Mini Tesla coil project

MINI TESLA COIL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

R.DIVYABHARATHI

17UED031

II-B.Ed PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND ENGLISH

 

 

INDEX

S.NO	CONTENTS	PAGE NO
1	Introduction
2	History of tesla coil
3	Mini tesla coil
4	Components
5	Resistor
6	Capacitor
7	Magnetic wire
8	Battery
9	On and off switch
10	Working principle
11	Circuit diagram
12	Working of tesla coil
13	Application
14	Education and entertainment
15	Advantages
16	Disadvantages
17	Future of tesla coil
18	Conclusion
19	Reference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, and high frequency alternating-current electricity. 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 in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, X-ray generation, high frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the transmission of electrical energy without wires. Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in spark gap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in medical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today, their main use is for entertainment and educational displays, although small coils are still used as leak detectors for high vacuum systems.

 

HISTORY OF TESLA COIL

Electrical oscillation and even resonant air-core transformer circuits had been explored and developed before Tesla, including Joseph Henry in Leyden jars (1850), and resonant transformers developed by Henry Rowland (1889) and Elihu Thomson (1890). Tesla patented his Tesla coil circuit April 25, 1891 and first publicly demonstrated it May 20, 1891 in his lecture "Experiments with Alternate Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination" before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers at Columbia College, New York. Although Tesla patented many similar circuits during this period, this was the first that contained all the elements of the Tesla coil: high voltage primary transformer, capacitor, spark gap, and air core "oscillation transformer".

 

MINI TESLA COIL:

Tesla coil is a radio frequency oscillator that drives an air-core double-tuned resonant transformer to produce high voltages at low currents. Tesla's original circuits as well as most modern coils use a simple spark gap to excite oscillations in the tuned transformer. More sophisticated designs use transistor or thyristor switches oscillators to drive the resonant transformer. Miniature Tesla coil also does a same work but it does not produce as much high voltages. Now I am going to instruct how to make a miniature tesla coil with less number of components.

 

COMPONENTS REQUIRED

·        22 gauge magnetic Copper wire - 30 cm [Banggood]

·        28 gauge magnetic Copper wire - 10 m [Banggood]

·        PVC Pipe [Diameter - 2cm ; Length 9cm]

·        Switch -1 [Banggood]

·        2N2222A Transistor - 1 [Banggood]

·        22K Ohm Resistor - 1 [Banggood]

·        9V Battery and Clip - 1 [Banggood]

·        Cardboard Sheet [10 x 10 cm] – 1

 

 

COMPONENTS

RESISTOR

          A resistor is a component that opposes a flowing current (A

Resistor of 22k resistance is used in the project). Every conductor has a certain resistance if one applies a potential difference V at the terminals of a resistor, the current I passing through it is given by:

I=V/R

This formula is known as Ohm’s law. The SI unit of resistance is Ohm(Ω). One can show that the power (in J/s) dissipated due to a resistance is equal to :

P=VI

         

 

 

CAPACITOR

          A capacitor is a component that can store energy in the form of an electric field. Less abstractly, it is composed in its most basic from of  two electrodes separated by a dielectric medium. If there is a potential difference v between those two electrodes, charges will accumulate on those electrodes: a charge Q on the positive them.

An electrical field therefore arises between them. If both of the electrodes carry the same amount of charges, one can write:

Q=CV

 

 

 

 

 

MAGNETIC WIRE

          Magnet wire or enamelled wire is a copper or aluminium wire coated with a very thin layer of insulation. It is used in the construction of transformers, inductors, motors, speakers, hard disk head actuators, electro magnets, and other applications which require tight coils of wire. The wire itself is most often fully annealed, electrolytic ally refined copper. An aluminium wire must have 1.6 times the cross sectional area as a copper wire to achieve comparable DC resistance. Due to this, copper magnet wires contribute to improving energy efficiency in equipments such as electric motors

BATTERY

          An electric battery is a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Each cell contains a positive terminal, or cathode, and a negative terminal, or anode. Electrolytes allow ions to move between the electrodes and terminals, which allows current to flow out of the battery to perform work.

Primary (single-use or “disposable”) batteries are used once discarded; the electrode materials are irreversibly changed during discharge. Secondary (rechargeable batteries) can be discharged and recharged multiple times; the original compositions of the electrodes can be restored by reverse current.

ON / OFF SWITCH

          ON/OFF switch is used on or off the power supply in the circuit. A simple on/off switch is being used in the model

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORKING PRINCIPLE

FARADAY’S LAW OF MANETIC INDUCTION

“The induced electromotive force in any closed circuit is equal to the negative of the time rate of change of the magnetic flux enclosed by the circuit”.

          “According to which, when a conductor is placed under a varying magnetic field, a small current will be induced inside the conductor. For a Tesla coil this conductor will be called as the secondary coil and the varying magnetic field will be produced by the primary coil by passing on oscillating current through the primary coil”.

MAGNETIC FLUX

          Magnetic flux is the number of magnetic lines passing through a closed surface (such as a conducting coil).

