On Mon, Dec 21, 2020 at 03:41 PM, Pierre Martel wrote:

My electronic teacher told me to always check the power source as the first step with any debugging of any circuit.?

?

It always helped me solve many strange problems other tech were not able to fix.

?

My High School Electronics Teacher told us he liked Tesla Coils... so we built
and all enjoyed testing them. I built one out a large 10 inch dia sewer
pipe/tube, probably 8 foot vertical standing height.? It operated with a large
neon sign transformer controlled from/through a variac.

Fast forward, aka "smash-cut" about 8 to 10 years later... I was asked to sub
teach back at my old High School, so I went by the electronics classroom to
see if anyone I knew was still around.

The instructor had left, new guy in place and things were kind of the same. One
learns you can rarely ever "go back" and expect all to be as it was. After some
nice back and forth with the current instructor, I spotted my old 8 foot high Tesla
Coil stored in the back of the room.?? "Hey, there's my old Tesla Coil"...?

"You're the one who built that Tesla?" ... the instructor then proceed to tell me a story...

Years before, someone had stolen/borrowed the control variac from the Tesla Coil base
unit. I had never operated the Tesla up at anything above 20% of the Variac's full
range potential.. it was quite the monster.

Another person had later found the unit and decided to plug it in (less the variac)
direct to the way, full mains supply potential ... and off it went.

It started plasma cutting bolts across the room, keeping students pinned behind
benches and around corners. Anyone attempting to move away from cover was
quickly punished.? Someone managed to cut the building power about 25 minutes
later, the AC power cord was quickly cut off the Tesla supply...? The class room still
has hundreds of etch marks all over the walls and roof.

Wasn't my fault...?? left the school that day, never saw that Tesla Coil again. Wonder
if whom ever ended up with it... ever plugged it in.

cheers,

Hamm's Beer Neon Sign Power Transformer View/Reply Online | Reply To Group | Reply To Sender | Mute Topic | Top ^ | New Topic