On 10/22/12 1:24 AM, Greg Cousen wrote:
Hi Everyone, Okay as new to this but totally wrapped in Teslas genius I am experimenting with a few different things, info I need is where can I get a diagram or schematic on how to build a musical tesla coil, Also I have a power supply that I use to run ladders etc; it is run from the output of an isolation transformer with a variable auto tranny on the secondary side wired for boost voltage, so instead of 230vac I can get close to 300vac, can I run a coil from this, also I have a ground earth setup totally isolated from mains ground earth which seem to work well for other experiments I have done,
There are four ways, off hand, to get a TC that can play music.1) for a static spark gap TC, the break rate (and hence the sound) is controlled by the AC Line frequency. You'll hear 120 Hz in the US, for instance. you could drive your transformer with a variable frequency supply. (there's a lot of tricky aspects to this..)
2) For a rotary gap TC, the break rate is controlled by the speed of the rotor and the number of electrodes. Change the speed of the rotor, and the pitch changes. Or, figure out some way to select between rotors with different numbers of electrodes (viz Hammond Tone Wheel organ)
3) A DC coil could be run with a triggered gap, and the trigger rate is driven to control the pitch.
4) A solid state TC (SSTC) generates the HV pulses with hardware, and is trivial to change pitch on. I'd say that the vast majority of singing TCs that you see on youtube, for instance, are SSTCs of one kind or another. The problem with a SSTC is that it's more complex than a spark gap coil: you have the high power transistors (IGBTs or FETs) and all the drive electronics. It's probably not a "assemble from your junkbox in a few hours" like a NST powered spark gap coil might be.
There are people selling kits for DRSSTCs with music modulation inputs out there.
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