Putting Something Back

[bearded_teki]

At the moment i'm just a mere mortal punter (or should the be munter :crazy:) in the rave community, i dont get invited to much but what i have been to i've liked immensely, now i feel i ought to put something back.
That and as others have said on here, actually helping to put on a party and seeing people enjoying themselves is very rewarding, and for some its the best way to fully appreciate a party, it also seems like a great way to make good friends.

Now, i have absolutely no skills on a set of decks and no hope of ever having any so thats out, but as my name suggests i'm a techie type (i prefer engineer), so that offers at least one avenue.
Whilst i could probably build and run a rig i dont really have the connection for it to be fully utilised and i dont have the cash for it being a student.

What i do have for offer is my skills as an electronic engineer, so this is an open offer to anyone in the southwest (i'm based in Exeter) who needs anything fixing or even something designed.
I've always wanted to say something like this:

For hire: Electronic Engineer, will work for beer, drugs or food.

Another interest of mine (damn it i've got too many), is Tesla Coils.
Simply put, these are electrical devices which turn low(ish) voltages into very high voltage which then arcs from a sphere or torroid at the top of the coil which looks amazing.
They range in size from tiny (http://htm?http://www.extremeelectronics.co.uk/enyweeny/enyweeny.htm) ones all the way up to huge (http://www.teslasystems.com/gallery/index.html) ones which throw lightning 10's of feet.

I think a Tesla Coil would go down pretty well at a rave (they're amazing enough sober), so what i would like to do is set myself up as a sort of high voltage special effects rig with my own van so i can transport the bulky Tesla Coil components around.
I would also definately need my own generator since a decent size coil will pull something in the 2 - 10 kVA range and high voltage doesnt mix well with sensitive electronic equipment such as amps and mixers.
I have already built one moderate sized coil which was doing 3 foot arcs before i over did it and blew up the power supply, so it would be too difficult to come up with something bigger.

What i want to know is would there be any enthusiasm for such a thing from the those already established in the rave community? i wouldnt want to spend money i dont have on putting something together if everyone thought it was crap, although i suppose i could go round doing school fetes if that were the case.

See the attached pics (not the best) for my coil in action.

Thanks,

Rob

[Acidfairy]

They look smart as fuk mate.... and ur rite they look good sober so i can only imagine what they look like otherwise.. :wink:

[Raj]

braw:groucho:

i have a Yamaha amp that burnt out as the result of a [petrol] generator surge - needs some components sourcing and then rebuildingraaa

i have a list of parts i would love to get my hands on but no idea where to find them - can you help me?

cheersraaaraaaraaa

[General Lighting]

from my POV it looks excellent; but bear in mind I have a bit of an interest in "mad scientist" stuff ;)

It would be good as part of an art installation at an indoor venue; (worth giving it a try for the winter season!) but I could see it being problematic at an outdoor rave; that design looks rather fragile, and I can see curious people approaching too near to it and getting zapped.

Also would it not (unless put into some sort of enclosure that also acts as a faraday cage) create horrendous RF interference would find its way into audio equipment in the vicinity?

That said I reckon there are plenty of crews who could do with an engineer to assist them.

There is never a shortage of rig kit which needs maintenance (something often overlooked in the enthusiasm to hold parties)...

[Raj]

WRT radio interference the rigs can be a bit of a pain and pick up mere mobiles so that lovely looking toy is probably a no-no unless you can cage it:cry:

it does look braw though:groucho:

[bearded_teki]

Thanks for the support.

raj,

I'd be glad to help, fire away (by pm if you like).

General,

Yes you are right on both counts, the design is bit fragile in places but that was only because i bodged a lot of it, you can make a TC pretty sturdy with a good design.
As for the RFI, yes it is pretty bad, the coil is resonant at around 200 kHz but sparks have a nasty habbit of producing broadband noise.
However, the RFI can be reduced considerably with proper tuning, careful design, good earthing, separate power supply and of course using a Faraday cage, enough to have it on the site but not close to the rig.

It would also be very irresponsible to fire it up without a cage at a rave (or anywhere in public) when theres lots of muntered people running around, as one of my mates told me, you just want to reach out and touch the arcs, except it isnt safe as fuck.
A Faraday cage should be pretty easy to construct using fencing materials but what would look better would be to put it inside a geodesic dome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome), which would act as the cage and could support a tarp to keep rain off.

Rob

[Raj]

i will go and hunt out the list of parts - it may take me a bit as i backed it up off the machin a year ago:groucho:

thanks
raaaraaaraaaraaa

geodesics are just wicked arent they ;)

[Raj]

:devil_wag:devil_wag:devil_wagheckle follows bearded teki :wink::wink: [be warned]:devil_wag:devil_wag:devil_wag

i note from your other posts that you are very [rightly so] concerned about the fuel and enviromental situations in the world today

please could you explain to me how [with that green stance in mind] you justify something as energy hungry as tesla coils simply for looking at because they are pretty [ i agree they are pretty BTW]

you could run an amazing laser light show on that power requirement or a huge bank of roboscans:weee:

:devil_wag:devil_wag:devil_wagheckle ends:devil_wag:devil_wag:devil_wag

:wink::wink::wink:

[bearded_teki]

heckle follows

Thats ok, i regularly play devils advocate with people.


please could you explain to me how [with that green stance in mind] you justify something as energy hungry as tesla coils simply for looking at because they are pretty [ i agree they are pretty BTW]

I guess you could say the same for a lot of things, personally i dont see the point in wasting huge ammounts of energy lighting up a field so people can watch a bunch of metrosexuals kick a pigs bladder round it, but hey, each to their own.

To put it in perspective though a Tesla Coil doesnt actually consume that much energy, my coil uses about 2 kW but it cant really be run for extended periods because the components get stressed and heat up (this is normal, TC components have a very hard life).
So in order for it to use 1 kWh or 1 unit of electrical energy it would have to be running at full power for half an hour, i.e 2 kW x 0.5 h = 1 kWh.
Whereas an electric shower which commonly have ratings of about 12 kW would use for a 10 minute shower 12 kW x 0.166 h = 2 kWh of energy.

Again, its perfectly possible to run a Tesla Coil from a source of renewable energy such as a wind turbine, although if you want bigger sparks you need a bigger turbine (spark length has a correlation with input power) or more of them.
Alternatively you could run it off a generator running on waste vegetable oil then you are recycling as well.

[Raj]

:satisfied:cyclop_1::satisfied:satisfied:satisfied :satisfied:satisfied:satisfied

[SdZ]

Nicola Tesla was a genius. Ive watched a lot of very insteresting documentaries about his life.

I want a tesla coil , your looks well cool!

[the rev]

You can come and have a look at my generator if you want mate! :weee: