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Updated:  August 5, 2009 

Bi-Polar Tesla Coil and Plasma Chamber

 A Discharge Containment & Amplification System

Marilyn

 

         

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Photos 1 & 5 - Ricoh RDC-7 digital camera, unshielded, August 5, 2004.  Photos 2 & 4 - June, 2004.  Photo 3 - 30 frame GIF, the chamber is acrylic with an inside diameter of 4' x 3' x 6".  In real time the chamber is totally filled with discharges, I'll post some recent video and I do have a full tank of argon....hmmm.  05-29-09 - many runs captured on VHS, about one a weekend over the last 6 weeks.  Just have to suck it into my computer and post the video.

Photo 6 & 7, Ricoh RDC-7 shielded and grounded - August 11, 2004.  Photos 1 through 7 were taken with my RDC-7, 3.3 mega-pixel digital camera.  All digital images were mirrored with my RZ67 Pro II.

                    Aug. 11, 2004, 1.166 mb gif - Not working....hang on it'll be fixed soon

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Photos 6 & 7 (RDC-7 digital, shielded and grounded) - August 11, 2004, my hand is about 1 or 2" from the front of the acrylic cabinet.  I did get 'zapped' a few times, fairly mild.

I wanted this coil to have an antique and gothic sort of look to it and designed the cabinet above.  The cabinet is made from oak with an ebony inlay down the center of the deck and  tulip poplar component shelves inside.  It's sealed with a gel stain and finished with three coats of clear, de-waxed shellac.  The arms supporting the secondary with the 'U' shaped pieces that cradle the coil are both solid oak and removable.  The deck is secured with 4 dowels inside and can be removed.  No metal was used in the construction.  The enclosed, six gap, ssg is vacuum evacuated with a 20 foot hose leading outside - to see the gap, click there -> Spark Gap.  This may be about as far as you can take simple copper tubes in this art.

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              July 24, 04                                                           8-1-4 digital image, low resolution              

The chamber is filled with argon and contains the action.  Best of all, it can be safely approached and you can draw arcs through the acrylic to your hand and light up the usual assortment of bulbs and I do have a glove of red neon that's bitching.  Look at the animation above and you'll see some of the discharges are traveling 12" to 18" up and/or down before spanning the four foot width of the chamber.  Shango will run continuously for 25 to 30 minutes before the action in the chamber begins to 'gutter out' and needs to refill with cool argon.  Shango is the Uribe god of thunder and lightning.  I inject the argon through a 1/4" acrylic tube at the bottom left of the acrylic cabinet and turn it down a bit but keep it running while the coil is in action.  There's a 3/8" hole at the top which allows the hot argon and any breakdown products to escape.  I leave the argon running at around 20 to 30 CFH (cubic foot per hour) while operating the coil.  Pictures just don't do justice to the live event.  I finished the prototype in early December, 2000.  The oak cabinet was designed and completed in August,  2003.  Here's a link to the text of my T.C.B.A. article:   Why I did this

Specifications

  1. Power supply = 0.54 kVA - 9kV, 60mA Franceformer - changes are underway... more to come...
  2. Primary = 6 turns of 3/8" k type cu tubing with 10" leads                   
  3. Primary diameter = 11.25"
  4. Primary inductance = 12.3 uH
  5. Primary resistance = 0.003 Ohms
  6. Secondary = 4.75" o.d. x 35", tight wound 34" with 22awg mag wire on phenolic former
  7. Secondary inductance = 34.4 mH
  8. Secondary resistance = 46.3 Ohms
  9. Secondary internal capacitance = 0.706 uF
  10. Secondary height = 39.5" from ground to center of coil form
  11. Capacitor = 0.01763 uF - MMC - 21 parallel chains of 5 series connected Panasonic ECW-H15H432F7, 2500vdc, 0.0043 uF caps (105 capacitors).  I've also used one of my custom CSI extended foil 0.01763 uF caps in this machine.  Pictures below of both.  No noticeable differences in  performance between them, which says volumes about a good (and cheaper) mmc.
  12. Deck dimensions = 25.75" wide by 20.75" deep, 26.5" above floor.

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8-20-03                          8-25-03                        8-25-03

 

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PlasmaBox2.jpg (643238 bytes)  PBox1.jpg (272828 bytes)  PBox23A.jpg (56420 bytes)     11-3.jpg (211583 bytes)     14-5 5.5X4 CUP.jpg (169660 bytes)  14-3.jpg (205560 bytes)

                                    2-26-01 1st Fire       3-25-01               3-28-01        4-5-01 res. off center       7-15-01             7-15-01

 

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14-1 4x5.jpg (94906 bytes)  15-19 5x7.jpg (108083 bytes)  15-18.jpg (120517 bytes)  13-7.jpg (99381 bytes)  16-17.jpg (85635 bytes)  16-20.jpg (116478 bytes)

7-15-01              7-15-01               7-29-01                8-3-01               8-03-01               8-03-01

 

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20-14 3x5.jpg (82923 bytes)                        211-18 Caps.jpg (34387 bytes)        HWNewSec.jpg (80088 bytes)

 03-25-02                                   My mmc                                   CSI caps                Prototype

 

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    210-10 BP Tank.jpg (79287 bytes)               

                                                                                Inside proto           Close-ups of N manifold

Quenching with Nitrogen vs. Compressed Air

The original cabinet had the nitrogen manifold (above) attached to the prototype five gap ssg with 8-32 nylon bolts, the close-ups show the slots cut into the acrylic tube (and the yellowed epoxy).  When powered with a regulated bottle of nitrogen the performance increase was a lot like pressing on a car accelerator.  I'd start the pressure at around 25 to 40 lbs and slowly increase it. The break rate and performance would increase with the pressure and taper off at around 125 lbs. I've swapped out the nitrogen bottle for a regulated compressor during some runs and repeated this exercise.  Results:  Compressed air, while marginally effective, does not approach the quenching ability of nitrogen.  The fittings on the nitrogen bottle and compressor are identical so it only takes a few seconds to swap out.  This test was also performed on my 1/4 wave coil with similar results.

Here's a link to a table of  Dielectric Gases & Assoc. Info

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