Slashdot Mirror
Musical Tesla Coils Perform Zelda
heychris writes "You've gotta love the Chicago Tribune's story on Tesla Coil hobbyists from the first sentence. 'Under a starry Saturday sky behind a Lake Zurich warehouse, three men unload a small flamethrower, electric cabling, neon-tube "light sabers," about 80 pounds of chain mail and two 7-foot devices that look like monster-movie props.' So what does one do with 1.6 million volts and a Tesla coil or two? Play 110dB music, of course."
Thanks for knocking the LHC offline AGAIN!
They have a similar setup every year at DragonCon in Atlanta during the "Mad Scientist's Ball". I've never actually been that that particular track due to some insane lines (queue up 2-3 hours early if you want to get into that one), but speaking to other attendees it's been pretty cool, and certainly is popular every year.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
There are likely only about 1,000 Tesla coil hobbyists worldwide.
There are quite a few more of us around as the Pupman mailing list http://www.pupman.com/ and the Geek Group http://www.thegeekgroup.org/ can attest.
Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted.
... including people using such devices as guitar amplifiers.
Would that be an electric guitar?
Oh man that's a knee slapper!
Why not play Tesla instead?
They call it 'modulated thunder'. Thunder is just the noise produced by expanding gas heated by an electric discharge. The coils are actually being switched at several kHz, producing repeating 'thunder' at a frequency above the point where you stop hearing the individual claps, and instead hear a tone. It effectively is a low-mid range speaker.
Based on chatting with them when they did Penguicon in Michigan they use a control circuit to turn the coils on and off at a specific rate. This allows them to use the actual lightning breaks per second to generate sound. E.g. 128 breaks per second roughly equals a sound at 128 Hz.
When they were coming out here they asked us to provide 2 note MIDI files for playing. If I remember correctly the computer uses MIDI to drive the control circuitry that is fed optically (to avoid coupling to the coil itself) to the drive electronics in the coil. So not so much pre-programmed as interpreted.
Really neat technology they have put together and darned loud! I wonder if they ever built the other two notes they talked about building at Penguicon. Hearing 4 of those going in harmony would be sweet!
Two notes only. Each coil produces one note. At least that is how they were when I saw em a couple of years ago and the setup looks the same.
Sound in real life. Loud. Really freaking loud. These are 7 foot tall units putting out sparks around 7-10 feet controlled. Sound is point source to the coil it is originating from, sorta. The sorta being pretty much the area of the spark itself, so the source is wider than one would think. Highest and lowest dunno, though it had a very good audible range. The sound was a bit harsh due to the nature of how it was being generated and the noise from the bolts themselves.
All in all darned impressive. Very well done and they were very knowledgeable. I had the chance to sit down and chat with them for a little bit before they left and all I can say is "wow".
I can't speak to the rest of this - though it sounds quite dangerous - but DON'T FUCK AROUND WITH A CRT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING
There's banks of capacitors in there that, if charged up, will kill you in an instant, if you're unlucky or stupid enough to bridge one. They hold about 30kV. If you want to try this, make sure you leave the TV unplugged for a few days, to drain the caps - or properly discharge it. In theory, you can ground the anode - but I'm not qualified to ensure that's safe. I can't speak for the rest of it, but it sounds fairly dangerous as well.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
And if frequency sweeps are possible, then FM synthesis should be possible.
And if FM is possible then the DOOM soundtrack can be played. (!)
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.