Use for the Tesla Switch

[SkyWatcher]

Flip Flop Tesla Switch

Hi folks, for almost a week now, I've been thinking about how to use this (french) flip flop inverter to run matt's two switch, tesla switch as shown in his pdf and I thought up a configuration that works.
Reason for the idea, because the parts are easily accessible to most everyone and cost is low.
Give me a little time and I'll draw up the circuit and its modifications.
peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Matthew Jones Tesla Switch W/Flip Flop Modification

I removed the circuit diagram because the one posted below works much better and is giving a balanced charge.


peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Hi again, I forgot to mention with the setup im testing right now, im using PNP transistors on the outer legs instead of the NPN, it's all i have on hand.
I have the updated circuit for the PNP version if anyone wants it.
If anyone has any ideas why i'm getting somewhat uneven charging, please comment.
peace love light
tyson

[citfta]

Uneven Charging

Hi Tyson,

There could be a couple of reasons for the uneven charging. If I am understanding you right you are using resistors instead of the the transformer windings. If the resistors are not exactly matched then you are going to get uneven charging. They would have to be within a few tenths of an ohm of each other to get close to even charging. We have also found that the pulses have to be exactly the same width too or the charging is uneven. When using the Picaxe as our driving source even a few microseconds difference between pulses will make a difference in which side charges the most. And the last thing I have run into is that one of my batteries was not able to deliver as high a pulse as the others and thus that side did not charge the other side as well as it should have. After I rejuvenated that battery again then I was able to get more even charging. I really like using the Picaxe because you can make the tiniest adjustments to the timing pulses and get the charging more even between sides. If you were to put a 5K pot in place of one of your 4.7K resistors I think you would be able to adjust the pulses enough to get even charging on both sides. Please post if any of these ideas helped.

Carroll

[SkyWatcher]

Hi carroll, thanks for the reply and help, though I did think about those very things and decided to try another circuit variation, still using a flip flop design.
This one only has 4 transistors, 2 NPN and 2 PNP.
It seems to blink a series bank per side of leds perfectly using two separate 12 volt batteries and still using the switching battery.
I guess I will see if it works the same with the batteries in place with resistor loads and then try the transformer if it is working good.
Are you having good luck with matts version of the tesla switch.
Thanks again.
peace love light
tyson

[citfta]

Hi Tyson,

Yes I have had good luck with Matt's TS. Of all the different TS ideas I have tried this one seems to have the most potential for doing real work. Some of the guys on here have gotten up to six times the run time off a set of batteries with this TS as compared to just running the 4 batteries in parallel to power the same load. I can tell you that once you get it working like you want it to then you can still learn a lot by trying different loads and different duty cycles and different frequencies. Some of the people on here seem to think Matt was promising them a way to run their house or car but I can't see anywhere that he said that. He just gave us a very interesting design that allows for a lot of experimentation and learning. Have fun and keep learning.

Later,
Carroll

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, Ok, I give up on the flip flops for this tesla switch, can't seem to get oscillation when using tesla switch 4 battery setup and when it does it's uneven charging.
So, I will give this basic stamp 2 a try, that I was given.
peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, for those interested, I was able to get my basic stamp 2 circuit working.
Seems the 20 pin ribbon cable i was using only has conductivity on top sets of pins, so that was the issue of not getting power.
I programmed matts test codes and I used a bank of leds on each side for brief testing and it is working very well using the Sziklai pair for each switch.
So later today, I will be wiring up the 4 batteries and using resistor loads for testing and then move on to the transformer, which I have already built.

Anyone else out there still working on this or thinking about working on this, I just got around to working on this setup again, sidetracked i guess.
Matt was the one who sent me this basic stamp 2 micro-controller kit along with a serial cable for the computer and it is working nicely and I am grateful for his generosity. I wonder if he will come back and say hello.
Hope I can get some good results to share with you folks.
peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Basic Stamp 2 matts pdf test

Hi folks, thought I would make a video with my mediocre camera so you can all see the circuit alternately blinking a bank of leds using Sziklai pair switches for each led bank.
Using one 12 volt battery for this test.
Next I will hook up all 4 batteries for further testing.
The BS2 code for this led light show was taken directly from Matthew Jones Tesla Switch PDF.
Here is the video.
Basic Stamp 2 test 1 - YouTube
peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, well I wired up all 4 batteries yesterday and was using 10watt-50 ohm resistors as a load for testing and it seemed to work well, though I think the batteries condition are causing a little uneven charging and the resistors might be causing a little bit also.
Other than that, what I am seeing so far, was again, more of a charge stabilization on the top two batteries and a slow discharge on bottom. Though the load per side was only a couple watts.
I am recharging the batteries right now with a normal charger and I will hook up my transformer and tune it for highest voltage output.
Then, since I'm going to be using a lower power step-up transformer I wound myself for first tests, I will power a couple led christmas strings in parallel and time how long the TS powers them.
Then, I will recharge the four batteries and run the same transformer off all four batteries in parallel using the Stamp circuit again to pulse transformer and time the duration the leds are powered off the secondary output, taking note of loaded AC voltage periodically for both tests.
Your thoughts welcome.
peace love light
tyson

