TARDIS Tesla is an electric performance/game involving two large tesla
coils, a replica TARDIS, and sonic screwdriver TV remotes. The way it works
is there are two players each with a sonic screwdriver that they use to play
a game of
Bulls and Cows
These sonic screwdrivers have accelerometers in
them that detects movement like up, down, left, right, ect. The players
move their screwdriver to input a sequence of commands assigned to each
movement. Each screwdriver has a corresponding coil it controls via a
computer program and arduinos. The Two Players (or companions) demonstrate
their ability to use a sonic screwdriver to gain access to the TARDIS.
Whenever they enter in part of the combo, their corresponding coil fires a
bolt of lightning at the TARDIS. If it's correct, the bolt sounds like a
sonic screwdriver and if it's incorrect sounds like an error beep. Who ever
wins gets to pick a song to play on the coils.
Why do you want to make this and why should we donate?
When I was younger I went to Bay Area Maker Faire San Mateo and got inspired to pursue
learning electronics, technology, and many other skills. This is why I want to make
TARDIS Tesla to inspire kids and adults alike to learn more about the world around them.
Also as of right now people use Tesla Coils to make music and do performances where they
basically shock a bunch of different things. I am trying to broaden the spectrum of
possibility for uses for Tesla Coils. So help me inspire the world through TARDIS Tesla
and get some awesome rewards in the process!
Budget:
This project is going to cost around $4,000.
$2,400 for the Coils
$500 for the TARDIS and sonic screwdrivers
$500 for the electronics of Bulls and Cows
$600 for other necessary items
Note: Any extra money will help a lot and goto, improvements and spare parts.
Project Views:
Over 1,010 people have visited our funding page at GoFundMe, if each person donated $10
we would have over $10,000.
Goal Deadline: March 20, 2013 to exhibit at Bay Area Maker Faire May 2013
If I do not meet this deadline, I will be exhibiting my prototype and
progress at Bay Are Maker Faire, and plan on having it completed for
the East Bay Mini Maker Faire 2013.
Experience/Past work
I have worked on several other projects here are a few
~250kv Spark Gap Tesla Coil (SGTC)
~250kv (1ft bolts) Audio Modulated Solid State Tesla Coil (AMSSTC)
Tesladuino an arduino that can withstand high voltage
Dual Atari Punk Console
CD Drive Dominos
Super Nintenduino
Audio Modulated Flyback driver
Portable Telephone System (PTS)
Exhibitions
Diablo Valley Mac Users Group 2011
Exploratorium Open Make 2012
San Mateo Maker Fare 2012 (San Francisco Bay Area)
2012 Celiac Camp at Camp Arroyo
Oakland East Bay Mini Maker Faire 2012
Ace Monster Toys
Tri Valley Explorers Halloween Celebration
February 16 2013-Lawrence Hall of Science
February 17 2013-Ace Monster Toys
San Mateo Maker Fare 2013 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Up coming Exhibitions
October 20 2013 East Bay Mini Maker Faire (Oakland)
May 2014 San Mateo Maker Fare
A note from Hacker Scouts:
We are proud to be helping Cam reach his Maker Faire goal. As a member of our Hacker Scouts Guild 001 in Oakland, we have the privledge of seeing him work on a variety of
projects with precision, ingenuity and passion. He also mentors the younger members of the Guild with compassion and a cool ability to share knowledge. Between the Hacker
Scouts mentors and his mentors at Arc Attack, he has the support to achieve his dream. We believe in him and his TARDIS Tesla, and ask you to contribute to his campaign.
Found out how much my VARIAC weighs & learned how to wire it up. It weighs 83 pounds! It's weird I thought it would be easier to move since I can pick up people the weigh
over 120 pounds, but since it is 83 pounds in a 1 sqr/ft area its hard. I learned I have to stretch before and after I move it so I don't get a sore back.
I now have a good friend of mine helping me with building TARDIS Tesla and doing my coil shows. Danny and I have cleared out his garage and that is now our workshop/lab.
Also since my stage name is CamDAX I want Danny to be STEEL BOY. The name came to me when we were at the store buying some steel for welding. He and I are working on a
MOT Welder we call MOTy (project article comming soon).