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

 

 

 

 

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

The circuit diagram of Mini Tesla Coil Project given below is very simple. So let us understand how it works and learn how to build it. The main component in this circuit is the secondary coil (golden colour), which is made by winding a magnetic wire (enamelled) around a cylindrical object (any non conductive object will work).

A high current high frequency transistor like 2N2222 is used to supply current through the primary coil (violet colour). The whole set up is powered by a 9V battery as shown above. The positive end of the battery reaches the collector of Transistor through the primary coil, and the emitter is grounded. This means that whenever the transistor conducts, current is flown through the primary coil. The LED diode and one end of the secondary coil is also connected to base of transistor to make the circuit oscillate, this way the transistor will send a oscillating current into primary coil. If you want get more technical and learn how the current oscillates you can Google for “Slayer Exciter Circuit”.

So, with this arrangement we have a primary coil which will have an oscillating current, and hence will produce a carrying magnetic flux around it. Now, this coil is wound around the secondary coil and hence a according to law of electromagnetic induction a voltage will be induced in the secondary coil. Since the number of turns in the secondary coil is very large than primary coil, this voltage will be a very high voltage and hence this coil will have a very strong electric flux around it that is powerful enough to glow normal CFL bulbs and is used in Wireless Power Transmission.

 

 WORKING OF TESLA COIL

Before we start building the Tesla coil, it is very important to know how it works. Only then we will be able to build and debug one successfully. The Tesla coil works with the principle of Electromagnetic Induction. According to which, when a conductor is placed under a varying magnetic field, a small current will be induced inside the conductor. For a Tesla coil this conductor will be called as the secondary coil and the varying magnetic field will be produced by the primary coil by passing an oscillating current through the primary coil.

It might sound a bit confused, but let us proceed with the circuit diagram where things will be made much clear.

         

Winding the Secondary Coil

One very important step in this project is winding the secondary coil. It is a time consuming process and hence do not rush yourself in this part. First of all, you will need a magnetic coil, which is also called as enamelled coil wire. These wires can be found inside relays coils, transformers and even motors. You can either reuse one or buy yourself a new one. The thinner the wire is the better the results will be.

Once you are ready with the magnetic wire, you will need a cylindrical object. The only rule while selecting this object is that it should not be conductive, you can select PVC pipes, cardboard roll or even stack 4-5 A4 sheets together and roll them up. The diameter of the cylinder can be anywhere between 5cm to 10cm, and the length should be at least 10cm. The longer the object is more number of turns it can fit in.

After getting your coil and cylindrical object, it is time to start the winding process, just wind few turn and use a tape to secure the winding initially and then proceed with the complete winding. Make sure you follow the below tips while winding

1.     Wind the coils as close as possible

2.     Do not overlap one coil turn over another

3.     Try to get a minimum of 150 turns; a value of 300 turns will be typically good.

 

 

Once we are ready with the coil we are almost 90% through the project after that just follow the circuit diagram and make the connections, but there are few commonly asked questions to which you can find the answers below.

1.     Do not use a normal transistor in place of 2N2222, unless you know to select an exact equivalent for this transistor.

2.     The resistor 22K need not be exactly the same it can be anywhere from 12K to 30K.

3.     Make sure the 9V battery that you are using is brand new, because the cheap batteries will not last more than 5 minutes with this circuit, If you have source you +5V you can also use that.

4.     It is completely fine for your coil to have any number of turns, but it should have a minimum of at least 150 turns, you dint have to be very accurate with the count.

5.     The circuit can work from 5V to 10V. However don’t push more than 500mA through it

6.     The LED has a different purpose other than glowing, it is actually used to switch the transistor so do not ignore it, a RED colour LED will work fine.

7.     Your LED might or might not glow when the Circuit is powered, you do not have to be worried about it.

8.     You might or might not get a spark (arc) at the free end of Secondary coil, you do not have to worry about that either. If you get an Arc do not touch it.

9.     Always check if the circuit is working only by using a normal CFL bulb.

10.            Adding a metal load (foil paper) on top of secondary coil is optional, but it sure will improve the results but not mandatory to get a basic working output.

11.            There is a very little chance for you to hear any hissing sound, so don’t expect it.

 

WORKING OF 9V MINI TESLA COIL

 

Just follow the steps to wind the coil and use a breadboard to make the connection as shown in the circuit diagram. Once you are done with everything your mini tesla coil project will look something like this.

 

I can also check if the circuit is working by using a multimeter, just place the multimeter in voltage mode. Touch the black probe on the ground of the circuit and leave the red probe floating on the air, the multimeter should be able to read a very high voltage as shown below where the meter reads a very high voltage of 1247V. You have been warned already, be very careful around these high voltage set-up. .

 

APPLICATION

The tesla coil is a machine for generating extreme high voltage. It’s sort like the Van De Graff generator, but much more powerful. When you fire it up, the shiny donut / sphere –shaped part on top is energized with about 500,000 volts of high frequency current. The tesla coil uses high frequency transformer action together with resonant voltage amplification to generate potentials in the range of tens to hundreds, or even thousands of kilovolts.

