From the archive · 2012–2013
High-voltage archive
Before drones and robotics, Goodchild Engineering built Tesla coils: solid-state DRSSTCs, a QCW coil, spark-gap coils and musical coils with their own drivers and controllers. These are the original project pages, kept as they were published.
The HOGA souped up version of the famed QCWDRSSTC. The design goal of this system is 10 foot sword like sparks using water cooled interleaved inverters.
DRSSTC 1DRSSTC 1 was my first attempt at a DRSSTC type Tesla coil. It wasn't a super high performer, but it was still able to generate 4 foot sparks with 500 amps of current.
DRSSTC 2DRSSTC 2 started out as just another IXYS60N60C2DI coil and evolved into a platform for experimentation. As this project evolved it became one of my highest outputting coils for its size.
2400W DRSSTC TwinsThe overall goal of the twin DRSSTC project was to have a super reliable and portable system to take to demos. The systems were designed with MIDI demonstrations in mind.
"Beast" The 15Kw 7' tall DR (DRSSTC 5)The overall goal of this personal project was to build a big coil that made big sparks. It took over a year of work and a lot of testing and refinement to get this project to its finished state.
ISSTCThe ISSTC or interrupted Solid State Tesla Coil was my first true Tesla coil. The primary is driven by a full bridge of IRFP260 MOSFETs and the system uses base current feedback.
SGTCThis was my first attempt at a Tesla coil ever. Despite its flaws the coil still managed to create some 1/2 inch arcs to air and light many fluorescent tubes.
QCWThe QCW works on a very similar mode of operation to the VTTC: a ramp is fed to a high Z high fres Tesla coil, and the slow ramp-up time gives the sword-like appearance of the sparks.
UD2.5The UD2.5 is an updated/reworked version of Steve Ward's popular Universal DRSSTC driver with phase lead. It is pin, mounting hole, and electrically compatible with the older UD2.0 and UD1.3 style drivers.
Tesla SynthTesla Synth is a musical synthesizer used to play music on Tesla coils. The primary coil that Tesla Synth is designed for is the DRSSTC.
Laser HarpThe Laser Harp is a musical instrument that uses laser beams as the interactive media that the user interfaces with to create the music. It sends a digital signal using the MIDI protocol to a computer or synthesizer.
Today we build hardware and software for drones and robots. See theflightHAT and the blog.