Category Archives: Nottingham Gaussfest

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons

Nottingham Gaussfest 2019

Another great High Voltage meet at Papplewick Pumping station this year.

These are some photos and videos from the event.

Derek’s Coils and Stuff…

  • Pi Twin
  • Pi Twim
  • Large Wimshurst
  • Pi Twins playing
  • Ext Kits mini Wimshurst prototype

Extreme kits mini Wimshurst powers a ping pong accelerator


Large Wimshurst throws some sparks

Steve’s Tesla Coil

  • Steve Arrives with his coil
  • Placed in the only space big enough
  • Arcs to roof trusses
  • Then plays it with a guitar
  • With BIG sparks….

Roger’s VDG, Geissler tubes and Wimshurst


  • Geissler Tubes
  • Wimshurst Machine and Van De Graaff

Van De Graaff with a charged ball

Alec’s Collection

  • Coils, Wireless Power transmission
  • SSTC, Buzz wire game
  • and more coils.


Dave’s Coils

  • Large Rotary coil
  • Small Static Gap Coil
  • Close up of the large rotaty coil

Andrew’s collection

  • Violet Ray, hand wound HV generator
  • Ping pong Accelerator, Jacobs ladder etc.

Roberts stuff
3 phase Jacobs ladder


  • And a load of HV stuff around the entrance.

Gary’s Jacobs ladder & Flyback TC

Simon and Mark

  • Kelvin Thunderstorm
  • Kelvin Thunderstorm
  • Kelvin Thunderstorm
  • Simon’s Nixies

Carl’s Tesla coil

  • Carl’s Coil
  • Carl’s Rotary

Thanks to Andy B and Alex L for many of the above and Mark K for these below.

Please return Its likely I’ll get sent more pics and videos that I’ll post here. (email me tesla@extremelectronics.co.uk if you have a pic or video)

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons, Uncategorized

Nottingham Gaussfest 2018

What a great day at Papplewick Pumping station. The change of venue caused some teething problems with space and I caused some problems with exhibitors names (no change there!) Over 140 visitors, three film crew’s on the day and 12 Exhibitors.

 

The pumping station were great in sorting out our rather strange needs and were over the moon about the attendance (they ran out of bacon in the cafe, apparently the indication of a good day). All proceeds from the day went directly to the Pumping station.

Photos from the day, If you, or your equipment is missing, please email me a picture/video. It was such a busy day I missed a lot of things.

Derek’s (my) Equipment

Sam’s Equipment

Tony/Leicester Hackspace

Alex’s Equipment

Dave’s Equipment

Jason’s Equipment

Roger’s Equipment

Chris’s Equipment

Chris with his Florescent tubes and small radio

Chris’ Battery powered Tesla coil

Andrews Equipment

Earl

After a number of valiant attempts and a few disasters. Earl unfortunately failed to get his coil working. This was a great shame as the travel and effort he put in was huge. I would have loved to see his coil in action again. I especially wanted to see his bottle cap bank in action.

Robert’s Jacobs ladder


Groups

Papplewick Pumping station

A superb venue, although a bit cold, mitigated by a superb on site Cafe…

Cambridge, Derby Teslathon, Nottingham Gaussfest, Other teslathons, Talks, Tesla Coil Building Workshop, Tesla Coils, Teslathons

Teslathon & tesla workshop/talk Venues needed

EE are actively looking for venues for teslathons in the East Midlands for next year.

Places to hold our events are getting few and far between, mostly because of our “special” requirements.

What is a teslathon : A tesalthon is a meeting of tesla coil enthusiasts. Our tesla coils vary in size from tabletop to 3M tall and are all built by amateurs.

I have been running teslathons for 18+ years and have Risk assessments and method statements to cover the H&S aspects to our hobby.

So what do we need?

The Must have’s

A room with tables a minimum of 11M x 8M in size, on the ground floor that can be blacked out and a ceiling height of ideally more than 4M. Bigger of course is better. We usually have 20 or so coilers and 30-60 visitors to the events.

Plenty of 13A sockets (for our bigger events, a 32A Commando or accessible cooker socket would be needed, or an electrician on site to give support.)
Some method of providing a separate electrical earth. 10 or more tables.

