What is Tesla coil: Definition and 61 Discussions

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, 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 sparkgap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in medical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today, their main usage is for entertainment and educational displays, although small coils are still used as leak detectors for high vacuum systems.

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  1. mariost

    Electrical How Did I Safely Build and Use a Tesla Coil for Entertainment and Education?

    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 high frequency alternating-current electricity. Tesla tried to transfer energy with a wireless way. It was really difficult...
  2. Alex Karatzky

    How to optimize spark gap Tesla coils?

    My elementary school had its first annual science fair a few weeks ago, so me and my friend signed up and we decided to do it on wireless electricity. So naturally, we built a tesla coil. It took a couple of tries, but we eventually got it to barely illuminate a portion of a fluorescent light...
  3. A

    Electrical Why isn’t this Tesla coil working?

    Hello all! I have made a Tesla coil using a proven circuit I found online but what I have made isn’t working here is a picture please help. PS: yes I know it is fairly messy but the specs are as fallows: B50k potentiometer One green 5mm led One 200ohm 1/4 W 5% resistor Primary coil is 8...
  4. Willow Wanda

    Why do Christmas lights glow green near a Tesla coil?

    Homework Statement For a high school physics class, I chose to build a tesla coil for a real world application assignment. I was able to build it fairly easily and it turned out great. Before presenting to the class next week, I've been seeing its effect on different types of light bulbs and...
  5. davenn

    Tesla Coil Gladiators: Very Cool Fun

    very cool fun
  6. S

    Would these parts work for a "Tesla Coil" (Slayer Exciter)?

    Hello, I want to make a Slayer Exciter circuit with a Tesla Coil. I have my parts laid out, but I want to make sure that they would work before purchasing them. Off and On switch I have one 0.5'' PVC pipe I assume any would work 9v Battery I own one 9v Battery holder I own one 22k ohms...
  7. patric44

    Discharging argon gas with a homemade tesla coil

    hello guys i made a small crude tesla coil ( slayer exiter ) and i tried it on multiple gas tubes that i had and i have been able to discharge neon , argon but i have a question : how strong the electric field needed to discharge argon gas ?
  8. patric44

    Can i cause NMR with a simple slayer exiter (Tesla coil)?

    hello guys i saw a slayer exciter circuit , witch is the crude more simpler version of the tesla coil and i made it , it works quite well but i have some questions. some questions : 1 - how strong is the magnetic field caused by this tesla coil ? it can ionize neon gas , or argon ? 2 - i...
  9. J

    What happens if you use Tesla coil to charge a capacitor?

    I am trying to create a high DC voltage output(with extremely low current output). I thought of something like this. The left coil would be the tesla coil. Can I use this to charge the capacitor and create high DC voltage? What would happen if capacitance was really high?
  10. Rafa_El

    Tesla Coil Questions Answered - Learn More Here!

    So here i am thinking of Tesla coil. I have read that Tesla coil can sustain itself by getting the right "resonance". And I'm wondering how if 2 Tesla coil separated by a magnet based turbin to power the both of it. I read the theory that Tesla coil can amplify the energy because it was based on...
  11. P

    What exactly does the capacitor do in a Tesla coil?

    In all tutorials I have read on tesla coils, they have said to use a capacitor spark-gap configuration, to create a tank circuit. I want to know exactly what this means, and what is its purpose. I am not going to build a Tesla coil, I am nearly just interested in the science of it.
  12. hari krishna parigi

    Will a Slayer Exciter Damage an Incandescent Flashlight?

    what happens if incandescent flashlight is bought near to slayer excitor ? Will the flashlight bulb gets damaged ?
  13. Shadow-Shocker

    Building a musical tesla coil,

    What is the general cost for building a tesla coil. I already have a PVC pipe and wiring, but I know I need a board, power supply, coil, led lights, capacitors, resistors, and semi-conductors, etc. I know there are some things I am missing and I am on a budget. If there are any other supplies...
  14. Narayanan KR

    Half Electrolysis: Battery & Choke Coil Setup

    CONSTRUCTION: -In the following figure a metal plate is immersed in a Trough of salt water, the wire hooked to plate is attached to a choke coil and the other end of choke coil is Grounded deep inside soil. -A...
  15. B

    Will a DC to Pulse Width Modulator work for SS Tesla Coil?

    I am making a small solid state tesla coil. I have the secondary coil, toroid and primary coil but am not sure what to do for a control circuit. I was planning on using two 9 volt batteries for power. Would a DC to Pulse Width Modulator work? This is the one I was thinking of -...
  16. A

    Help Needed: Building a Tesla Coil - No Arcs Coming Out Toroid

    Hello all, I am in the process of building a tesla coil and I need a little help. I have everything completed enough that I can start testing it. I plug the coil in and the spark gap fires immediately and continuously, but no arcs come out the toroid. I tried moving the toroid closer to the...
  17. M

    Building a Tesla Coil: A Student Guide

    Hello everyone, I am interested in building a Tesla coil for fun and education. I am an EE student in my junior year of college, so I have most of the basics down, but I'd like to learn a little more so that I do not set my house on fire. I've been going through the principals of Tesla coils...
  18. K