Also his mom is helping us with getting some sponsorships. We haven't sent out our sponsorship letters but we are hoping to get a few cool sponsors, that will give us
product to use as well as money.
Note: Yes we remembered to zero out the scale with the wood on it.
TARDIS Tesla is in a new contest! The Road to Maker Faire, the prize is $2,500. please goto
http://goo.gl/eGqbP
click vote and to make sure you voted refresh the page and it should say "I voted".
You can vote ONCE PER DAY per facebook, so vote everyday if you can!!
I've got almost all of the components installed, we still have a few components that
are coming in the mail. Then these boards are done! After that, we just have to wait
for more funds to roll in to buy the rest of the electronics for the coils, wind them,
then do the wood working, and we're done with the coils!
Note: SMD soldering is REALLY easy and in my opinion even funner!
We have received the coil driver PCBs from our Arc Attack friend Steve Ward. We also
ordered the components for both boards so we can get working on assembling them. After
that is all coiling, wiring, hardware, & wood working.
Sadly we lost the GoFundMe Makeathon
Hopefully we can build TARDIS Tesla and get it funded in 7 weeks!
Note: Get someone you know to donate some money and let people know they can donate.
We need the help!
We got the big capacitors for the full bridges of the two coils in the mail today!
Also we have changed out rewards. People who have donated $25 now get a FASTPASS as well as
the sticker. People who donated $50 get the FASTPASS and the photo. The TIME LORD ($100)
level now includes a "Don't mess with Geeks, We Have Tesla Coils!" t-Shirt.
At DAX Lab:
We just got the backer reward stickers in the mail, which will be sent back out to backers shortly.
In Process:
We have some Big capacitors, some small ones, and the coil driver PCBs are on there way to the lab. We have also got a list together of the components for the PCBs. We just need $105 to order the parts and we can start assembling thoughts. Then we just have to order the rest of the components, wind the coils, and do some wood working to finish them. Once that's finished its TARIDS Time!!
Funding:
We have sadly not received the Awesome Foundations $1,000 grant. I am hoping we win the makeathon on GoFundMe, which I hope will be $5,000.
We finally got our VARIAC in the mail!!! Let me tell you it's a lot bigger than I
expected, supposedly 18.LB according to Fedex. There is no way its 18lb, I need to get
it weighed. We are working on getting the coil driver PCBs and components together so we
can start assembling thoughts. Then we just have to wind the coils and do some wood
working to finish them. We have received a total of $297.25 (after Fees) from GoFundMe.
In about two weeks we will know weather or not we are receiving the Awesome Foundations
$1,000 grant or if we won the makeathon on GoFundMe which is $1,500-$5,000. We are
hoping for both the more money we get the better, more interesting, & fun TARDIS Tesla
will be!
Note: Photo is a comparison between my foot (~10in from big toe to heal), my 110 VARIAC (6 1/2in), & the new 220v 31amp VARIAC (13in or 1ft 1in)
We have finally purchased the VARIAC we need to test our coils out! We have $225 6% of our $4,000 goal. A reacent generous donator gave us $100! Please help me by sharing my project on blogs, facebooks, twitters, forums, ect. Also if you haven't donated please help me out even if its only $10 or less so we can finish by Bay Area Maker Faire 2013.
Stay tuned for more information when we get the VARIAC in the mail!
Lawrence Hall Of Science Presentation February 16 2013
My quadcopter uses a KK Multicopter board & I have blue EL Wire on it with some
red LEDs for night time flying. I have to say the board its not the best at
hovering.
Ok so I have now found out that the kk board flies much better when
the quad is heavier. I attached my iPhone to my quad with gaffers
tape to record video, it added the optimum amount of weight. After
that I could get the quad to hover in the same ~10x10ft area.
BATEC's project is to build an Audio Modulated Full-Bridge Solid State Tesla Coil (SSTC) for research in High Voltage Sculpture and music.
Our mediums for these sculptures are glass, metal, & electronics. The photo ABOVE is of a Spark Gap Tesla Coil of mine that can not be audio modulated.