[citfta]

Sounds good

Hi tyson,

That sounds like a good test. When you connect the transformer winding in place of the resistors your circuit may respond a little differently. It sounds like you are making good progress so far. Congratulations on getting it to work like it is supposed to. Getting the top batteries to charge while only using resistors as a load is a good sign you have things working well. Just take your time while tuning and make good notes while tuning so you can come back to the best tuning after you have tried other pulse widths and frequencies of pulses.

Carroll

[SkyWatcher]

Hi carroll, thanks for the kind words.
I think it should be a good test, we'll see.
Base line load test is running right now.
I'm surprised nobody else is commenting in here, after your comment on the six times greater run time of anothers TS setup.
If that claim is true, as I guess I will soon see, one would think people would be asking more questions, oh well.
peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, for those interested, here is a couple pics of the setup running.
I decided to run the full M. Jones Tesla Switch while running these two christmas led strings as load off secondary of transformer, which is 115 VAC loaded voltage on output.
And I am timing the duration.
It turns out that 785 units or 1570 microsecond pulses, give the highest no-load voltage on my transformers secondary output.
Comments welcome.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
peace love light
tyson

[gandyman]

I'm surprised nobody else is commenting in here,
tyson

Hmz, I wish I had to say something.
ATM I am fighting with the propeller software, to learn it in practise sinds this is new for me .....

I have now a piece off code to switch leds on 2 pins and playing with it.

CON
  _CLKMODE=XTAL1 + PLL2X         'The system clock spec
  _XINFREQ = 5_000_000           'the crystal frequency

  inv_high      =0               'define the inverted High state
  inv_low       =1               'define the inverted Low state
  waitPeriod    =6_000_000       'about 1/2 sec switch cycle
  pin0          =0              'line the led is on
  pin1          =1              'line the led is on

'High is defined as 0 and low is defined as a 1 because we are using an
'inverting buffer on the Propeller output


PUB Go
  dira [pin0]~~           'sets pin to an output line with ~~ notation
  outa [pin0]~~           'makes the pin high
  dira [pin1]~~           'sets pin to an output line with ~~ notation
  outa [pin1]~~
  repeat                        'repeat forever, no number after repeat
     turnOff_LED                'method call
     turnOn_LED1
     wait
     turnOff_LED1
     turnOn_LED                 'method call
     wait

PRI turnOn_LED                  'method to set the LED line high
    outa[pin0] :=inv_high 'line that actually sets the LED high

PRI turnOff_LED                 'method to set the LED line low
    outa[pin0] :=inv_low  'line that actually sets the LED low

PRI turnOn_LED1                  'method to set the LED line high
    outa[pin1] :=inv_high 'line that actually sets the LED high

PRI turnOff_LED1                 'method to set the LED line low
    outa[pin1] :=inv_low  'line that actually sets the LED low

PRI wait                        'delay method
    waitCnt(waitPeriod + cnt)   'delay is specified by the waitPeriod

Meanwhile I am looking and trying to get some readout in the lcd.
I have now the MCP3208 chip and want to do volt reading with it.
On the 4 batt's and on the output from the transformer.
Want to this with the Sigma-Delta methode.
Tutorial: Reading Voltage
and here:
Delta-sigma modulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have this LCD module:
Project Detail
and was hoping to use the buttons to control the timing or to switch between different readouts.

But I am stuck on learning atm.....

Maybe Vissie is so nice to give some help or code for the propeller chip ?
He has already lot experience with it...

cheers

Dick

[Johndow]

Hi All,

This seems to be a pretty amazing thread so far, with it's up and downs. People come and go. It's good to see people like @SkyWatcher are still experimenting with the information provided in here.

I was about to do the same, and make a build of my own.
However, I also noticed nobody was able to take the project OU? (beside Matt J.) Am I right?
Matt stepped out of the thread for good reasons... a fortunately before he open sourced his p2.

I myself might have a leak of knowledge to take the project further without help.

So this is just a checkup on how many people are still working on this project and booking success as well.

Appreciate your replies...

Take care, John.