    Powering a Tesla Coil with a 12 volt battery--help--

    So I have been wanting to build a Tesla Coil for a while now, and I did not want to make a large one, just enough for a 4 or 5 inch spark. That being said I began searching the internet for designs when I stumbled upon the 12 volt battery variation. The idea is that the 12v battery would drive...
  19. R

    Double resonant solid state tesla coil

    So, the igbt bridge system i have going is a 600 volt 300 amp full bridge of cm300 igbt's and i was wondering if a .660uf tank capacitor is too big for my system. The mmc is made out of 2000 volt 1uf capacitors, 2 strings of 3 in series. Thank you.
  20. J

    Tesla Coil Thruster: Could it be Possible?

    This may well be a very silly bordering on sci-fi question, but I was just thinking about this. Tesla coils can shoot off some truly huge bolts of lightning. My understanding is that this is due to the charge in the secondary coil being "shaken" back and forth like water being sloshed around...
  21. L

    Tesla Coil - Capacitor necessary?

    Hi to all, It may be a low-level question, but nevertheless, one to which I'm looking for an answer. The main question is as follows: - Within a Tesla coil, what is the main purpose of the capacitor and spark gap? Other such questions arising from the principle question: - What would...
  22. J

    Can Tesla Coils Zap Mosquitoes in Flight?

    Will the high-voltage arc from a tesla coil zap flying insects like mosquitoes if they are close enough to it but are still airborne?
  23. D

    Does mass of top load torus on Tesla coil matter?

    How does the mass of a toroidal top load on a Tesla coil affect performance, assuming all dimensions are similar except for mass? You see, I have one hollow aluminum torus and one torus made of heavy, mostly solid metal. Both same size, but different weights. Thanks!
  24. S

    Can't have high voltage function generator. What about low voltage Tesla coil?

    According to many knowledgeable people on the internet, an affordable "high" voltage function generator does not exist. I would have liked to have had electrodes operating at >50v with frequencies up to 15 Mhz but it seems such a function generator is out of my reach. So I want to know if a...
  25. Artlav

    Tesla coil with voltage doubler?

    I want to power a small-ish tesla coil from a 8KV 500W transformer with a voltage doubler to raise that to 16KV. Problem is - it works considerably worse (shorter sparks, LOUD gap) than with a 30KV 100W flyback, spark gap being the same, set at about 12KV. One issue appears to be that...
  26. T

    Effects of doubled over Tesla Coil

    This is something that just occurred to me. I was cleaning out an old closet when I came across some speaker wire, kind of like this. I was wondering, what would happen if I wrapped that around a tesla coil secondary coil? You have two separate coils interwinding, essentially, so would the...
  27. M

    Troubleshooting a Tesla Coil Project: Need Help ASAP!

    Hi I've built a NST 15kV tesla coil and I hooked it up today and it kinda didn't work. I'm wondering if anyone would like to help me as it's a school project and needs to be finished ASAP so if anyone might have any ideas / advice, that would be amazing! Pictures of all my parts...
  28. T

    Tesla coil with 555 timer troubleshooting help

    I attempted to build a tesla coil with a 555 timer but seemed to have failed some where. Perhaps you could take a look and give me some hints on what to try in order to make it work. I attached some pictures as well. I made the secondary coil on a 1/2 (.875 OD) pvc pipe with a 10 to 1 ratio...
  29. P

    Charging a capacitor in a tesla coil

    Can somebody explain how it is possible to charge a capacitor using ac voltage? The way I see it is the capacitor wouldn't have time to charge as the voltage is constantly switching. In the case of 60Hz - 120 times a second. I have attached a schematic of a tesla coil which is how I come to...
  30. TestTubeGames

    Tesla Coil as Power Transmitter

    I've been trying to hash this problem out with some friends of mine, but we haven't been able to find a satisfactory answer: Tesla coils are (in an extremely basic sense) like a transformer. There are two coils of wire... the first one having a large current and not-so-large voltage. The...
  31. D

    How does the tesla coil work ?

    could you please give me an build structure or the standard model of it's blueprint. Thank you ... Be Ω Thik Ω ! :)
  32. O

    Tesla Coil Safety: Is It Safe?

    On several occasions, I've seen the demonstration where a person holds a fluorescent light bulb up to a tesla coil, and it illuminates. And in general, demonstrators don't seem too worried by the sparks generated. But I was looking at this page, http://www.pupman.com/safety.htm and was...
  33. F

    Difference between Oudin coil and Tesla coil

    So, how do Oudin coils differ from Tesla coils, and how do they operate? All I have been able to determine is that the primary coil as well as the secondary coil is grounded, and that the primary and secondary seem to be one and the same, although I'm not even sure about that. Every website I...
  34. K

    Building a Tesla Coil: What You Need to Know

    I'm getting ready for my Christmas break project and I've settled on building a Tesla coil. I was looking at this << link deleted by Moderators >> but I'm still not really certain about what the components do and why they're needed. I kind of understand what a capacitor and transformer is but...
  35. T

    How do I fix the primary part for my 1.8KW Tesla tower?

