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My public display equipment that I have built includes:

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Tesla coil (Physics Dept 2006)  

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Tesla coil (Scitech 2003, 2010)

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Original coil

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Upgraded coil

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Specifications (original)

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Specifications (upgraded)

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Future plans  

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Can crusher (Physics Dept 2006)

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Vortex cannon (Physics Dept 2006)

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Magnetic levitation (Gravity Discovery Centre 2004) (link to Magnetic Levitation page)

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Lifter (Gravity Discovery Centre 2004) (link to High voltage/lifters page)

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Ferrofluid (Gravity Discovery Centre 2007) (link to Ferrofluid Display page)


My public displays that I have given include:

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University Open day for Physics Dept 2006

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Home open day 2006

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Tesla Forum Presentation 2007

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Hamfest 2007

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University Open day for Physics Dept 2007

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Gravity Discovery Center Tesla show 2007

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Home open day 2007

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Home open day 2008

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University Open day for Physics Dept 2008  

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Cosmology Gallery opening 2008  

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Rotary Presentation 2010 

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Home Open Day 2010   


Other peoples displays

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Big Day Out (Syd Klinge's coil on tour in Australia Jan 2005)

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Big Day Out (Carlos' twin coil on tour in Australia Jan 2006)

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Tesla Exhibition 2006

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Tesla Play 2006

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Tesla coil (Physics Dept) 2006

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This is the University of Western Australia TC which dates back 40 years. Made in Germany according to the nameplate.  Apparently runs at 1 MHz but lots of problems with the Leyden jar caps.  Not really sure of the performance or if it is working now.  They wanted a new one so I put my hand up.  Not sure if the wiring forms the best theoretical transmission line at 1 MHz.


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Above shows the TC I made up for the Physics Dept at the Uni of Western Australia. I tried to incorporate the historical aspects of their 40 year old coil such as the wooden bases with original manufacturers plate and the antique terminals and some of the solid wiring. 
I really wasn't able to get much performance out of the the old setup so I have used the wooden bases and antique terminals in a hybrid acrylic/antique setup. The coil is conventional and was intended to be powered by one or two 12 kV 30 mA NST's but they found an 11 kV 110 mA NST in storage. Secondary is only 840 turns. Caps are standard CD .15 uF, two strings of 15 ie 20 nF and the gap is a static 5 gap copper tube array.
Sparks are 36 inches but it does need to be contained with smaller sparks in a Faraday cage for public safety. I have also made it on a large aluminium sheet counterpoise to allow operation in a non earthed environment.


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The left photo above shows the primary detail. The center photo shows the gap behind the red acrylic. A fan was added later. The right photo shows a fully shielded MO interference suppression circuit in a commercial "Lightning Protector unit" which I have modified and is used for the spark gap fan.  HV leads are heavy 75 ohm cable with shield present.


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Above shows the power supply which is a 12 kV, 110 mA NST which I have crammed in to a microwave oven (MO) shell. It uses the original MO mains interference suppression, 5V supply, light, fan and lock out switch when the door is opened. I have added a solid state relay, large indicator lights, switch and there is a remote on switch with a flashing red LED on a 6 foot lead. There is a mains outlet which is switched which can run the fan for the coil and also have an optional variac inserted.
There is an inrush limiter and a few MOV's in different areas.
I have included a 3.5mm headphone type socket which requires a shorted 3.5mm plug to be inserted before the unit will activate. (in lieu of a key switch).
There is a Terry filter of sorts with 360 ohms 15 W and a 440 pF 40 kV cap on each leg of the HV . There is also similar circuitry inside the Faraday cage to the coil.


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Photo above shows 36 inch sparks from the 16 inch coil.  My design was not meant to be stressed like this and used relatively thin PVC which punctured through several times with charring of the interior. Fortunately when used in the Faraday cage the sparks are constrained and this doesn't happen.

Point to run for AVI video (1.5M) of the Physics Dept Tesla coil

I have predictably had to replace the secondary for one with thicker PVC (schedule 40).

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Can crusher (Physics Dept) 2006
This is an upgraded version of Cancrusher 3 that I built up for the Physics Department at the Uni of Western Australia. The previous defibrillator capacitors did not last long and I have now installed a "proper" pulse rated Maxwell capacitor rated at 131 uF, 8 kV, 100 kA, 80% reversal which stores 4 kJ. Typically it will only be used to 2 kJ so even though it is second hand with unknown history, it will hopefully not be particularly stressed and have a reasonable lifespan. Physically it bolts nicely on the bottom of the microwave shell and I can still keep the wiring path fairly short. In view of the 70 kg weight, I have built it onto a furniture removal trolley. Simpler and cheaper than anything I else I could come up with.


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The left photo above shows the completed unit bolted to the trolley. The center photo shows the can positioned to be ejected with the base of the can halfway into the coil.  For normal can crushing the block is removed and the can inserted fully.  The right photo shows a close up of the heavy workcoil.

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The left photo above shows the measurement of the current on the ground return wire using a Rogowski coil.  It also shows the heavier coil that is not as efficient as the wire core is not as close to the can surface.  The center photo shows the current reading on the CRO with 10 kA/div scale vertically and 20 us/div horizontally with a 6 kV shot (= 2.1 kJ).  The peak current in the 3 turn coil is 40 kA which corresponds to a current within the can of about 80 kA. Resonant frequency is 13 kHz with the large cap and longer wiring.  The right photo shows the capacitor specifications of 131 uF, 8 kV and 0.08 uH.  It is rated at 100 kA and 80 % reversal.

Performance is good with easy crushing of the can at 4 kV, 860 J or tearing it apart with 6 kV, 2000 J. By positioning the can just out of the coil, it can be propelled 15+ feet into the air.  This is in effect a Thompson gun.

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The left photo shows the deformed Coke can 15 feet in the air (basketball backboard is 12ft). The right photo shows the red Coke can from the first photo showing the deformity. The black Coke can has a goblet shape as it was a little too far into the coil to project properly.

Further improvements could include faster charging with switchable energies. Also I have had requests for a microwave oven like "ping" when it is cooked!  I have a large LED digital display that I had hoped to adapt to a large voltmeter.

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Vortex cannon 2006
This was made for the Physics Dept after they saw my other vortex cannon in action and felt it would be good for school displays. Features of this one:
Portability - well it is a wheelbarrow so easy to get around. Uses a 220 liter compost container.
Large rear diaphragm (70 cm) to shift a good amount of air.
Diaphragm is more flexible and lower for kids to use.
All up cost with new parts was AU$220 (apart from 4 old bike tubes). No screws and can be disassembled in a flash (well sort of falls apart).
It uses a commercial fog generator such as used in discos.  The fog is a proprietary mix of propylene glycol and triethylene glycol in water. 
But the best part is that it looks mean with a light inside it and sights.


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Scitech 2003
 Scitech is a non  profit organization whose mission  is to increase interest and participation by Western Australians in science and modern technology.  It has been open since 1988 and has 250,000 visitors annually. 

My interest and involvement was sparked (pun intended) by its Tesla coil which was made by Stan Deyo in around 1988. It has functioned reliably with little modification since. The black and white double exposure publicity shot at the time is shown below on the left.

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Original coil  2003
I was able to see the Tesla coil in Feb 2003, but found that it was not performing well with perhaps 2 foot streamers despite using a 5 kVA pole transformer.  Truly, here was a noble cause worthy of assistance. 

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The best picture I could get showing only small streamers (above right). Despite retuning, doubling the topload, and doubling the capacitance only about 3 foot sparks could be obtained.  The staff were keen to upgrade and I gave a demo of my 4 inch coil and micro wave oven transformer supply, which gave sparks up to 4 1/2 feet.

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On the wrong side of the Faraday cage (above), doing the demo in Feb 2003. An earthed PVC rod with steel wool on the end gives a sparkler effect if the sparks are hot enough. To the right in the photo is Scitech's TC which needs some work.

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Upgraded coil  2003

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In June 2003, my 6 inch coil was installed with a significant improvement in performance (above).  The sparks are now a lot hotter and are out to around 4 feet.  The length can be estimated by the 36 inch length of the secondary to the base of the toroid.  Still less than hoped for but a much noisier and more impressive display.

  Scitech Cage Renae Sayers  Scitech Cge Chris (click to enlarge)

Above shows Renae and Chris in my Faraday cage in side their cage at Scitech in 2011. This was for a radio promotion that was planned but didn't get off the ground due to public liability issues. A custom cage was planned but didn't eventuate despite everyone's enthusiasm.

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Specifications (original) 2003
The original Scitech TC components included a 5KVA pole transformer 250 V to 12.5 KV with a soft start and extensive mains filtering and monitoring. It is ballasted with 3 paralleled heater elements which glow red hot after a minute or so of continuous operation.  It has fuse limiting to 16 A.
The motor is an ARSG running on DC 180 V with 8 tungsten 1/2 inch rotating electrodes and 2 stationary. 
The 2 tank capacitors are each 20 nF mylar (total 40 nF at 20 kV). 
The previous primary was around 2-3 turns and the secondary is 6 x 30 inch with around 420 turns.
The topload was a 5 x 12 inch gold plated copper toroid.

The construction of this coil and the Faraday cage was of very high quality and the long service a testament to this.

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Specifications (upgraded) 2003

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The coil during modifications (above) with the new double layer primary and new secondary.  The double layer was needed to accommodate the larger number of primary turns (8 above, 5 below) in the same physical space as the previous 3 turn coil.
My changes were to:
          1  Replace the secondary with 6 x 32 inches with 1280 turns (previously 6 x 30 with 400 turns).
          2  Replace the primary now tapped at 8 of the 13 turns.
          3  Use a larger topload of a 12 x 29 inch toroid with a smaller 8 x 20 toroid beneath it.
          4  Add my Cornell Dubilier MMC capacitor of 45 nF to the existing capacitor (total 89 nF). 
          5  Run the motor from 200 V DC (previously 180 V).
          6  Fit low profile strike rails.
          7  Use an inductive ballast (below) instead of the resistive one.

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The inductive ballast (above) made from a modified 440 V to 240 V transformer rated at 5 KVA bought at a junk yard. It weighs 30 kg and has a core iron cross section area of 47 cm2 (= 7.3 in2). The four 'C' cores were taken apart with gentle persuasion from a large hammer, and an 'air gap' made by using a cardboard or acrylic spacer between the cores. By using 0 to 6 mm spacers the current draw on the 240 V winding can be adjusted from 1 A to 30 A. This corresponds to an inductance of 1.0 down to 0.04 Henries.
I plan to replace the resistive ballast with this inductive ballast soon. See Ritchie Burnett's site for comparative information.
The resonant charging capacitors (also shown above) of 74 uF is the sum of the 7 polypropylene capacitors that I had.  It is in series with the ballast and in parallel with the pole transformer.  Using these capacitors results in a higher voltage across the pole transformer input.  Testing with a 10 KVA transformer as a load with a 240 V supply resulted in 280 V across the transformer with the capacitors compared with 195 V without. In other words this arrangement gives a higher voltage than the supply and will limit total current draw which generally sounds like a good thing.  In practice, however, it did not improved the performance or current draw and has been left out.

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University Open day for Physics Dept 2006
I demonstrated the Tesla coil which  brought people in with the noise who then got to see the can crusher, ferrofluid, laser lissajous figures or just get free shocks.  The big vortex ring generator was the biggest attraction and few people went past without seeing or feeling it.


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A spectator (Robin Wong) took some videos and posted them on YouTube which I happened to see by chance.

 

Above, the vortex generator in action. Direct YouTube link is here.

Above, the tesla coil in action. Direct YouTube link is here.

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Home open day Nov 2006
To keep the neighbours aware that the noises they hear from my place are friendly, (and not gunshots) I have been having an open day where I run about 20 different Tesla, high voltage, laser and magnetic displays and make a few loud noises.

 


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Tesla Forum presentation 2007
This was organized by the Tesla Forum of Western Australia.  I gave the after dinner presentation on Tesla coils.

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Hamfest 2007
This was organized by the Northern Corridor Radio Group and is the first one I have been to.  I set up my 4 inch TC in the Faraday cage and also ran the mini coil.  Liability insurance was arranged through the groups policy for the event. Seemed pretty well attended and I picked up a couple of NST's and bits and pieces when I had a spare moment. Setup time for the cage is still almost 2 hours.  There must be an easier way.  I tripped a breaker turning off the variac (from zero volts), presumably the RCD.  They didn't have the keys to the control panel so had to do some creative work on the hinges to get power back.

Nice to have an audience that understands resonance.

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University Open day for Physics Dept 2007
Similar to 2006 with the 4 inch coil in a cage plus the vortex generator.  Popular as before.  Also used the mini-TC.  Getting a lot of mileage from this particularly when people draw sparks to a hand held neon tube. No shocks from the tube setup, but people who want to can have the 2 inch sparks jump onto their hand which does prickle a bit.

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Gravity Discovery Center Tesla show  2007
This was a display of my 18 inch coil in a 60 ft wide domed building.  Filmed by the Discovery Channel.  A sample gallery shows the various effects.

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Home open day 2007
 This year I sent out a few more invites.  This show is mainly for neighbours but in the end none turned up -  still there were about 40 people.  I put out my usual array of displays including ferrofluid, soldering demos, magnets and small power supplies and lights for the kids, Oscilloscope with microphone attached, lasers including HeNe and green scanner, HV displays of sparks, lifter, small TC, Jacobs ladder, smoke ring generator, CD in microwave and magnetic levitation.

