coil

Thor's hammer gets a Tesla coil, puts out 80,000 volts

Thor's hammer + Tesla coil = zzzzap. Before we get into this, let's talk about safety. You probably shouldn't try this at home. Or at work. Or pretty much anywhere else. We're talking 80,000 volts of electricity. Unless you really know what you're doing, don't try to mess with the elemental forces of nature that were harnessed for this project.

Caleb Kraft from Hackaday and Tesla coil expert Staci Elaan teamed up to bring a comic book legend to life. To make Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, truly summon lightning, they had to provide the lightning in the form of a solid-state Tesla coil embedded into a foam prop. At the push of a button, 80,000 volts of electricity arc from the hammer's top.… Read more

This Tesla coil gun will shock you

If electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla designed a weapon, it very well might look like Rob Flickenger's Tesla Gun.

The self-described "mad science" enthusiast dreamed up a Tesla rifle after reading the graphic novel "The Five Fists of Science," which features a cover image of a young Tesla wielding several weapons with a built-in Tesla coil.

Flickenger tapped "Seattle's many hackerspaces" to help design and build the Tesla coil cannon over the course of many months. The high-voltage gun balances seriously dangerous science and an array of everyday electrical components capable of firing off 20,000 volts of hair-raising power with a simple click of a trigger. … Read more

Crave 36: Pinball wizards (podcast)

This week, Donald and Eric explore the idea of hearing with your mouth, seeing in 12 dimensions, and shooting lightening with a wave of your arm. Yes, it's wizard tech week, apparently. To that end, we show off an illuminated staff that can divine the strength of your Wi-Fi signal and a DIY project for all you pinball wizards out there.

Subscribe in iTunes SD Video | Subscribe in RSS SD Video… Read more

You, too, can rock a singing tesla coil

If you've never seen a singing tesla coil, an 8-foot-tall mash of circuitry and electronics that matches firing lightning bolts to the beat of DJ music, you are seriously missing out.

These days, your best bet might be to catch Austin, Texas, troupe Arc Attack as it plays events like the anime festival Metro Con in Florida. Or, if you happen to be in Abu Dhabi, you might be able to see the group do its electric best there.

If you can't hop an A380 to the United Arab Emirates, however, you can still get your singing tesla … Read more

Arc Attack's tesla coils rock SXSW

AUSTIN, Texas--If you wanted to see tesla coils rocking out, Dorkbot was the place to be Saturday evening at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference here.

The local art collective Arc Attack had its singing tesla coils turned up loud and it put on several demonstrations of its machines at this celebration of "people doing strange things with electricity."

The highlight of the group's show was either a rendition of the "Dr. Who" theme or perhaps the Imperial march music from "Star Wars" (see video below--and give it a few seconds to get … Read more

ArcAttack brings singing Tesla coils to the masses

When you think of things related to science, music may not make the top of your list.

But the folks involved with a small collective called ArcAttack would like you to change your associations.

ArcAttack is all about one thing: building singing Tesla coils and crafting entire musical performances around them. For some time, at events like Dorkbot and other geekfests, the team--Joe DiPrima, Oliver Greaves, and Tony Smith--had been pulling off straightforward demonstrations of their creations. But they were synchronizing the machines to other people's music and not adding much in the way of their own innovations besides … Read more

The singing tesla coils

AUSTIN, Texas--If you happened to be in Brush Square Park Saturday evening for the South by Southwest edition of Dorkbot, the gatherings of artists and engineers in various cities that work with electronic art, I sure hope you saw the singing tesla coils.

I did, and it was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. First of all, I love tesla coils--disruptive discharge transformer coils that shoot out bolts of electricity--to begin with. But this took the concept to a whole new level: Two small, side-by-side versions of the electricity-spewing devices that were working in … Read more

The never-ending USB chain

There must be something in the air today--or, more accurate, in the ground. Only minutes after we posted an item about a robotic snake, another item of serpentine nature slithered across our screen.

Memory Infinite has developed interlocking USB storage devices that can be combined to add capacity as needed, as seen on Yanko Design. This is particularly useful if you have only one port available for a USB plug, and you can coil them around to suit your desktop space needs. And if you collect enough of them, maybe you can make them into a makeshift "Slinky."… Read more