13
User ManUal
v1.6
Hooray! Good job following the directions. Share your success on
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your build on our website and social media!
If you paid no attention to the direction of your primary
winding, 50% of the time, your coil will do nothing!
The
phasing on the board needs to match the direction in which
your primary is wound. Simply rotate the phasing jumpers and
try again.
If switching the phasing doesn’t help, don’t panic! The majority of
issues are caused by poor soldering or an obvious mistake during
assembly. Check the following:
n
Is your primary plugged in?
n
Is your interrupter actually outputting a signal?
n
Is the antenna positioned too far away?
n
Have you tried both phasing directions?
n
Is your coil plugged in and AC power working?
n
Is the fuse installed?
If you don’t find any obvious errors, continue to the
troubleshooting guide in step 15.
If it just works…
If nothing
happens…
Common Problems and Solutions
Coils do nothing half the time!
50% of the time, your board’s phasing will not
match the direction of your primary. Simply
rotate your phasing jumpers and try again.
Rotate the
phasing jumpers
If you see an arc
down the coil...
If you hear an arc
but don’t see it...
Stop! Your driver is working (hooray!), but it’s outperforming your
secondary. If you run the coil for any longer when you see arcs
down the secondary, you’re going to degrade the wire’s enamel,
and in the worst case, burn through the fine wire of the secondary.
Fortunately there’s an easy solution, and that’s to add more
varnish. Add varnish until you think there’s enough, and then add
one more coat. There’s no such thing as too much varnish.
If you need to patch just one spot, you can use some hot glue,
electrical tape or kapton tape. Put packing tape on top of the
varnish to add extra insulation.
Stop! Do not turn up the power! Increasing power on a coil that’s
misbehaving never ends well. Always stop and fix the problem
before turning it up.
Several things could be happening when there’s a weak output.
The coil could be arcing on the inside rather than from the break-
out point, which is caused by stray drips of glue or sagging wire
on the inside of the secondary tube.
Problems with the logic or gate drive signal could be causing the
coil to perform very weakly. Check your 15V rail carefully using
the procedure in Step 15. Check that nothing is shorting on the
underside of the board.
90°
DO NOT CONTINUE OPERATING A COIL
THAT’S ARCING OVER
Taking good care of your secondary is
essential to a long-lasting Tesla coil. As soon
as there is an arc on the secondary, the
insulation and wire enamel are compromised.
The problem will only get worse with time
unless you treat it right away. Stop operating
immediately and patch the burned spot with a
dab of hot glue, epoxy, varnish, or even tape.
It’s possible to get a completely arc-free
secondary that lasts a long time if you take
care of it properly.