The weather was not in my favour with high winds and intermittent showers but I did get to run the big TC and get some shots of people next to it.

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Home open day 2008
 This year I aimed to be a bit bigger with better labeled displays and about 70 - 80 people turned up for the show (or was it the free beer?).  I had a total of about 50 displays and was assisted by the University Physics Dept who came 200 km from Perth and helped out with the liquid nitrogen and ferrofluid displays.


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The left photo above shows that geeks and women aren't mutually repulsive (it lasted 5 seconds before they ran away). From left to right, Sammy, Miranda, Pam, Kerry and me.  The technique was to have everyone on place with lights out and TC off.  Then the camera flashes but keeps exposing for 5 seconds while everyone runs away and I run to turn the TC on briefly to capture the sparks as well.  The center photo shows Cooper, Jessica and me.  This was very popular with the kids of all ages and about 30 shots like this with different people were taken. The right photo shows Sam from the Physics Dept with new found powers.


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The left photo above shows me holding a fluoro tube. The center photo shows the Dalek cage. Still seems to get the greatest audience response.  The right photo shows a dampened 5mm basla rod burning up.  Note the chain mail glove and two separate earth wires for redundancy. It would not be good if one fell off and there was no backup.


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I had around 50 displays most of which are based on a topic from the website

Big Tesla coil was the feature with sparks up to 6 feet, also Dalek cage, and sparks striking a fluoro tube, string of CD's, burning wood etc
Capacitor bank for can crusher and exploding steel wool
Smoke ring machine
Bernoulli ball with peacock feathers
Bubble machine
Liquid nitrogen for smashing rubber balls, hammering with bananas, demo of Monel metal and the occasional explosion.
Ferrofluid.
Laptops (3) with Videos/Website.
Jacob's ladder
Big electromagnet (80kg)
Pyramid with lights and tunes
Radioactivity with Geiger counter, with Americium from smoke detector, Uranium ore and marbles, Tritium keyring and radium watchface.
Mini Tesla coil
Tesla coil from MO parts
Tesla coil reconstruction from 30 years ago
4 inch Tesla coil (setup as backup)
Lifter and 80kV display
Ignition coil sparks in a Microwave oven.
Simple ignition coil display running from 12V
Microwaving CD's
Ultraviolet light
Blu-ray laser
Helium-Neon 10mW laser
Helium-Neon 1mW laser
Green 5mW laser scanner
Lemon Battery lighting a LED
Homopolar motor
Power transistor as a LED
Spinthariscope
Robotic car
Flashing glasses
Autodose medication delivery device
Power supply from 1971
Model solar car
Magnets to push together
Magnetic film
Magnetohydrodynamic boat
Magnetic array
Magnetic meter
Soldering station
Computer plotter
Aerogel
Plasma ball
Diamagnetic Levitation
Railgun
Coilgun
Capacitor bank 1.5kJ

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University Open day for Physics Dept 2008
Similar to the last 2 years with the 4 inch coil in a cage plus the vortex generator.  Setup on my own though as my usual assistants/slaves (aka sons) had pressing engagements with girlfriends etc.
Popular as before.  Also used the mini-TC.  Also ran my videos on a laptop.

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Cosmology Gallery opening 2008
This was the opening of the Cosmology Gallery in the Gravity Discovery Center in Gingin.  It was covered by 5 TV channels and opened by the then Premier, Alan Carpenter.  I provided the "Big Bang" to signify the cosmological relevance . I used my capacitor bank at about 4 kJ exploding some steel wool inside an acrylic enclosure. This is one TV news coverage of the Cosmology Gallery opening.

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Rotary Presentation 2010
I now have a reasonable Powerpoint presentation which includes various videos and animations which I presented to a group of around 30 Rotarians.  Followed by a brief demo of the briefcase Tesla coil.

Rotary Talk (click to enlarge)

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Home Open Day 2010
This year (March 20th) I got in the pool and also exploded watermelons.

Open Day 2010 TC  Open Day 2010 Crowd and explanations of TC  Open Day 2010 Smoke rings
Open Day Michael and Variac  Open day 2010 Pool  Open Day Sammy
Open Day 2010 Watermelon fire1  Open Day 2010 Watermelon fire 2  Open Day 2010 crowd wide angle
Open Day 2010 Cap Bang  Open Day Pool 2 
Open Day 2010 TC double exposures  Open Day 2010 TC double exposuresOpen Day 2010 TC double exposures  Open Day 2010 TC double exposuresOpen Day 2010 TC double exposures  Open Day 2010 TC double exposures

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Future plans 2006
In public displays I would like to have a big vortex generator mounted on a trailer on a swivel mount so it can be fired. Perhaps hired out. No major public liability issues with this one unlike high voltage stuff where it would cost me $1500 premium for 6 Tesla shows for the standard $10 million cover.

