Shocking Myself With a Tesla Coil Made of Lego

Рет қаралды 14,261

Жыл бұрын

Patreon: www.patreon.com/user?u=122597865
See my latest experiments and behind-the-scenes footage!
Who knew you could use Lego Technic to make a small spark-gap TESLA COIL!
In this video, I’ll show you how you can use those cheap ‘high-voltage generators’ all over Amazon and AliExpress and some Lego to build your own gadget that creates beautiful arcs of plasma, without any complex electronic circuits.
My technic MOC here is made of as much Lego as I could manage, including the primary coil, secondary coil, top load (with some help from my mini figs), spark gap, and switch. The input voltage is a small 6 volts, which makes the output pretty impressive! I’m stunned by the beautiful plasma arcs it can output, especially considering how compact this model is.
Please excuse the ‘click-bait’ title here, but I think in this case, it is apt!
This small spark-gap tesla coil can produce plasma arcs that jump over a couple inches, and you can even vary the spark gap distance to get different frequencies! To demonstrate it, I’ve used some fluorescent bulbs, neon gas tubes, flash tubes, and some LED bulbs. I’ve also (accidentally) used myself a few times.
My main goal with this project was to demonstrate how easy it can be to create your own tesla coil using off-the-shelf parts you can cheaply buy online, and without much prior knowledge of tesla coils or electronics theory. And of course if you have some Lego, all the better. Who says Lego is a toy for kids - let the adults play too 😀
#lego #technic #moc #highvoltage #teslacoil

Пікірлер: 64

@Rainstalker Жыл бұрын

I love this because it combines Lego with practical engineering. And it's stupidly cool too

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Thanks, that's the general mix I'm going for! 🙏 Though there will be some more pure Lego coming too

@Kids_Scissors Жыл бұрын

Feels like something lego would make I the 1950s. Like you could see it right next to the Uranium lab and the gas powered pogo stick

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

I'd kill for kits like that!

@redion8575 Жыл бұрын

I’m glad I found this channel and can be part of the early comers, seeing the quality of these videos I can see this channel become big one day

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Aw thanks for the encouragement! I'm having fun making the videos, so just happy a few folks are also interested 😁

@CG_Pigeon Жыл бұрын

put ur hand *directly* on it, then turn it on it gives nice tickles then u wake up in a bed surrounded by people with masks likes its 2020 again :D

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

If I wake up in 2020 again, I'll take another hit off that coil! 😵

@CG_Pigeon Жыл бұрын

@@JamiesBrickJams lol xD

@FlammableElectronics 10 ай бұрын

@@JamiesBrickJamsone hit? Bruh lmao I have done multiple from my large coil and it burns

@Kerosene682 Жыл бұрын

I'm really genuinely excited to see this channel grow because it's relatively new this stuff is honestly genius and I love it it appeals to both the lego community and the people who are more into electrical shenanigans which is why I'm confident it'll gain traction super happy I found my way here because the quality is incredible and I'm here early so I can watch the sub count rise overtime the content itself is also interesting, engaging, and overall extremely enjoyable as soon as I saw the lego speaker, I was absolutely hooked I have a feeling I'm gonna be coming back for every single new upload

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

That's an amazing comment, thanks so much for the encouragement 😁 I really do appreciate hearing that some folks are getting something out of these experiments. It might be a bit odd mixing Lego with non-Lego ideas, like basic electronics, but I feel like there's a lot of cross interest for makers and hobbyists. Will keep the videos coming!

@vipranshmishra7472 10 ай бұрын

around 5 years ago i did the same with my toy spiderman but it melted as my tesla coil was to powerful for it ( i used three microwave oven transformers in series as high voltage power supply) . love your videos keep it up.

@JamiesBrickJams 10 ай бұрын

Haha that's awesome 😂 RIP Spiderman. 3 MOTs sounds ridiculously powerful! Well done man, better you than me - pretty sure I wouldn't survive those experiments 😅

@Lykaotix Жыл бұрын

The first video I have planned for my engineering channel is literally about those exact same boost converters! I just haven't had the time to narrate and edit it all down yet 🤣 I'll definitely drop the vid link once I finally get it posted, though it won't be nearly as awesome as a Lego Tesla coil/taser 😊

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

That'd be awesome, do drop the link! They're certainly handy little things, and they pack quite a wallop for how small they are. Good luck with your vid!

@iplaygames- Жыл бұрын

so happy i got recommended this

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Me too now 😄

@hipposhark 10 ай бұрын

i made an emp with these things a couple of years ago, not the greatest but could wipe out kitchen timers and broke my multimeter

@JamiesBrickJams 10 ай бұрын

Haha damn that's awesome! Do you mean like one of those slayer circuit type EMPs?

@trevorhaddox6884 10 ай бұрын

"Zapping termination in 10 mississippi..."

@JamiesBrickJams 10 ай бұрын

😁

@dronko-fire-blaster Жыл бұрын

cool, I would't even come close to that, thoughs voltage multiples are scary, everything I have heard about them is bad, though now I want to make a tellsla coil even more now!

