Introduction: Musical Tesla Coil Kit (instructions)

By Bruce is on fire
About: Hello, I'm Bruce. I'm a student in Belgium. I have a wide variety of interests: electronics, computers, technology, ... In my spare time I spend a lot of time on: projects, exploring the internet, cycling. ht…

A couple of years ago I've built a large tesla coil. Since then I was curious about how to make it play music.
I had made a plasma speaker once based on a instructable with a TL494 and a flyback transformer. Which worked pretty good till something broke again.

Recently I found this musical tesla coil kit on ebay. And decided I should give it a try.
Because the instructions were in Chinese, I made an instructable so people with little electronics knowledge can make this kit as well. You can find a copy of the schematic and original instructions on my website.

The arc length is only a few millimetres, but the sound quality and volume is pretty good. With an additional amplifier like a headphone output from computer speakers.

Step 1: Order the Kit

Get your hands on such a kit, I bought mine from ebay but I found the same kit on Aliexpress and Amazon as well.

You can get the parts yourself or just buy the kit.

When I bought mine I paid $12 now it is only $5 and free shipping: Musical Tesla Coil on Ebay

Step 2: Included in the Kit

  • 2 * heatsinks
  • 2 * resistors
  • 2 * resistors
  • 1 * Female DC power connector
  • 1 * Female Audio Jack
  • 1 * Mosfet
  • 1 * Mosfet
  • 1 * Transistor
  • 2 * LEDS Blue and Red
  • 1 * Capacitor
  • 1 * Capacitor
  • 4 * stand-offs and screws
  • 1 * aux cable
  • 1 * pcb
  • 1 * secundary coil
  • 1 * piece of wire
  • 1 * bag of thermal paste
  • 1 * neon lightbulb

Step 3: Placing the Resistors

In the kit are 4 resistors:

  • 2 x 2K with the colour bands RED-BLACK-BLACK-BROWN
  • 2 x 10K with the colour bands BROWN-BLACK-BLACK-RED

Place them at the right place according to the silkscreen (white text on PCB) or have a look at the picture.

Step 4: Placing the LEDS

For the LEDS it's important to check the polarity and to be sure you place them in the right orientation.

On the PCB are "+" symbols this is where the anode of the LED has to go, This is the LONG LEG of the LED.
Another trick is to check the flat side on the plastic of the LED (this is the "-" or the cathode, short leg) this has to go to the flat side of the circle on the PCB.

Step 5: Placing the Capacitors

Step 6: Preparing the Mosfets

Before you mount the mosfets onto the heat-sinks you'll need to apply some thermal paste between them.

Step 7: Placing the Mosfets

Step 8: Placing the Connectors

Step 9: Making the Primary Coil

Step 10: Placing the Secondary Coil

Before placing the secondary coil you'll need to do the following preparations.

From both sides of the secondary coil you need to pull off a little of the coil wire.
One of the wires should be "stripped before soldering" you can do this in many ways.

  • use sandpaper to sand off the varnish
  • use a lighter to burn it off
  • scrape it of with a knife
  • set your soldering iron to it's hottest temperature and apply solder to the wire and hope it solders through the varnish. (What I did)

Step 11: Add the Standoffs

Step 12: Testing Without Sound

Step 13: Testing With Sound