A Tesla coil easily makes it to the top spot on our list of “Mad Scientist” equipment we want for the lab, second only to maybe a Jacob’s Ladder. Even then, it’s kind of unfair advantage because you know people only want a Jacob’s Ladder for that awesome sound it makes. Sound effects not withstanding, it’s Tesla coil all the way, no question.
Unfortunately, winding your own Tesla coil is kind of a hassle. Even on relatively small builds, you’ll generally need to setup some kind of winding jig just to do the secondary coil, which can be a project in itself. So when [Daniel Eindhoven] sent his no-wind Tesla coil into the tip line, it immediately got our attention.
The genius in his design is that the coils are actually etched into the PCB, completely taking the human effort out of the equation. Made up of 6 mil traces with 6 mil separation, the PCB coil manages to pack a 25 meter long, 160 turn coil into an incredibly compact package. As you might expect, such a tiny Tesla coil isn’t exactly going to be a powerhouse, and in fact [Daniel] has managed to get the entirely thing running on the 500 mA output of your standard USB 2.0 port.
In such a low-power setup, [Daniel] was also able to replace the traditional spark gap pulse generator with a PIC18F14K50 microcontroller, further simplifying the design. An advantage of using a microcontroller for the pulse generator is that it’s very easy to adjust the coil’s operating frequency, allowing for neat tricks like making the coil “sing” by bringing its frequency into the audible range.
For those looking to build their own version, [Daniel] has put the PCB schematic and firmware available for download on his site. He also mentions that, in collaboration with Elektor magazine, he will be producing a kit in the near future. Definitely something we’ll be keeping an eye out for.
Incidentally, this isn’t the first time [Daniel] has demonstrated his mastery of high voltage. He scared impressed us all the way back in 2010 with his 11,344 Joule capacitor bank, perfect for that laptop-destroying rail gun you’ve been meaning to build.
Brilliant, a great intro to the young re high voltage in conjunction with
design achievement to an outcome. ie Great planning, execution & presentation :-)
And of course messing up all kinds of communication devices in the area.
This is so cool!
Would it be possible to significantly reduce the size of it by using 2, 4 layer boards?
i thought wow gotta get a kit of that……. £88.95….. Maybe not!
You an pick up mini tesla coils (assembled) on ebay for around £15
My god man your going to blast a hole in the ozone layer
Don’t these create ozone though?
You gain some, where you don’t want it, you lose some, where you need it.
When you heat air to high enough temperatures, you get various nitrous oxides, and many of them deplete ozone layer.
Interesting, I hadn’t thought of that. Good to know!
If you have ever looked in the back of an old TV or other high voltage device that has rubber insulators you will see that the rubber becomes hard and perishes. it is a result of the unstable ozone and nitrous breaking down and forming nitricacid that hardens and eats in to the rubber and some plastics.
It is however great for promoting healing and the regeneration of skin. it was also used in hospitals as a way to kill bacteria.
Looks about the right size to put old disks on to, I wonder if it’ll wipe them. Save making a mess with a hammer. :)
Microwave oven will do that in about 5 seconds.
Don’t put away that hammer: Magnetic field strength is proportional to current, and the current here is very very low.
Recorded with a freaking potato.
It confuses the hell out of me for a moment every time Americans use “mil” to mean “thou”. Especially in a sentence that also uses meters!
Thou is for machining.
Mil is customary unit for PCB layout.
Both are of course the same (0.001 inches).
I used to work at a place with it’s own machine shop. I had to work semi-closely with the machinists on projects while I was there. This always drove me insane, does anyone know why thou and mil are the same? I always imagined Thou meant thousandth of an inch and Mil meant millionth (but of what, I’m not sure)?
I blame the french, from mille, meaning 1000.
From which we also get millimeter which there are only a thousand of in the meter of course.
French are not to blame, it was Ancient Romans.
They could have fought harder against the legions.
French yes, but ‘millième’
Milli-inch. Everyone was always complaining about us not using the metric system.
I agree. A thousand millionths = mil is really confusing. Especially if you are milling in the 10,000th range.
When I became a machinist back in the 70’s, we always used the word “Mil” to mean one thousandth of an inch.” We machined ceramic parts for many, many large companies (Bell Labs,NASA, IBM, ATT, etc) and almost always their engineers would use that term as well when we were in the design phase of a project. I would see it used on many blueprints as well.
Just ‘cos it’s common doesn’t mean its sensible.
Besides a Mil is a milli-radian, the sensible way to measure angles.
Actually “Mil” means “One Thousand”. It always has and, probably always will. Your definition is like number 3 on the list.
Mil also means millimeter and NASA now uses metric so if contracting companies use it as 1/000 inch simultaneously you get a mess I imagine.
Self made?
https://www.elektormagazine.de/news/blitz-in-ihrem-wohnzimmer-spiral-microtesla
Its from the same guy
Yes.
“The design has been published in Elektor magazine nov/dec 2017 and made available as a construction kit. Read the article at: http://www.elektormagazine.com/160498“
This sort of trace winding is also useful in ultra-compact transformers; they make ‘planar’ ferrite cores designed with a small ~1-2mm gap for a PCB:
http://www.cettechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/Planar_Transformer_Exploded-300×225.png
sdr spark gap transmitter ?
This mortal coil…
fantastic and brilliant use of PCB transformers!
No PCB file, pshhh!
By the way, if anyone is wondering where to get some really flat coils, without having to pay for super high quality PCB, open up an old 3.5″ floppy drive.
When the detail of the scene exceeds the sensor resolution, that’s a Moiré.
underrated comment of the week!
(when the fish has no fins but has teeth and is scary… that’s a Moray)
When tennis is your bee, and you’re ranked number three, that’s A. Murray?
This maybe ideal to make a super tweeter. Would be nice to able to inject audio but seems to need to charge and pulse in the video I assume because of the low voltages used. Not ideal for audio
hello I am researching a way to make spirals to then import them as a picture in KiCad, any suggestions?