In this first article, I share an experiment kit I designed for one of the most popular high-voltage experiments. My goal was to produce a boxed experiment kit for Tesla coil that can be easily assembled. Therefore, it’s fair to consider this project a kit design rather than a circuit design.
Before diving into the project details, I want to add that there’s something I find strange about high-voltage experiments. While running away from nature’s destructive lightning, with these experiments we are trying to create our own lightning in laboratories. Yes, the nature of electricity fascinates me, like anyone who loves science. But I believe that this behavior is driven by very primitive instinctual motivation. No matter the reason, I hope the content will serve its purpose.
Tesla coil is a resonant transformer circuit. It was designed by Nikola Tesla and patented on April 25, 1891. The first place to use is spark-gap radio transmitters, i.e. wireless telegraphy. Although many scientists worked in the same field during those years, today we call the circuit by his name. A Tesla coil consists of many circuit elements, spark gaps and capacitors. But we can’t see any of these components in the version I shared. Right. Actually, this is a “slayer exciter circuit”. You can think of it as a smaller and safer* version of a real Tesla coil.
In production of the experiment kit I preferred to use cardboard as the main material. The board of the kit is also a box where the parts can be stored. The lower part of the box is used for storage and the upper part is used for the assembly of the circuit elements. You can see the detailed production steps of the kit in the video below.
With respect to Nikola Tesla 
Technical Summary
The type of circuit used in this project is unipolar and may be the simplest circuit you can find. The triggering is done with a solid-state oscillator circuit; 2N2222A transistor used in this project. The diameter of the wire used in primary coil is 0.40 mm and the number of windings is 3. The diameter of the wire used in secondary coil is 0.35 mm and the number of windings is 194. The value of the resistor used is 22 kΩ.
Materials used
Cardboard, balsa wood, PVC pipe, wire, glue, masking tape, acrylic paint
Tools used
Scissors, stationery knife, needle-nose plier, diagonal plier, hand drill, soldering gun, tweezer, acrylic paint brush. drawing tools, measurement tools
Used for safety
Safety glasses, gas mask, cutting mat
*If you want to do experiments in this field or build a powerful coil, please consider safety! Tesla coil operates at very high voltages, it is a strong electric field source, it can affect electronic equipment and living organisms, it can cause the formation of harmful gases and rays.
Thank you kindly!
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