Tea and coffee making facilities 🙂

Other needs (can generally be worked around)

The room needs a minimum (ideally non) of Burglar alarm, Fire alarm or network cables. Electronic lighting can be OK, but they must be high the ceiling. Fire sensors are generally OK, but they must not be of the ionisation type.

Ideal Venues are usually industrial museums or metal skinned warehouses/barns as these have a minimum of electronic equipment. We would like to work with the venues own insurance if possible, but we can provide our own if needed.

I also arrange workshops and talks with lesser requirements, so most venues can be used for something.

We can work in two ways, either a daily rental for the hall, paid by us,or we can work as a ticketed event to raise funds or awareness for a museum, venue or charity.

Before any booking, I would need to assess the venue for safety and suitability.

Have a suitable venue? (Or would like a talk at your venue) contact me tesa@extremeeectronics.co.uk

Details of past events are here https://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/cambridge-teslathon/ and here https://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/nottingham-gaussfest/

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons

Nottingham Gaussfest 2017

One of the most popular Gaussfest that I’ve run. Loads of exhibitors and even more HV kit and packed with visitors. A great day, thanks to everyone that attended.

My coils

Jason’s Coil

Dave’s Coils

Alex’s Coils

Robert’s coil

Chris’s Coil

Steve’s Coils

Phillip’s toploads and ring flipper

Tony (Leicester Hack space) Wimshurst and jacob’s ladder

Coil brought to test and get running

 

General Gaussfest photos.

Video from Chris

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons

Nottingham Gaussfest 2016

My Coils, static machines and Twin PiZero TeslaCoils

An amazing day, all my coils and static machines worked from beginning to end with no issues. The VDG performed well after a hail storm had knocked out all of the moisture from the air. It made a huge difference. I did however have a failure the night before the Gaussfest (therefore it cant count as a failure AT the Gaussfest) where I shared the earth from my VDG with the PiZero coils. A strong discharge killed the i2c on my Pi Zero. A swap of PiZeros, a number of downloads and a recompile got me back working in a hour or so. Glad I’d gone with the PIZero saved me £21 over a full Pi Failure.

 

Roger’s VDG


Roger was new to the Gaussfest and brought his commercial VDG, a very nice unit with LOADS of accessories. It ran fairly well during the day after he replaced the original 15year old+ belt. I suspect he suffered with the damp as well, but it didn’t affect his VDG as much as mine, I put this down to a lack leakage from his very smooth top terminal. (The VDG’s not his).

 

Steve’s coils

 

Steve brought a couple of coils and a VDG (sorry no photo) . His desktop Static gap coil was a good solid performer, but his VTTC was just a work of art. It performed well with those lovely straight arcs characteristic of VTTC’s. He vows to return to Cambridge, can’t wait.

 

Jason’s Coil


Jason’s coil ran very well, until he had a capacitor failure, which was a great shame, but hopefully easy to rectify.

Daves coil


Dave’s coil ran well as usual. Superb looking and a very reliable performer. I know Dave has plans for an upgrade, so look forward to the MkII

 

Phil & Phil’s coils


Slow motion (90fps capture)

Phil and Phils coils (now share so many parts I can’t tell them apart, I’m not sure their owners can either). Both coils ran very well giving 8-10′ arcs to the floor,ceiling and occasionally to a target earth. PhilS did have a problem with a stray topload cable that caused a secondary strike

DSC_1425

It didn’t appear to have done much damage, but only a strip down will tell.

 

Thanks to everyone that came and especially those who brought “stuff” to demonstrate. After talking to a couple of non-UK visitors they are very envious of our Teslathons, there are very few across the world, and the UK has two!

DSC_1323

See you all at the next Gaussfest or at Cambridge.

 

Other Photos / links from the event.

Steve Lane

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/+SteveLane/albums/6258914846725227377

 

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons

Nottingham Gaussfest 2004(September)

Gaussfest 1.5 2004

Gaussfest 2, 2004


Dereks AD-OLTC giving a very CW type arc to air.

 
AD-OLTC arc to earth. It acheived 23" long strikes.
"Testing" a motherboard at 16"
More "Testing"

Rob Greives Coil, Ready...
24" Arc to a tube.
AD-OLTC 24" to Air. Interrupted.
Robs coil again..


Robs coil, with a Breakout from a violet ray machine. provided by Mark Pilkington.