Angry Birds Cold Play-Paradise
Carol Of The Bells
The Cars
Doctor Who
Drops Of Jupiter
Fireflies
Firework
Gangnam Style
Grenade
Happy Birthday
Harry Potter
Hells Bells Hey Soul Sister
I Gotta Feeling
I Like To Move It
I Shot The Sheriff
Imperial March
Iron Man
Love Shack
Lucy In The Sky Of Diamonds
Mission Imposible
Pirates Of The Caribbean
Play that Funky Music
Poker Face
Popcorn Quantum Leap
Reveille
Rolling In The Deep
Scooby Doo
Secrets
Sexy And I Know It
Sweet Dreams
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Wake Me Up When September Ends
We Will Rock You
When I Look To The Sky
Yellow Submarine
YMCA
This is the schematic for what our coil is based on.
From our mentor Steve Ward's Site
We made a few additions like a 200v DC full-bridge and fiber optic control. I will be posting my schematics soon.
We are working on getting our schematics together for anyone who would like to replicate our design.
Please Note: These schematics are not final and might not work completely.
This is the interrupter for the coil. There are two interrupters, one is a basic 555 Interrupter for testing and experimental purposes, and the other is an audio
modulator interrupter. You use a SPDT switch with no center off to switch between the two interrupters. There signal is then sent out over a
fiber optic voice link kit with a few modifications.
This is the Firing Circuity which turns on and off the Full-Bridge to switch power into the primary. It receives a signal in on T1 that enables and disables the UCCs
to produce the desired effect.
Note: We are not responsible for any injurys or damage due to attempting to replicate our Tesla Coil.
Lawrence Hall Of Science Coil Show February 16 2013
On February 16 2013 I did a coil show for Lawrence Hall Of Science Open Make. I had my Audio
Modulated Solid State Tesla Coil, Spark Gap Tesla Coil, Tesladuino, & CD Drive Dominos. I
also had a piano and guitar for people to play music and interact with the Tesla Coil.
I did 5 shows, each ~30 minutes. Each show was standing room only and there were at least 40 people in each audience, so a total of about
240-250 people came to the shows. Then after the shows I did the "Meet The Makers" presentation in the auditorium that is posted below.
If you would like to download my slide show in PDF format
Click Here
For a video of the "Meet The Makers" presentation I did at Lawrence Hall Of Science
Click Here
On Oct 25 2012 I did a show with the coil for Ace Monster Toys a Hackerspace in the East San Francisco Bay Area.
We even did some experiments with the coi.
Here I have my Heart sculpture on top of the coil.
Here I'm holding the grounding wire up to the coil.
Here I'm manning the VARIAC. In the distance on top of the coil is my Tesladuino!
In this photo I have just an ordinary brake out point on the coil.
Yes that is just an ordinary Florescent light tube and it is lighting up by the energy in the air.
Notes: They enjoyed my show they even posted about it on their blog! CamDAX visits!
On July 29 2012 I did a show with the coil for Camp Celiac in Livermore, CA. I played Sexy And I Know It, Hey Soul Sister, & Fire Flies.
Everyone Loved Hey Soul Sister they where singing along to the coil.
Video Bellow
I gave a bref over view explaining what the strange contraption I had put on there stage was. Take note of my Arc Attack Shirt, MOSFET Necklace,
and MOSFET Ear Ring.
And then I turned it on.
I showed them lighting florescent tubes without wires.
Some ground action
They got even more ecstatic when I started shocking my self.
Our show at Maker Faire went great! We got to the faire on Thursday and we hadn't got our coil working yet.
We went over to meet Steve Ward and he asked if the coil was working. When we told him it wasn't, he came over and started to troubleshoot our coil.
As Steve was working on it Joe, John, & Sam came over too! Joe was like "You know Steve is good at designing tesla coils, but I'm good at fixing them".