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Big Day Out (Syd Klinge's coil on tour in Australia Jan 2005)
The Big Day Out is a rock concert that tours major Australian cities with over 40 , local and international bands. One of the side attractions (the main one for me) was Syd Klinges's 'Cauac' 16 foot coil running at 100 KVA.   I was fortunate enough to meet Syd and his entourage and discuss coil details.   He runs from a portable generator rated at ?170 KVA 3 phase ?480 V using if I recall correctly one 11 KV pig for each of the 3 phases each individually ballasted. The out put is rectified using over 1000 1N4007's to DC then through an RF filter to the base of the coil and the  spark gap which is ARSG using 1/2 inch tungsten electrodes.  Tank cap was two 0.1 uF custom made units.  Resonant frequency is 59 kHz.  The secondary is 10 feet tall and 16 feet total height. The winding is crosslinked PVC coated.  Toroid is chicken wire covered.

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Some shots of the day with attendance 44,000 in Melbourne.

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Big Day Out (Carlos' twin coil on tour in Australia Jan 2006)  This year the BDO featured a show by Carlos who has Lightning for Hire in New Zealand. Carlos has previously done performances with a single coil (review here) with the performer in a conductive suit standing on the coil. For the first time at the BDO he used twin coils with duelling professional performers for a very impressive show. I imagine it is a world first as well and has now been seen by well over 100,000 people.


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The performance starts with the two performers performing some gyrations with streamers coming off their extremities. Then they bow towards each other and the spark forms between their two heads perhaps 10 feet apart. Later they use metal staffs in a mock battle with sparks forming as the staffs are pointed at each other.

The power (12 kVA) is from a portable generator and he has a homemade transformer running 22 kV and a .07 uF mylar capacitor (for all of you 'mylar is hopeless' types). Coils are about 8 ft by 18 inches with a small steel corona ring attached to an aluminium plate that the performer stands on. There are large PVC supports and a PVC ladder.

Carlos said that he was working on a 25 kVA DC 3 phase system with charging reactor but he blew some expensive HV diodes and was reluctant to use a potentially unreliable system for the BDO.

The suits are made of fine steel mesh and butchers chain mail gloves are used.

All in all an impressive show (and the music was good too)

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Big Day Out (Carlos' twin coil on tour in Australia Feb 2011)
 Carlos who has Lightning for Hire in New Zealand has now done the BDO for 8 years and has done shows in Europe, UK and Japan.

Big Day Out Twin coils   (click to enlarge)

 

 

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Tesla Exhibition 2006 (from Tesla Museum Belgrade)
This was held at the Western Power World of Energy Museum and has a wealth of Tesla related historical information and models. This is the first visit for the exhibition which will go on and visit Strasbourg, Vienna, Vancouver and Paris.


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The Tesla coil above from the new travelling display is a very old style coil with glass plate caps and a serrated wheel gap. It wasn't a great performer despite the Serbian Orthodox blessing.


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A good crowd included many Tesla Forum members and various VIP's.  There were various models including the Wardenclyffe tower. The extensive bilingual posters and graphics were included in full in a 60 page booklet


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Replica models included the first AC motor, bladeless turbine and Egg of Colombus. The egg display uses 415 V 3 phase power of 15A. The last photo is a 1/6 sec exposure to give an idea of the speed of precession.

Tesla Play 2006
A one man play on Tesla with Frank Tabbita performed at the local Uni. The play was a superb acting performance. How anyone remembers a whole performance I find hard to conceive (I have trouble remembering phone numbers).  A dynamic and memorable depiction of Tesla's life.

I took some photos with permission from Jeff, the technical manager who was keen for ideas to incorporate HV into the performance. Audience was about 500.



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I had a static Tesla display there with my 4 inch coil and a powerpoint slideshow on the computer. Unfortunately I couldn't get reasonable public liability insurance so could not run the coil. Best quote for insurance of $10,000,000 was AUD$1500 for 6 performances in a year, so not really feasible for me to have a running coil.  As an aside, the observant of you may notice that the table cover above later became the diaphragm of my vortex generator!
 

 

This page was last updated April 10, 2011