BiPolar Tesla Coil

I talk about lessons learned in building a bi-polar teslas coil.
Here are the components and cost:
Primary coil is 6 turns of refrigerator ice maker tubing, helical, 9" diameter. About 16' 3/8" OD tubing. I found shorting two of the outer windings together tuned it the best (5 effective turns). $20
Secondary coil, 26" long wound on 2 3/8" Diameter PVC ⋅ 26awg Wire. 1600 turns. Purchased on ebay for $51.
Secondary capacitors, 3" diameter almost spherical decorative metal cups. From thrift shop. Consider using small rimless mixing bowls from Ikea.
Primary capacitors, 8 x .056mf 2500 volt MMKP capacitors. The type is important because of the high current and voltage. Ebay $20
Brass rod inserted into the first foot or so to make the tubing more rigid to support the coil. Ebay $20
Scrap oak wood.
Neon Sign Transformer. 12000v 30ma. donated. Most modern ones won't work but there are apparently exceptions like this one for $205, delivered, on Amazon:. Allanson 101530-120 volt Uni-Service Neon Transformer. It may need modified.
3 Cabinet oblong knobs for spark gap. Gap is set by rotating the knobs. $12. Their bases sit inside bottle caps for insulation.
Cigar box.
Insulators - 2 are a type used on older electric fences. Plus 4 unusual insulators I had collected.
Resistors - 10 meg. 1/4 watt.
Lamp frosted glass shade. Home Depot about $15
Computer cooling fan. Salvaged. Its a 12v fan driven at 19v from an spare laptop power adapter. I had a better cyclone style fan but I ruined it with debris from steel wool.

Пікірлер: 34

  • @bennywarren3774
    @bennywarren37749 ай бұрын

    Great video and impressive results. Being new to this knowledge I’m soaking up all I can. Built my first ts two months ago and now building the 9th. Started really small and growing constantly. Thanks for sharing

  • @George10767
    @George107674 ай бұрын

    The bi-polar Tesla coil is a good example of lateral thinking. May I suggest a extension of lateral thinking? Suppose the primary coil were ONE single turn made of copper water pipe? (Very low inductance). So the electrolytic capacitor must be of very high capacitance. The line power supply must provide DIRECT voltage (rectified), say around 200 volts, and *always* charges the electrolytic capacitor via a series resistor. Your spark gap acts as a switch, but this should be replaced with an electronic switch. Use an IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor). Maybe two connected in parallel. The IGBT gate is driven by a separate digital oscillator with 1000:1 duty cycle. So the voltage across the electrolytic capacitor has a "sawtooth" waveform. And the electrolytic capacitor charges in 1 millisecond and discharges in 1 microsecond, say. The induced high voltage in the long secondary coil is proportional to the *rate-of-change* of the discharge current in the primary coil. So the induced high voltage is present for one microsecond every 1 millisecond. I have never built this, I'm just dreaming. I suspect the danger from ozone (caused by ionization) is real. Ozone is poisonous and might possibly cause cancer. Be careful.

  • @samheasmanwhite

    @samheasmanwhite

    2 ай бұрын

    High-capacity and low-impedance HV capacitors can get VERY expensive and inductors are very cheap, so to hit the target frequency it tends to always be better to have a larger inductor so that you can get away with a smaller capacitor. As you make the inductor bigger the current requirement also decreases, but the voltage has to increase proportionately, so you do eventually get to a point where the voltage becomes the main problem, so most designs settle on a balance in the middle since all resonant primaries will drive the secondary in the exact same way, with the difference being in cost and electrical efficiency.

  • @jameshicks7125
    @jameshicks71257 ай бұрын

    Nice Coil! I really like this design, and it's an inspiring build. I built a VTTC with a GU81 Soviet transmitter tube. My first coil. Vacuum tube coils are pretty quiet by the way. The streamers aren't very loud. Not much more than normal conversation. With the Staccato circuit there is more of a snap, but still pretty quiet. I am curious about trying a bipolar VTTC.

  • @nickpolson6005
    @nickpolson6005 Жыл бұрын

    Only thing I would say is that Grounding is the way to really make big sparks... And yes, you ground the center of the Bi-polar secondary. It's crazy, and counter-intuitive, but the Earth adds charge to the oscillating current in the secondary circuit... The better the connection to the Earth the more effective the adding mechanism is... So Big fat welding cable directly to a rod sunk deep into the Earth and also soak it with a hose for a while to get maximum soil contact with the rod... Oh copper coated iron grounding rod for low resistance works fine 6' long buried all the way only a couple inches left out for the connection with the Welding Cable... And the fine wire of the secondary meeting the very large cable will reflect most of the wave back the other direction improving your efficiency and making your sparks longer... My suggestions will make you gasp when seeing the improvement in sparks... Other than that, simply tuning it more exactly and as well as the air through the spark gap I would use two powerful neo magnets in repulsion and forced together so the spark happens right between them. It kills the spark before the Current can come back through the Plasma channel formed by the spark... Giving vastly improved performance... Try it...