Over the next two days they spent their free time at our table fixing it. They must have been helping us for like 10 hours. They could have gone and
enjoyed socializing with the other Makers during the dinner, but no, they stayed and got it working. They all had some part in helping, Steve, Joe, &
Sam all worked on the circuit boards and John kept my mom and little brother company. We stayed there until after nine both nights until the security guards
kicked us out! The guard gave us a 10min warning on Friday night and real quickly we figured out all the problems. Real fast we put it back together
and fired it up. It worked like a charm, audio modulation and all!
CamDAX had tons of his stuff on the tables to show and people loved playing on the piano into the AMSSTC. We were worried that
people wouldn't want to check out our space because Arc Attack had bigger coils. We soon found out getting to play on the piano into the coil drew
people into our space right after an Arc Attack performance!
People just enjoyed the control we allowed them to have over the Coil.
People flocked to the table just to see, hear, & play.
Here is the recycled computer PSU box we put all the Coil's gate driver boards in. The right half has the AC step-down transformer, fan, and ground point.
The left half has the fiber optic receiver, and the gate driver.
We fried our bridge by hooking up the gate drive transformer "GDT" wrong and I E-6000 it all together. So we had to scrap the old bridge and build a new one.
We added screw terminals so we can replace the MOSFETs easily. They also help with checking to see if they got fried. We can place our multimeters probes on
the screws of the screw terminals to check them.
We had to replace our GDT because it wasn't Ferrite, secure the screw terminals better to the perfboard, and Added caps in places to help with driving the MOSFETs and
filtering the audio signal.
Notes:
It went so well I think we should do other events maybe Mini Maker Faires.
We have been building and testing. We Built and tested the Tesladuino.
This is the Gate Drive circuit.
This is the Full-Bridge.
Here is the Arduino for the control panel. It runs all the safeties.
This is the back of our control panel.
Notes:
We got the simple 555 modulator working and sending the signal over fiber optic to the drive circuit.
We are having problems with the audio modulator circuit. The 100R or 100ohm resistor coming off of the
second NPN transistor is getting very hot as well as the 555. We tried out the drive circuit and it didn't work
because Digi-Key gave us a fried capacitor. We had Digi-key rush order us a new capacitor. We installed it and
tried to fire the coil using the basic interrupter. The tesla coil did not fire. The only thing that happened
was the fuse in our VARIAC blew. No hot components, but no lightning. It seems like the bridge or gate drive
is not working. By the way, we installed two of the 1500uf Caps in parallel. We tested the bridge and the + and -
supply was shorted out. We checked the MOSFETs and two are fried. They were allowing voltage to go from the +
to the - rail of the supply. Sadly we might end up having to make a half-bridge since Maker Faire is 3 days away!
One of our mentors, says that Digi-key gave us two bad MOSFETs. We are asking Digi-key to send us new ones. Pray for us!
or Cross your fingers, whichever you prefer!
We got most of our parts in the mail, more are coming. We have been working on the
electronics and music. Most importantly we got out Backer thanks video up!
We got our RGB LCD Screen put together and have programmed in a few basic things.
This is the RGB LCD screen. As you can see it has Up, Down, Left, Right, and Select buttons. Reset on the far right is not used.
Here is the arduino to control it all. It's on perfboard with the N-channel power MOSFET and one 74HC595 shift register.
The MOSFET is to turn on and off a relay which turns on and off the VARIACs output of 0-120 VAC going into the coil.
The shift register allows me to read all the buttons and write all the LEDs on the panel.
This gives me a total of 8 outputs using only 3 arduino pins or 8 inputs using 4 arduino pins. I might add a second one later on for more inputs and outputs.
Booting the control panel
Main Menu
Firing App
Pulsed Fire App. You use the left and right buttons to increases or decreases the speed.
Settings App. You use the left and right buttons to change the variable. Up and down goto the next setting.
We also made some more sculptures.
This is a fused glass piece we made to see what different size metal shavings inside glass do around the coil. As you can see it turned out pretty awesome!
This was to see what effects are induced in a piece of dichroic glass with clear over it. Dichroic glass was invented by NASA.
It's made by vaporizing metals like gold, silver, titanium, and aluminium in a vacum chamber. The vapors then condense on the surface of the glass in a crystal like structure.
