Tesla Coil spark gap replacement

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Hi All,

In my wireless energy experiments ..

I have come up with a Tesla coil primary semiconductor driver that provides a uni-directional pulse that has a dv/dt of 10,000V/us .. this has enabled some unusual effects. (What I am trying to do, with the most modern semiconductors, is emulate as much as I can the humble spark gap.)

The driver produces the above fast uni-directional pulse which results in the primary seeing a 100v change in just 10ns. With a 50v DC supply to the driver I am seeing 200V peak-peak sort-of-sinewave on the primary, which is purely reactive at 8 ohms. (voltage and current 90deg out of phase)

The attached photos show the waveform across the primary (2 turns), note the negative fast transient ..

The effect I am seeing is a 240v 30W incandescent bulb being lit to nearly full power just by placing it in series with the top-load of the receiving coil ..

(Lighting up Fluro's a couple of meters away was a piece of cake, but it wasn't till I got this fast pulse happening, that I could light up an incandescent bulb)

I have also attached a photo of the receive setup

Is what I am seeing unusual?

PS: The input power is is just 50W (However, peak power into the pulse, is several KW)
PPS: The addition of the light bulb makes no difference to the power drawn by the transmitter ..

Also, have a look at the interesting purple light pulsing out of the bulb ..

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So I take it that what I am seeing is nothing special?

I guess folk that have been playing with Tesla's wireless setup, have the same effect as I have then, and everyone is able to light up incandescent bulbs in series with the receive coil and top-load connection, ..and the placement of the bulb results in no extra power being drawn from the Transmitter coil ..

Oh well, thought I was on to something ..

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So, 108 views and absolutely no comments ..?

I can only draw the following conclusions, from the lack of replies.
1. Nothing special so thread is ignored.
2. There is something special, but no one can explain, again no comment.

Any comments would be helpful, positive or negative ..

[dR-Green]

Is what I am seeing unusual?

I guess that depends on who you ask. As far as conventional thinking is concerned, that is unusual. But it's normal behaviour in this situation. Most "Tesla coilers" simply haven't bothered to do such experiments to see it.

The basic effect can be achieved through driving the coil with any waveform as long as the frequency and voltage is sufficiently high, but other effects besides visible light may be produced with different pulse lengths etc.

Bulb In Water - Mini Tesla "Test Coil" - YouTube

10472832_10202810080146424_6174974680700153263_o.jpg

High Res-Colorado-05.jpg

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Yes, agreed. However the examples you show are on the Transmit side, I am on the receive side .. and can be 100's of meters away ..

Thanks for the response ..

[alexelectric]

your experience very interesting

So, 108 views and absolutely no comments ..?

I can only draw the following conclusions, from the lack of replies.
1. Nothing special so thread is ignored.
2. There is something special, but no one can explain, again no comment.

Any comments would be helpful, positive or negative ..

I find your experiment and comment of your experience very interesting, I think it is read, but users are in other projects, or have not experimented with the tesla coil.
as in my case I have not built a tesla coil, and watched the videos and results.
Do not be discouraged and move on, what you are doing is very interesting, first of all because you are learning, experimenting, evaluating, rebuilding, etc.
and those of us who are reading you are informing us, and when we want to build a tesla coil, your information will be valuable.

[Ernst]

I have built a Tesla coil B4, and one of those views you got is mine.
I understand you'd like some reaction, but you give us barely anything to react upon.
I can light a fluoro meters away, I can light an incandescent bulb connected to a topload, Been there done that, and I guess so have many others here.
You start your thread with a title "Tesla coil spark gap replacement" and then make some bold claims. I saw that title and wanted to know what you'd done, but there is not a word about that, nor any diagram. So, that is where my interest ended.
Show us your diagram and explain your set-up, make a picture where one can see what is happening instead of a mess of wires and a light-bulb. Better still make a video and put it on YT and link to that.
You really give me (us?) nothing to work with.


Ernst.

[spacecase0]

if you are looking to reproduce what tesla was playing with,
you want the fastest rise time you can get without the current ever flowing backward.
so,
watch your current and set your waveform with the fastest rise time as you can with also making sure that your falling waveform never creates that reverse current.

the secondary of the tesla coil was made to receive this odd energy created. so, point it at an insulator and see if you can charge it at a distance as he did. This energy is also reflected by shiny surfaces...
so far I can't convince anyone to reproduce what tesla actually did. they all don't see the critical difference of AC VS pulsing DC...
but seems like you are so close
are you driving your setup with an arbitrary waveform generator ?