    Hi everyone i am building a 1.8KW tesla tower and i have a problem i couldn't make the primery part round because the wire was too strong, does that effect my design and will it work ? [PLAIN]http://im13.gulfup.com/2011-11-01/1320190449301.jpg
  36. H

    Building a Tesla Coil: Engineering Questions

    Is anyone familiar with the Tesla magnatic fueless generator and the associated Tesla coil set up, I have some basic engineering questions before making the coil eg. can three 200V 1uf capacitors in series be used instead of one 600V 1uf capacitor (which is difficult and expensive to purchase)?
  37. T

    Problems with tesla coil, looking for suggestions

    I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but at this point I'm a little bit desperate, so hopefully I can get some suggestions here... I'm working on a project in which I'm building a Tesla coil. We're using a 15kV transformer, about 15nF capacitance (six 10 nF (16 kV rated)...
  38. T

    Uncovering the Mysteries of Tesla's Coil for Electromagnets

    Linked below for exact specifications. I haven't heard of this one of Tesla's inventions used for anything, does anyone know if it works, surely it does if it was granted a patent? If so why and what is it used for or if not why not? Anyone? Thanks very much! Link...
  39. Y

    Tesla Coil Shocks: Health Effects & Risk

    A friend of mine grabbed a handheld 10,000 volt tesla coil (the metal end) in one hand and a florescent bulb-tube thing in the other, and showed me that he could light the florescent tube using the electricity from the tesla coil. My question is, why did it not shock him, and are there any...
  40. C

    Tesla coil secondary coil wrapped around primary coil

    what would happen if the secondary coil of a tesla coil was wrapped around the primary assuming they were both insulated? and if the secondary wire was half the gauge size of the primary then would the secondary have to be twice as long as the primary for the coil to fit when coiled around the...
  41. P

    Solid State Tesla Coil: Basics & Advice

    Hi everyone, I am have been looking here for a long time, but today is my first day registered. I will be active from now on =). As my first post, I would like to know about the basics and advice about the solid state tesla coil. I would like to do it for my final year project. Is it advisable...
  42. I_am_learning

    Understanding the Tesla Coil: Science & Math Explained in Detail

    Could Someone explain exactly how Tesla coil works with necessary Mathematics and Science. The Wikipedia Article simply states facts but doesn't explain much anything. Well I can't understand this, In the secondary of the 115V/15KV transformer the transformed voltage is 15KV at 50Hz. Then...
  43. T

    Tesla coil not working (help anyone?)

    Hi All, Long time reader, first time poster. I'm currently building a tesla coil. here are the details: 1.) I'm using three parallel NSTs that each output about 6500 volts at .9 amps. 2.) I'm using 4 high voltage capacitors that I built using two sheets of aluminum siding with...
  44. R

    Tesla Coil Plasma: Can It Make Music?

    Okay, now I realize that this is from sci-fi, but I'm just wondering if it's possible to do this. In the movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the guy uses Tesla coils to "make music." He said that when they fired, the did so at such a high frequency that it made sound. Is this possible?
  45. C

    Tesla Coil Surprises Inside a Faraday Cage

    When this guy gets inside the Faraday cage and they hit it with like 200,000 volts from a Tesla coil , when he is inside the cage he can touch the inside and not get shocked , so basically the charge flows on the outside , is this because the electric field from all around the circle pushes...
  46. V

    Tesla Coil Help: Get Answers to Your Questions Here!

    Hello everybody! :D Im building a tesla coil for a science fair and needed some help with it. For the toroid, I got a rubber pipe which I intend to bend to a toroid and wrap with aluminum tape. Will this work? How will it be different if I use a metallic sphere? Also, for the spark gap...
  47. Artlav

    Debugging a Tesla Coil: 6 Questions Answered

    I'm trying to build a Tesla coil, for the first time, and have some questions. Whatever sources i came across on the internet only tells how to build one out of household items, trash, radio shack components, etc, but not why and which way the thing works. The thing...
  48. C

    MMC capacitors exploding on my tesla coil, I

    MMC capacitors exploding on my tesla coil, I need help! Im in a tight spot. I just recently built a decent sized tesla coil. Everything works flawlessly except that my capacitors are melting. They don't fail but they emit flames or they arc, (its hard to tell). Then after inspecting the...
  49. A

    Electronic device turned on in presence of tesla coil

    I had a small, about 1 foot secondary tall tesla coil with about 3 inch leaders coming off the toroid, and when i turned it on, I had an LED bike blinker light that would turn on when I would turn on the tesla coil. The blinker was about a foot away from the coil. I was wondering if anyone...
  50. T

    Building Micro Tesla Coils with DC Supply

    so i found a manual for a small HV device, using a flyback, powered by DC supply. here's the link for the http://tacashi.tripod.com/elctrncs/555sstc/555sstc.htm" i built a small platform giving the primary coil 8V in frequency which in theory should be around 20 KHz(i do not have an...
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