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

It's worth a try - they're fascinating contraptions! This one is pretty tame, and usually your hand will involuntarily jerk away when the voltage becomes too uncomfortable. But generally good advice to avoid the business end 😅

@bonksrys9341 Жыл бұрын

Love the video keep it up ❤️

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Thanks v much, appreciate it! 🙏

@ElPsyCongroo. 5 ай бұрын

Really good video! I love how clean the build is, and the output is quite decent for the capacitors you are using, i have dissasembled those modules and the caps are extremely small. I made a portable one with a bug zapper once too, they are fun to play with for a while but you should build a big one with MOT's or NST and combine it with lego, it would be so cool. I just have one question, did you ground the secondary? Because i feel like those arcs are small for such a high input voltage and considering that it is in resonance.

@JamiesBrickJams 5 ай бұрын

I'm impressed you managed to take one of those apart - I tried and gave up after realising how annoying that epoxy filler is (or whatever that stuff is)! My original idea was to build one using a high voltage circuit from an electronic lighter (similar to Jay from the Plasma Channel) but decided to stick to this for the sake of simplicity. I did indeed ground the secondary (on the metal leg of my table), but I think the main limiting factor is, as you said, the tiny caps in the booster. I totally want to make a much bigger one though! Maybe even try a pancake coil

@ElPsyCongroo. 5 ай бұрын

@@JamiesBrickJams you should definetely do it, I have never worked with pancake coils but I think they are way harder to wind compared to normal ones. Maybe you could use a flyback for the next one, I like plasma channel but most of his builds are really low power so I'm pretty sure you can make something way more powerful than him with one. Also, I think this module could work for a bigger coil if you add another cap at the end of it, in my current coil I am using four leyden jars and only 4kv input (two MOT in series, ballasted by another MOT) and I get 15cm arcs but the coil is around 13cm, I'm sure you can make one better than that with real caps and calculated resonance.

@Jevelthelazy 9 ай бұрын

can you try to build a binary adder completely out of lego

@JamiesBrickJams 9 ай бұрын

That is probably relatively straightforward, but there are folks (like 2in1bricking, and Nico71) who have done a phenomenal job building mechanical computing concepts, so I'd leave it to them to iterate in those - they're much better mechanical engineers than me

@FlammableElectronics 10 ай бұрын

Where did u connect the other end of the secondary to? I am resorting from a sstc to a sgtc for my 1260 winding secondary

@JamiesBrickJams 10 ай бұрын

Ah yes good question - that other side goes to ground. Mine is just blue-tacked to the leg of my table (which is metal).

@FlammableElectronics 10 ай бұрын

@@JamiesBrickJams thanks!

@Danker1248 10 ай бұрын

Is the bottom lead of the secondary coil not connected to anything? I tried following how you wired everything but cant seem to get it all figured out

@JamiesBrickJams 10 ай бұрын

Good question! That's your ground - it needs to be attached to something bigish and preferably metal. I just bluetacked it to the leg of my table (which is metal). Just shout if you'd like any other help - the overall circuit is extremely simple (it might just look complicated because of the Lego)

@tobiechandler169 Жыл бұрын

Only 5 likes? This is awesome!

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Cheers man 😁

@Oddo22 Жыл бұрын

i hope u remember me when u get 1mil subs

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Always and forever 😁

@cannedwither8494 Жыл бұрын

I wish i had this much lego technic i have like a 15*15*15 box of random bits and you always need to figure a way to build what you want with a extremely limited amout of stuff so it sucks a bit how do u get so much? is it a kit?

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Totally know what you mean - growing up I was always pretty limited. Guess that's the beauty of being an adult - we can waste our money on the dumbest stuff 😅 Guess I've just bought a few too many technic sets and now have a lot of spare pieces!

@cannedwither8494 Жыл бұрын

@@JamiesBrickJams thats nice i always want to keep creating stuff tbh

@ImXyper Жыл бұрын

nice

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Thanks 😁

@death8418 11 ай бұрын

I made a taser gauntlet that was powered by a drone battery out of these

@JamiesBrickJams 11 ай бұрын

That's awesome man, love it 😁 Do they hurt much? I've touched a couple of the weaker ones, but not these ones

@death8418 11 ай бұрын

@@JamiesBrickJams yeah they hurt quite a bit lol. Ive had limbs go numb.

@engi_games 10 ай бұрын

He made a taser

@JamiesBrickJams 10 ай бұрын

Yup, learner that the hard way, several times 😁

@user-vy5hc9ud6l Жыл бұрын

Maybe you should avoid sharp edges on your top load because as we can see it has a lot of loss due to corona

@JamiesBrickJams Жыл бұрын

Yeah you're totally right, it's definitely quite lossy. I originally tried various smooth top loads, and one very nice toroid, but didn't see an appreciable improvement in output (this thing is pretty underpowered), so I just went with this sharp one to intentionally get some more impressive footage of the Corona! Good advice though for when I build a more powerful one 😄

@Jevelthelazy 9 ай бұрын

is this an engineering channel or a lego channel

@JamiesBrickJams 9 ай бұрын

Ha good question. I like to think of it as a channel used to inspire folks to experiment with new ideas, using LEGO as a theme to learn about them