Fun with Tesla coils
>> Friday, July 23, 2010
Ahhhh! Oh my gosh, I love this so much. I found this while doing a bit of research on Tesla coils for my current work in progress. (I swear! I was working!) I'm a big fan of the many, many renditions of the Mario Bros. theme played on various instruments that are posted to YouTube, but this one may take the cake.
How's it done? Here's what Wikipedia says:
Tesla coils can also be used to create music by modulating the system's effective "break rate" (i.e., the rate and duration of high power RF bursts) via midi data and a control unit. The actual midi data is interpreted by a microcontroller which converts the midi data into a PWM output which can be sent to the tesla coil via a fiber optic interface.
I have no idea what all that means. THEY CAN MAKE THEM PLAY MARIO BROS. That is all that matters. And the same electro-wizardry allows them to play lots else besides. I cried when I watched this next one reach its climax. Hang with it past the "tune up" testing. There's also a treat after the first song...
And here's one more for you:
Ahhhhhh! I love science.
3 comments:
What kills me about these clips is all the flash photography during them. Seriously. What do they think they're going to get a picture of?
Okay, wow.
Now I've had to promise D. that he can have two of those. And a barn. And a separate electrical system from the one in the house.
Those. Are. Awesome.
And yeah, photographing them. Kind of like taking flash photography of fireflies: you're just not going to get much...
Yeah - I was feeling pretty sad for the dorks who don't know how to turn off their flash. But ... some awesome stuff!
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