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

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

 

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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!

See you all at the next Gaussfest or at Cambridge.

 

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Other Photos / links from the event.

Steve Lane

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

 

Notingham Gaussfest 2014

Nottingham Gaussfest 2014	General Photos	Chris's SG Tesla coil	Chris looks to see where the sparks come from
Chris's Tesla Coil	Chris's Tesla Coil	Phil or Phillips Tesla coils	Daves Tesla Coil
Dave's Tesla Coil	Dave's Tesla Coil	Dave's Tesla Coil	Dave's Tesla Coil
Dereks Arc of time	Dereks Tesla Engine	Dereks Aetheriser	Dereks Aetheriser
	V8 Tesla Engine Sparks	Phil or Philips Coil	Phil or Philips Coil
Dereks Oval Coil Problems	Dereks Oval Coil Problems	Dereks Oval Coil Problems	Dereks Oval Coil Problems
Dereks Oval Coil Problems	Dereks Oval Coil Problems	Arcs to the floor	Notts Gaussfest 2014
Notts Gaussfest 2014	Notts Gaussfest 2014	Phil or Phillps Coil	Phil or Phillps Coil
Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil
Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil
Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil
Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil
Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil or Phillips Coil	Phil and Phillip
Phil and Phillips coil	Phil and Phillips coil	Phil and Phillips coil	Phil and Phillips coil
Phil and Phillips coil	Phils coil earth damage	Phils coil earth damage	Flourecent lamp after the Gaussfest
Flourecent lamp after the Gaussfest

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)

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.

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 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.