They put many layers of different metals on one sheet of glass. The vivid colors are produced because the layers reflect only certain wavelengths of light.
This is what it looks like next to the coil with a breakout point pointing at it.
This is our Plasma Waffle. We call it that because when near the coil it turns into like a plasma Globe but flat with a grid like a waffle.
Unfortunately this effect cannot be photographed because its vary weak and would disrupt the digital cameras operatin components
This is one of our latest wire sculptures. It's a Lightning bolt of wire with real lightning coming off of it.
However, in this picture we put it upside down and it looks like a cherry blossom tree in person.
The photo looks like it's blue sparks, but in person they are pinkish red.
This is another wire sculpture of ours. I was trying to make a ion motor but I couldn't get it balanced right.
I got a bit mad crushed it up and it looked like a tree. Somehow it got bent, and now it looks more like a hook. So I now call it the "Lightning Hook"
Purple LEDs to show status of switches on our control panel
All the LED on for comparison.
Our Arduino running the basic blink sketch. It is going to control and check the safety devices for our coil once built.
Designs
This is our unfinished design for the control panel. Created in Google Sketchup. We may have to redesign it in a different program that is
compatible with laser cutters.
The Project:
Our project goal is to build an Audio Modulated Full-Bridge Solid State Tesla Coil (SSTC) for research in High Voltage Sculpture and music. Our mediums for these sculptures are glass, metal, & electronics. The songs that we intend to play include Angry Birds, Super Mario, Doctor Who, Axel F, For Elise, Smoke on the Water, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, among others.
What is BATEC?
BATEC stands for Bay Area Teen Electro Club. We are a teen electronics club in Concord, CA. Our mission is to provide members with the knowledge to work with todays technology from the DIY point of view. To show how to Design, build, & mod technology from today and the past. Also to provide an encouraging, inspiring, & cool atmosphere.
Where is the funding going?
We have had some funding from a friend, which we used to order some of the parts and tools. However, we need your help! If we get $300 it will all go to the coils construction. If we get $400 we can add features like a count down timer, $500 and up we will have money to buy more tools and materials for High Voltage sculptures, add more features like a safety siren, instruments, and tools to make more music, as well as the coil.
Funding hope:
We are hoping to be funded more than $500 and if funded, we will be displaying this coil at the Bay Area Maker Faire 2012 along with sculptures, and music for it. This community is in control of how cool of an experience the coil and artwork is!
I got Snake coded in pretty well so far. There are 100 levels each level is faster. Once your snake gets to 20 segments then it goes to the next level.
The Super Nintenduino (SND) is video game system I made and coded from scratch. It's brain
is a scratch built Arduino. You control it with a joystick and one button. Which can
surprisingly control many different video games. It has a 16x24 Red LED Matrix Panel that
I can expand to more panels someday. I find the screen very limiting but really adds to the
look of the SND. The screen can actually only support up to 4 characters on each of the two
lines. I currently have worm (Notice its 4 characters) or snake, and tank or Space Invaders.
I am currently working on a side scrolling game that I hope to have coded roughly soon.
This is the completed Machine. Side fan set purple!
Front blue fan and logo.
Front/Side fan set blue.
Front/Side fan set yellow.
Side View. fan set to orange.
Side view. fan set to Yellow.
Side/Full view. Fan set to purple!
Saitek PK17U Black/Silver 104 Normal Keys 12 Function Keys USB Standard Cyborg Keyboard. Can be any
Color from Red to Green.
Inside the case. Full View.
Inside the case. Close up.
This is the first Computer I built for some one else. It has 4.GB of RAM Max 16.GB, Intel Pentium
Dual-Core Wolfdale E6500, 2.TB Hard Drive, & 550 Watt Power Supply.
(More Details later)
The brain is an Arduino Duemilanove micro-controller.
Two more of the three lasers.
One of the three photo-resistors that the three lasers are pointed at with the laser on.
One of the three photo-resistors that the three lasers are pointed at with the laser off.
Power switch for the Lasers and battery pack v4.5 (A.K.A. 3 AAA batteries)
The LED flash light/laser pointer I got the lasers/LEDs out of. Which run on v4.5.
