EE 186 Undergraduate Research Project

TESLA COIL
Tom Henry Luke Dahlman Jon Haut

Introduction:
For our project this semester, we made a tesla coil. It was the first suggestion we brought up, and we decided to pursue the project. One of the main reasons we were able to do this project was Toms experience working for Acme Electric, an electric company in Cedar Rapids owned by his uncle. Also, Tom had previously built a tesla coil with his dad, and therefore had the knowledge on how we should approach the project. The following diagram shows the basic layout for our tesla coil. The different components are listed below along with a description of their functions.
Globes High-Voltage Transformer Secondary Coil

Capacitor

Spark Gap

Primary Coil

Components:
-High-Voltage TransformerWe used a 1kVa transformer for our coil. It takes in the standard 120V from a regular wall outlet and outputs 15kV into the system. We also have a dead mans switch wired in front of the transformer. That way, the entire system will only receive power when a button is pressed. If anything goes wrong with the coil, we can release the switch and cut off power to the entire system.

-CapacitorSince we were not able to find a professionally built capacitor, we had to build one ourselves. Our capacitor has about 700nF of capacitance. This amount of capacitance gives us the right amout of charge flowing through our primary coil. It is make out of alternating aluminum and plexiglass plates. Each of the aluminum plates has a tab the sticks out the top of the stack and these tabs are connected together using aluminum tape. The entire block is clamped together by 2 pieces of wood held by bolts. This placed is place in a 9L plastic tub, which is filled with transformer oil. -Spark GapWe built a stationary, adjustable spark gap. Two brass plates are attached to screws these screws are screwed into our base, which is made of ABS Polycarbonate plastic. One screw is held in place, while the other is allowed to move back and forth. This allows us to adjust the size of the spark gap. Working drawings for all of the parts for our spark gap are located at the end of this report. Due to time constraints, we were unable to put terminals on our spark gap, like our drawings show. Instead, we used ring lugs to attach wires to the screws. -Primary CoilOur primary coil is made up of ten turns of copper tubing. The tubing is turned around a circular wooden structure with 6 ceramic stands to support and ground it. The coil is about 3 feet in diameter, allowing room for the secondary coil to fit inside. -Secondary CoilOur secondary coil consists of 1000 turns of No. 24 D.C.C copper wire. The wire is wrapped around a tube about 5 feet tall and 1.5 feet in diameter. The secondary coil sits, free floating, inside of the primary coil. -GlobesWe have two globes on the top of our tesla coil. The main spark that we want to see is generated between the two globes. The globes themselves are made of copper and are 6 inches in diameter. They are filled with sand, which absorbs some of the heat from the arc and prevents the globes from deforming. One globe is attached to the top if the secondary coil. The other is suspended by a beam approximately 2 feet above the first globe. The second globe is connected to a ground at the bottom of the coil. This way, the secondary coil arcs only to itself.

How It Works:
For starters, our coil is plugged into a standard 120V outlet with a ground on it. This 120V first goes through Toms special box, which runs a number of checks and stops the voltage from continuing into the transformer. It only continues when our dead-man switch is pressed, giving power to the entire system. The voltage is then amplified up to 15kV using the high-voltage transformer. This voltage begins to charge the capacitor, up to the point when it discharges across the spark gap. As the capacitor discharges, current flows through the primary coil, creating a magnetic field. This field causes the electrons in the secondary coil to start moving. The moving electrons generate a charge on the lower globe that is 100 times larger than the charge that jumps across the spark gap. The charge then arcs to the upper globe, which is grounded to the bottom of the secondary coil, thus the charge arcs back to where it began.

Testing:
Testing our Tesla Coil went very well. Going into the testing, we were unsure of how our capacitor would hold up. We were worried that it might be the only part of the system to fail, but it survived our night of testing.

Tom setting up the Globes

The transformer and dead man switch

For trial 1, we minimized the distance of the spark gap and the distance between the globes. This made it so we didnt need as much voltage stored on our capacitor in order to get an arc across the globes. The first trial was a success. We got arcs across the globes, although, we did see corona on the capacitor. The corona appeared in every trial we did that night, and by the end of the testing, the corona actually started boiling the transformer oil in the capacitor.

Capacitor

After a successful first trial, we widened the spark gap and the globes considerably. However, because of the corona, our capacitor could not hold enough charge, so the spark gap did not arc. We spent trials 3-13 slowly shortening the spark gap and globes. Finally, on Trial 14, we got arcs across the globes again. By this time, the distance between the globes and the spark gap were very close to where we had them in trial 1. We ran a couple more trials, trying to maximize the length of the arc, but soon the arc started to weaken as the capacitor started to give way. In general, the testing was a success, but our capacitor paid the price. We got a considerable number of successful arcs on video, and everyone was pleased with the results we had.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, we all learned a lot from this research project. Our tesla coil was a success and is now known as the largest successful tesla coil built by Iowa State students here on campus. Wed like to thank Dr. Mani Mina, John Pritchard, and all the other EE 186 TAs who helped us with our project. Wed also like to thank Acme Electric Co., ADM, and Glenn and Mary Henry for their generous donations. Without their help, we would not have been able to complete the project. This project gave us valuable experience working on a project team, and that experience should prove very useful in the future.