  • @JimPaul0627

    @JimPaul0627

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you Nick. I have never seen/heard about using magnets in the spark gap. That's not too hard to try. I could get the magnets from a computer hard drive. But tapping the center of the secondary, yes I am tempted - I would have to thread that through the primary coil without it arcing to the secondary.

  • @nickpolson6005

    @nickpolson6005

    Жыл бұрын

    @@JimPaul0627 yeah the magnets work well only thing is that neo mags are conductive and need to be insulated to keep the arc from trying to go through them... I used several layers of E6000 glue and it works well... Tesla used for fitted mica around his magnetic poles. Also he used a powerful electromagnet which is a little different in that an electromagnet creates one of each pole... I tried two magnets repulsing and that can't be done with one electromagnet... Simply trying something that I saw hadn't really been done before that I had read of anyhow... It works damn well too... Ultimately Tesla ended up submerging his spark gaps in a tank of circulating oil with his 🧲 in the oil as well... Going for highest rate of change requires that the spark be forcibly snuffed out . But once the snuff is fast enough and the current can't reverse back through the spark gap even one time you get an amazing effect... It is unlike anything else and will blow your mind... It causes an electrostatic explosion radially outward from the spark gap in all directions. The blast that occurs is not like normal electricity at all. It will charge metal objects with energy that can do work when discharged to ground just like normal electricity does but even more impressively the electrostatic shockwave travels extremely long distances and is still recoverable... There is like a 1000x gain mechanism tied to it... Meaning 100 watts through a spark gap that is cut off instantaneously before the current can make it back through the gap even one time, causes that current of 100 watts to transform into pure voltage 1000x the initial voltage used in the 100watt spark..! No joke either... The radial outward voltage wave travels faster than light speed as it is of a longitudinal nature not the typical transverse variety... Modern day science still refuses to recognize longitudinal electrical forces as existing and possible to create... But Nikola Tesla tells all about it in 1899 but nobody believes it to be true... It is totally true however... It's the most amazing science I've ever researched. The 1000x gain mechanism is truly the way his magnifying transmitter worked... Longitudinal standing waves in the earth... Totally true and amazingly doable by anyone.. I believe the military has this technology and wields it's power at will... And truly it's how America is the global power that we are... Nobody knows or believes it possible... I've proved it possible small scale... But Tesla was killed in 43' so he didn't make it publicly known as he was starting to reveal his secrets in his old age... Crazy shit I realize that... But nevertheless if you are interested in Tesla coils, well that is their true purpose. Not to make sparks but to wirelessly transfer power hundreds of miles and at levels deemed impossible due to the mind virus that corrupts all of today's sciences... Wanna research something amazing? There you go... Look into it... And Gerry Vassilatos' book " the secrets of cold war technology" chapter 1 is a full scout of Tesla's findings... And it will inspire research into what I'm saying... I'm not crazy or whatever you wanna think... It's real as shit... Just try it and blow minds... 👍🏻 Sorry for the length of this reply but I have to spread the word to all who show interest in Tesla Coils... As it is the true purpose of their design... But sparks are cool too...

  • @JimPaul0627

    @JimPaul0627

    Жыл бұрын

    @@nickpolson6005 Thank you again Nick. Do you think a solid state coil achieves something similar to a perfectly quenched gap? Mr Carlson demonstrates his coil with no sparks transmitting energy.

  • @nickpolson6005

    @nickpolson6005

    Жыл бұрын

    @@JimPaul0627 you know... I'm not sure. I don't know if you can easily discharge a capacitor that's charged to thousands of volts through a semiconductor when it will be such high amperage through it... I think it would just melt or something... But maybe a big igbt brick could handle the current, idk. But then closing that switch instantly would be an issue I would think... But maybe... Never know till you try... I've never tried solid state...

  • @bleefis8731

    @bleefis8731

    Жыл бұрын

    @@nickpolson6005 Dude I read Vassilatos' book recently and was floored - I decided I need to recreate his ambient heating/cooling and lighting effects by tweaking the spark frequency. I need to know how you did it! How can I get in touch with you man!?

  • @jodybruce5097
    @jodybruce50975 күн бұрын

    pretty cool

  • @5g3846
    @5g3846 Жыл бұрын

    Love it, much appreciated 👍

  • @R2NOTU
    @R2NOTU Жыл бұрын

    Nice build .I did a bipolar slayer Tesla coil .just to see f I could and it did work . It's self tunes because the extra wire around the coil goes to the base of two 3055 that pump the primary so it tunes it's self .im thing making two identical coils and ground them and see if the second receiver twin will power up .