[bmentink]

I have built a Tesla coil B4, and one of those views you got is mine.
I understand you'd like some reaction, but you give us barely anything to react upon.
I can light a fluoro meters away, I can light an incandescent bulb connected to a topload, Been there done that, and I guess so have many others here.
You start your thread with a title "Tesla coil spark gap replacement" and then make some bold claims. I saw that title and wanted to know what you'd done, but there is not a word about that, nor any diagram. So, that is where my interest ended.
Show us your diagram and explain your set-up, make a picture where one can see what is happening instead of a mess of wires and a light-bulb. Better still make a video and put it on YT and link to that.
You really give me (us?) nothing to work with.


Ernst.

Thank you for your somewhat caustic response ..
1. I am not making claims, they are facts ..
2. You tell me you and others have powered up an incandescent bulb in series with the top load, but was it the receive top load? You did not say, I suspect not.
3. I asked for feedback on the effects I was seeing, not to validate any schematic ..
4. What are you confused about, the standard Tesla receive coil has a top-load and a tesla coil. I have showed you that (pancake in my case) and the bulb is shown connected to the top-load, what else do you want.

By the way, I do not know why you think I am here just to help you, what gave you that impression?

[bmentink]

if you are looking to reproduce what tesla was playing with,
you want the fastest rise time you can get without the current ever flowing backward.
so,
watch your current and set your waveform with the fastest rise time as you can with also making sure that your falling waveform never creates that reverse current.

the secondary of the tesla coil was made to receive this odd energy created. so, point it at an insulator and see if you can charge it at a distance as he did. This energy is also reflected by shiny surfaces...
so far I can't convince anyone to reproduce what tesla actually did. they all don't see the critical difference of AC VS pulsing DC...
but seems like you are so close
are you driving your setup with an arbitrary waveform generator ?

Hi Thanks,

You are right, too many folk drive their Tesla coils with AC, not pulsed DC, they are all wrong.

Yes, the thing I was going to try next, was to see if I can transfer the radiant energy to an insulated shiny plate and see if I can extract any energy ..

I am using a custom designed driver driven by an FPGA.

Cheers,

[spacecase0]

I have quite a few FPGAs here, some old altera chips...
looking at the web, they might actually be worth something.
I hate the things, I have built things with them, but I do wonder what they can do with the new versions

don't forget what you can do with an arbitrary waveform generator that you can draw a wave form with your computer mouse, that you feed into a high slew rate OP amp that will eventually drive your main power transistor. especially if you have an oscilloscope watching what changes you make on the output.

[Ernst]

Thank you for your somewhat caustic response ..
1. I am not making claims, they are facts ..
2. You tell me you and others have powered up an incandescent bulb in series with the top load, but was it the receive top load? You did not say, I suspect not.
3. I asked for feedback on the effects I was seeing, not to validate any schematic ..
4. What are you confused about, the standard Tesla receive coil has a top-load and a tesla coil. I have showed you that (pancake in my case) and the bulb is shown connected to the top-load, what else do you want.

By the way, I do not know why you think I am here just to help you, what gave you that impression?

My response was by no means meant to be caustic.
A forum, in my opinion, is meant to share things. It looks like you are seeing things differently. Especially your last sentence takes away any remaining desire to enter in a conversation with you.
Good luck with your experiments!

Ernst.

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My response was by no means meant to be caustic.
A forum, in my opinion, is meant to share things. It looks like you are seeing things differently. Especially your last sentence takes away any remaining desire to enter in a conversation with you.
Good luck with your experiments!

Ernst.

"Share things" Yep, exactly, and I am sharing my setup and results. What are you sharing?, nothing my friend, except harsh comments ....

But you have a good day ..

[bmentink]

I have quite a few FPGAs here, some old altera chips...
looking at the web, they might actually be worth something.
I hate the things, I have built things with them, but I do wonder what they can do with the new versions

don't forget what you can do with an arbitrary waveform generator that you can draw a wave form with your computer mouse, that you feed into a high slew rate OP amp that will eventually drive your main power transistor. especially if you have an oscilloscope watching what changes you make on the output.

Yes, I agree, wave form generation is key, however I have found that to get high energy into a pulse there is no substitute for the correct arrangement of caps and inductors, and a spreadsheet of calculations ..

Yes, I think I am close, I think the Transmitter side is ok, just need to concentrate on the Receive side ..