coil with a lot less heating. The ultimate in high voltage records, this device was discussed here and here. Efficient flyback driver high volts circuit using ic555. The square wave pulses are sent to a set of four 2n3055 power transistors mounted on a large heat sink. Resonance frequency with the toroid from cans and pet bottles wrapped with aluminum foil is 95khz.
The above is a stylized schematic of the onetesla driver. When powering the tesla coil, one is sending huge currents at high frequencies into the primary coil via the power transistors. Used in applications from particle accelerators to televisions and toys, a tesla coil can be made from electronics store equipment or from surplus materials. Ive tried it out on several spud guns and it works quite well.