  • @JimPaul0627

    @JimPaul0627

    Жыл бұрын

    Can you post a picture of your device somewhere an share the link

  • @R2NOTU

    @R2NOTU

    Жыл бұрын

    @@JimPaul0627 I had pictures of it running but my tablet crashed .I'll have to set it up again and run it . If you by a 40 watt slayer tesla I coil off of eBay and if yours is like mine pull the bottom off carefully. Very short wires . And remove the bottom coil wire from the resistor going to the base of the transistors ..that may be double 3055's then move the primary coil up to the middle of the secondary..bring the removed secondary from the resistor out and up front and place a small neon on each end of the secondary .now place a wire on that base resistor and rape it around the secondary like four turns .and try it if it doesn't fire up add more turns to the base coil going around the secondary.this is to get the voltage high enough to trigger the base..I'm in the middle of another coil at the moment..

  • @jamest.5001
    @jamest.50016 ай бұрын

    The more caps in series, the less capacity they have .

  • @rodriguezfranco3839
    @rodriguezfranco38396 ай бұрын

    Very cool TC brother , next try a SSTC are less dangerous and more capabilitys like controlling the arc lenght thickness durations , or even musical arcs

  • @janno288
    @janno2889 ай бұрын

    The two circuits are not identical. The one with the spark gap connecting the primary needs a high frequency resistant transformer. The design with the spark gap in parallel just needs a short circuit proof transformer. Also the spark gap does produce UV but Xrays no, you need at least 10kV in a vacuum to produce any kind of sort xray. The copper tubings resistance does not matter, its low resistance for 60hz yes, but its purpose is to simply charge the capacitor, once the capacitor reaches high enough voltage to short its contacts you have a a primary LC circuit. the spark gap on design two just acts to short the transformer until the next charge cycle. Ozone is indeed toxic to humans, but even for lower concentrations more toxic to smaller organisms (from what I know). The tesla coil run in short durations wont make enough ozone to murder you, but once you start feeling a bit unwell, open the window as soon as possible

  • @JimPaul0627

    @JimPaul0627

    9 ай бұрын

    I did not test both circuits. The coil I built uses diagram 2 - the spark gap is directly across the transformer.

  • @janno288

    @janno288

    9 ай бұрын

    @@JimPaul0627 that is the most common circuit design since its easier to find short circuit proof transformers. Note: Microwave Transformers do have shunts for short circuit protection but they are not large enough to redirect all of the magnetic flux, so you need a ballast (another inductor from a discharge lamp fixture for example) to externally limit the current on the primary side.

  • @JimPaul0627

    @JimPaul0627

    9 ай бұрын

    @@janno288 My understanding of "shunt" is that it is a short circuit. Is that the nature of a shunt in a Microwave Oven Transformer? Can one see the "shunt"?

  • @samheasmanwhite

    @samheasmanwhite

    2 ай бұрын

    @@JimPaul0627 It is a magnetic shunt, in MOTs it is typically two bits of steel inbetween the primary and secondary. TBH I think the original post was wrong and you need HF and short resistant transformers in both circuits, since I doubt there is much electrical difference.

  • @user-xe8np7gc9j
    @user-xe8np7gc9j3 ай бұрын

    Hello You sell this one? :)

  • @brucenicoll4373
    @brucenicoll437322 күн бұрын

    Can you please mount on on the top of the White House

  • @lovrinjo6783
    @lovrinjo6783 Жыл бұрын

    The capacitors have to be more than the amplitude of your high voltage power supply. You calculate it by multiplying the rated secondary voltage and the square root of 2. That is how you can save your capacitors from dying.

  • @JimPaul0627

    @JimPaul0627

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for that simple calculation solution.

  • @mykedoes4099
    @mykedoes40996 ай бұрын

    👍

  • @madtscientist8853
    @madtscientist88535 ай бұрын

    There are no "RULES" to building a TESLA COIL if you do not build it RIGHT then you do not get a efficient machine and tou will not get the same effect

  • @yowild9629
    @yowild9629 Жыл бұрын

    ? comment. its a space . the condition of that space . in space is energy / static you may call it & their vibration with gravity / magnetic earth resonace fields it couples with your setup like radio antenas doo. it charges by it self . & discharges by you beeing there you providing the ground / the flow. thus shock you .Thats what i think may go on . could be something else unknown 3rd or 4th law of dinamics or broken symetry . anyway … Tesla coils & sparks are cool … + you can put music throuh it ;)