The Incredible Engineering and Story of The Tesla Coil Gun

Hi, Everyone,
In this video, we learn about the engineering and story of the QCW Tesla Coil Gun designed by Steve Ward and Phillip Slawinski, and built by Cameron Prince of ‪@teslauniverse‬and then we see it in action! Big thanks to those three guys for making an incredible device. It's challenging enough to make a QCW Tesla coil but to make it portable? Nice. Let me know what you think of this video in the comments below. This video has been on the shelf of my computer for a long time, edited off and on with lots of my time spent being intimidated by the task of editing all this footage together into something informative and entertaining. Well, I'm so glad with how it turned out. Check out the resources below to learn more about tesla coils and the fascinating history and people that made the tesla coiling hobby what it is today :) All music in the video was made by my good friend, Jason Palafox and it was me rapping in the PCBWay ad haha.
Thank you to PCBWay, use my link below to order PCBs and it also supports my channel!
pcbway.com/g/YBIR8P
Cameron Prince's Tesla Universe Website:
teslauniverse.com/build/galle...
Tesla Explorer's QCW Tesla Coil:
• Tesla coil!
ArcAngel QCW Tesla Coil:
• New & Improved QCW #te...
Loneoceans' QCW Tesla Coil Tutorial:
www.loneoceans.com/labs/qcw/
Daniel's QCW Tesla Coil Gun:
• Tesla Gun build Update...
LabCoatz DRSSTC Tutorials:
• How to Build a Large D...
• Building a Large DRSST...
QCW Tesla Coil Orchestra: (I want one)
• First ever QCW DRSSTC ...
MS Lab: (This guy is good)
/ @ms_lab
Low Frequency QCW Tesla Coil: (wow that's a lot of energy!)
• Low frequency QCW Tesl...
and it goes without saying: ‪@styropyro‬ ‪@Vidduley‬ ‪@zilipoper‬
Appendix by Steve Ward:
"
5:30 - the blue block component identified as a "relay" is in fact (not a relay) a DC current sensor board that feeds the real-time battery current information into the UD3 controller. FYI, the peak battery current is ~150A on this design despite the smaller fuse and breaker ratings.
11:50 - the pre-charge relay is controlled by the UD3 which has voltage measurement capability - it automatically switches out the resistor based on the % charge of the bus cap versus the battery. It also stops the gun from working if the battery voltage is too low.
16:55, they are 33nF 1600VDC Metalized PP Film caps. They are arranged 14 series by 4 parallel strings so the total tank cap is 9.428nF.
~23:00 , Cameron misspeaks and says I made the gun-mounted controller (not so). This is actually just a modified version of Phillip's "MPTCC". The trigger signal for the UD3 was a special feature for the gun and is specific to QCW mode so that you could trigger the sparks instantly. The gun is actually capable of regular DRSSTC operation, but it's not recommended to use regular mode because the sparks will branch and shock the crap out of the operator. The high pulse rate sparks really hurt...
Also, yes, the cooling system was absolute overkill! The only benefit was that it allowed the IGBTs to be packed tighter together which provided better electrical performance, slightly."
Follow me on Instagram for more science experiences!
@backmacsci

[@PLASMAKVA500]

Very, very good morning seeing this awesome coil..just this week i achieved 6-7in sword sparks from a zvs driven coil witha simple 555 interrupter

[@benjaminlockhart99]

Very nice to see how the MMC is split into sections for each bridge to force current sharing! This would work on a normal DR with multiple bridges as well.

[@BackMacSci]

yeah, I liked learning that too. lots of valuable information from this day.

[@sonyvegasfxvideos]

Damn G, you got the sponsor going on 🔥

[@sebastianw614]

This video is so well made! Tesla coil documentarian

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks Seb!

[@2timothy477]

You're such a loveable person to watch and so well mannered. May God Bless you and give you knowledge to make a tesla gun of your dreams, and bring you to know it's Him whom gives you everything. Pax. Steven. U.K.

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you! Yes, Jesus is better than tesla coils!

[@Magneticitist]

You know for some reason I never thought about the lipo supply just replacing a big cap bank til watching this video. I know that's how some of the coolest coil guns do it in order to get the high fire rate but it makes perfect sense for a QCW when you want a fairly high BPS. Certainly presents an extra level of safety concern and failsafe engineering but it's worth it. For a pretty cool portable deal I'm sure one could get away with only ~150VDC or so in lipos. 5 miniblocs, smallish cap, the batteries, heatsink and fan, drivers.. should be doable to where the whole thing is hand held and the majority of the components are held at the shoulder so it becomes a rifle.

[@BackMacSci]

yeah man 100%, scariest part is that you'll beat me to it!😂

[@Magneticitist]

@@BackMacSci lol I might do something like that one day but probably no time soon. If I make any kind of rifle I think it will have to be an actual coil gun because I have too many suitable caps and SCR's. Maybe a small QCW pistol when I get around to making the small ones. If you're planning on a QCW gun though you can definitely pull it off. Thinking small is the way to go. You don't really need to beef up the components too much unless you want a high BPS and 350V bus or something. For a low fire rate you can use almost any small power source at below 200V ramps. There are some cool small DC caps out there that can give you the needed bus capacitance in a pretty small form factor. I used 4 CDE 400V 1500uF caps for example in my final 4s battery build and they are pretty small. I'd say it shouldn't run more than like $100 or so total.

[@TPWW-tr3rr]

GREAT TO SEE. GOD BLESS!!!

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Wouldn't be a good idea to have some sort of fire-proof and thermal-insulating separators between the LiPos in case one of them decides it's time to go?

[@michaelmule4582]

I wonder how the PCB traces on the bridge don't burn from all that current! Wow!!

[@Muonium1]

He is cool and I want to be his friend. Why can't any of my neighbors be this cool

[@BackMacSci]

Agreed, Cameron is great!

[@George.___]

Awesome video! I really enjoyed learning about this amazing project and all the ins and outs of its functionality. The power supply driving it is a work of art in both function and execution with the high quality materials and components build to last and be safe for years to come. The gun itself has more engineering in it than one may think as well. Simply amazing!

[@Typing.._]

🎉legit cool

[@chrisjones-fp5vd]

awesome

[@YS.]

Супер!

[@NerdlabsSci]

W video as always!

[@ancientlink0]

Nice

[@gaussgun168]

👍👍👍

[@marianorubio9578]

This rocks!

[@BackMacSci]

thanks Mariano!!

[@Livewire460]

Dang...

[@nguyendesign4517]

let’s goooo

[@davidrell-dukai8250]

Why does this have so little views??

[@BackMacSci]

it's not made for the algorithm haha

[@sargismartirosyan9946]

No way this is live 😮

[@HashirEasa]

No way it tuns on 8 lipos

[@ChefHeisca]

16*