About 100 years ago Nikola Tesla invented his “Tesla coil”. Tesla invented his coil with the intention of transmitting electricity through the air. He conducted much research in this area. He purposed using a few coils spread across the globe to transmit electrical energy through the earth. Wherever power was need one would need only a receiving coil to convert the power into a useful form.

Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in spark gap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in electrography and pseudo medical main use is entertainment and educational displays.

Tesla coils or resonant transformers of high frequency and high potential have been used in many commercial applications; the only variation being the high voltage is used to produce an effect other than a spark. Although not all commercial applications for Tesla coils are still in use some historical and modern day applications including,

·        Spark gap radio transmitters

·        Induction and dielectric heating (vacuum tuber& spark gap types)

·        Induction coils(differ only in the transformer core material being used)

·        Medical X-ray devices(typically driven by an induction coil)

·        Quack medical devices(violet-ray)

·        Ozone generators

·        Particle accelerators

·        Electrical stage shows & entertainment

·        Generation of extremely high voltage with relatively high power levels.

 

 

EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT OF TESLA COIL

 

Electrum sculpture, the world's largest Tesla coil. Builder Eric Orr is visible sitting inside the hollow spherical high voltage electrode.

Tesla coils are displayed as attractions at science museums and electronics fairs, and are used to demonstrate principles of high frequency electricity in science classes in schools and colleges.

Since they are simple enough for an amateur to make, Tesla coils are a popular student science fair project, and are homemade by a large worldwide community of hobbyists. Builders of Tesla coils as a hobby are called "coilers". They attend "coiling" conventions where they display their home-made Tesla coils and other high voltage devices. Low-power Tesla coils are also sometimes used as a high-voltage source for Kirlian photography

The world's largest currently existing Tesla coil is a 130,000-watt unit, part of a 38-foot-tall (12 m) sculpture titled Electrum owned by Alan Gibbs and currently resides in a private sculpture park at Kakanui Point near Auckland, New Zealand.^[57] A very large Tesla coil, designed and built by Syd Klinge, is shown every year at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, in Coachella, Indio, California, USA. Austin Richards, a physicist in California, created a metal Faraday Suit in 1997 that protects him from Tesla coil discharges. In 1998, he named the character in the suit Doctor MegaVolt and has performed all over the world and at Burning Man nine different years.

Tesla coils can also be used to generate sounds, including music, by modulating the system's effective "break rate" (i.e., the rate and duration of high power RF bursts) via MIDI data and a control unit. The actual MIDI data is interpreted by a microcontroller which converts the MIDI data into a PWM output which can be sent to the Tesla coil via a fiber optic interface.^[58][59] The YouTube video Super Mario Brothers theme in stereo and harmony on two coils shows a performance on matching solid state coils operating at 41 kHz. The coils were built and operated by designer hobbyists Jeff Larson and Steve Ward. The device has been named the Zeusaphone, after Zeus, Greek god of lightning, and as a play on words referencing the Sousaphone. The idea of playing music on the singing Tesla coils flies around the world and a few followers continue the work of initiators. An extensive outdoor musical concert has demonstrated using Tesla coils during the Engineering Open House (EOH) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. The Icelandic artist Björk used a Tesla coil in her song "Thunderbolt" as the main instrument in the song. The musical group ArcAttack uses modulated Tesla coils and a man in a chain-link suit to play music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVANTAGES

·        Very easy to make, requires few turns and do not use spark gap or high voltage capacitors

·        Demonstrate oscillator principles and feedback

·        Ionization and energy transfer without the potential danger of a genuine TC

·        Totally replaces the wires

·        Electronic gadgets like laptops, mobiles, iPod etc. can be charged, wirelessly

·        Charging is automatic, without human intervention.

·        No need of power cables and batteries.

·        Low cost materials are need

 

DISADVANTAGES

·        More complex circuit is required

·        Large DC smoothing capacitor is needed unless 3 phase power is used. Such a capacitor is expensive, and stores high energy.

·        High voltage, high inductor charging inductor is needed. This is a specialized part and may be difficult to obtain

·        Current draw is non-sinusoidal.

 

 

 

 

FUTURE OF TESLA COIL

·        Transmission of electrical energy from power source to an electrical load without using wires.

·        Different from cellular transmission of signals

·        Made a wire free world

·        Electric automobile charging

 

CONCLUSION

          After studying and developing the model of Tesla coil we came to the following conclusion,

          We are able to generate high voltage with high frequency and it can be used for testing the apparatus for switching surges. It can also be used for study of visual corona and ionization of gases under the electrical stress. It can also transmit the electrical power wirelessly up to certain distance depends upon its ratings.

REFERENCE

1.       https://circuitdigest.com/electronic-circuits/how-to-make-a-mini-tesla-coil-9v.

2.       https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Miniature-Tesla-Coil/

3.       https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305955805_DC_TESLA_COIL_Construction_And_Applications

4.       https://www.slideshare.net/rahulchhatrapati/report-on-mini-tesla-coil

Bibliography

There are no sources in the current document.

mini tesla coil.docxminiteslacoil.docxminiteslacoil.docx