LED flash light/Laser pointer with top off.
Side close up of LED/Laser component.
Front close up of LED/Laser component with laser off.
Front close up of LED/Laser component with laser on.
Back close up of LED/Laser component. 1 = LED/Laser ground, 2 = laser 4.5v power, 3 = 8 LED lights 4.5v power
LED/Lasers component connections to power. Red wire = Lasers 4.5v power, Blue wire = LEDs 4.5v power, Spring = ground
Back of LED/laser component. 1 = Laser ground, 2 = Laser 4.5v power
The way it works is there is 3 AAA batteries out putting v4.5 to run 3 Lasers.
The 3 Lasers are pointed at 3 photo-resistors and each are connected to ground, Arduino’s v5, and connected to an analog read pin (1-3).
The Arduino reads the photo-resistors 1-3 on analog read pins 1-3 and if it reads one of the photo-resistors < 100 which also means laser broken it will light
up a corresponding LED and send a number 4-6 (Laser 1=4, Laser 2=5, Laser 3=6) to the computer through serial and a python program on the computer reads
the serial and if it receives 4-6 it plays a sound (mp3 file) according to the laser that has been broken.
Click on button for corresponding package
The original DAX X 1 Computer with every thing installed. In the top left is the light up blue LED power supply.
Model: X 1
The Light up LED Power supply on.
Model: X 1
The Fan & heat sink over the CPU.
Model: X 1
The Mother Board.
Model: X 1
Power cables.
Model: X 1
View of bottom of Light up LED Power supply on.
Model: X 1
View of back of light up Power supply on.
Model: X 1
4 SATA Plugs.
Model: X 1
Ram slots (Currently DDR2 2GB).jpg
Model: X 1
Mother Board Box.
Light up LED Power supply Box.
CPU Box side.
CPU Box front.
Box for the 1 2GB DDR2.
HAF (High Air Flow) Box.
Model: X 2
Front View Of Case with Cooler Master Logo Lit Up.
Model: X 2
Front View Of Case.
Model: X 2
Zalman The Quiet Cooling Solution Sticker.
Model: X 2
Front View Of 2 USB, E-Sata, Head Phone, & Mic Ports.
Model: X 2
Front View Of Case Showing 5 External 5.25 Drive Bays & 1 External 3.5 Drive Bays.
Model: X 2
Top View Of Case Showing Top Case Fan.
Model: X 2
Front 2 USB, E-Sata, Mic, & Head Phone ports.
Model: X 2
Front View Of Case with Red LED Fan & Cooler Master Logo Lit Up.
Model: X 2
HAF (High Air Flow) Logo.
Model: X 2
Intel Pentium Inside Sticker.
Model: X 2
Side View Of 5 External 5.25 Drive Bays& 1 External 3.5 Drive Bays.
Model: X 2
Top View Of Case showing Power, LED on off, & reset switches.
Model: X 2
Top View Of Top Case Fan.
Model: X 2
View Of 5 Internal 3.5 Drive Bays A.K.A. Hard Drive Bays.
Model: X 2
View Of Case Side Window Lit Up Showing my LED light up power supply.
Model: X 2
View Of Case Side Window Showing Copper LED CPU Heat Sink.
Model: X 2
View Of Case Side Window.
Model: X 2
Front View Of Case with Cooler Master Logo.
Model: X 2
It has its max of 4.GB of RAM, Intel Pentium Dual-Core Wolfdale E6500 over clocked to
~3.509GHz, Corsair Water cooling, ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series Graphics Card. I have 3
monitors 2 using the 5700 and an extra one using a USB graphics card. I had to replace
the 550 Watt logisys LED Acrylic Power Supply with a 600 Watt PSU because it was LOUD
I couldn't sleep that well. For Hard Drives there is (2) Western Digital 2.TB SATA drives
(so 4.TB) and a IDE 200.GB Hard Drive. The Lights inside the case are Blue. I'm going to
get a Quad Core Processor around 3Ghz when I have the money. I'm going to keep upgrading
and adding more things over time.
Operating systems
Primary: Mac OS X Snow Leopard V-10.6.8