 

 


Dereks New Brick OLTC, wichs needs more tuning & Time & TLC to acheive its potential (no pun intended)

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons

Nottingham Gaussfest 2004

Gaussfest 2004

2004
Click on an image for a better picture

Phill Parry's coil breaking out on its own (again)
A rare Photo of PP's coil arcing from the topload.


PP's coil Heating up the element in a sodium vapour lamp.


PP's Maltease Cross tube. (Isn't a green cross a symbol for first aid?) )

Dave Kearley's First Coil,
Seams to work Well..


Adrian Fretwells Coil hits 32"


Af's coil doing it famous wire wool trick.


More Sparks from Adrian's Coil


Adrians Marx, First light Photo.(finished at 02:00 in the morning of the same day)
A Better Picture of Adrians Marx.
Derek Woodroffe's Tiny Tess Being Cute.


Dw's Maggie


DW's OLTC arcs 12" to ground.


DW's OLTC "Tests" a mother board.
<click for Video >


DW's Mille Tess giving toothpick sized arcs.

Dave Gambols Coil Arcs 6' to earth


DG's Coil streamer to air.
<Click for Video >


Dave Reeve's coil .


Lighting a Lamp the difficualt way.

Duncan Cadd's VDG (now Mark Hales's VDG)
Close up of the VDG.

VDG Belt Drive Detail.
Paul Abrams Ignition coil powered coil and a small Jacobs ladder powered by an obit.


Fusor from Mark Hales Hales


Plasma formation inside the fusor.

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons

Gaussfest Teslathon 2005

Gaussfest Feb 2005

Gaussfest Feb 2005
Click on an image for a better picture


My (Derek Woodroffe) coils
ready for demo'ing

My IRFP 460 SSTC giving 1' 
arcs to air. at 10BPS. 

Same but at a higher
break rate.

Close up.


One of my un-named small
SSTC's coils driven from a
single irfp460 breaking out
from a 20mm ball bearing.  

Same coil power arcing to a
Screwdriver.

My OLTC2 giving about 2.5'
streamers at 2.5KW!!



My Dead Silicon Total
for the day, One opto - OLTCII,
One Set of 460's from the SSTC
one diode string from the CW Multiplier,
and a pair of transistors from the 
emergency light.


Paul Benhams coil,
(ex Nick field, Ex Etc.Etc..)

A Strike to the roof 5'6"
Spot the emergency light.

Streamers to air..

Just to prove the strike length !!



Philip Strauss's Bonetti
Electrostatic machine

a 100mm arc from the output

a 150mm arc from the
output terminals

Richie Burnetts
HF CW SSTC


An arc to air at 700W 

The power burns the breakout.

A silent bushy discharge.

Nottingham Gaussfest, Teslathons

Gaussfest Teslathon 2006


Nottingham Gaussfest 2006
a UK Teslathon exibiting a collection of home made tesla coils
Click on an image for a better picture

My (Derek Woodroffe)
Small DRSSTC
My SSTC with a
Strontium Nitrate
covered breakout
My SSTC with a
Sodium Cloride
covered breakout
My Brick OLTC


Untill a fuse "went"
Completly, ends &
glass envelope
"disappeared"
Melvin Bennetts
Compact DRSSTC
Not bad sparks
for the first time
on Full Mains.
Martin Dale
Tests his new
Balast & Pole Pig


Martins Rotary, Built at
03:00AM before the GF 


Another Balast test
with a jacobs ladder
Martins Coil Gave some
good arcs
All mostly in the
right direction

With Minor damage
Easily repaired with
the loss of 6 turns
to the secondary.
And the coil lived
again with
Excelent
6'-7' arcs
All Mostly in the
Wrong Direction.

A 10 second
exposure, note a total
lack of arcs to the earthed rod.
Mark Hales brought a
large selection of gas
filled tubes
and decorative
Flowers

Roses


Skulls
Flamingos
Figurines

And a couple of
Plasma Globes


Of different sizes
Mike Harrison
brought his high speed camera
and his "destructotron"
Cap bank.

First attempt at
breaking a pint glass
Second attempt
The third attempt
was successfull.
Mike captured this and
many other "events" on his
high speed camera.
Take a look here

Philip Strauss brought
a SGTC

Which was very nicely
constructed
with every peice
polished!!
and a pretty good
performer too.


The Group Photo of
visitors and coilers.