Re: Tesla coil for wireless data transmission?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Mddeming@xxxxxxx 

Hi Joel,

Welcome to the list. Comments interspersed:


In a message dated 8/20/06 8:32:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
Original poster: jbrave <onephatcat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi,  I joined the list just to see if anyone has done any work, or
knows of any attempts to use tesla coil technology for transmitting
wireless data?

Many attempts over the last century, no successes, unless you want to 
call the tuned circuit in the output of a radio transmitter "Tesla technology".
Tesla coils make very poor wireless transmitting devices. If they 
were any good at it, the FCC would have shut the hobby down decades 
ago. Most modern data systems operate at frequencies that are orders 
of magnitude beyond the operating range of a TC.


Related questions:

What is the smallest functional tesla coil size?

If, by functional, you mean producing high voltage, high frequency 
streamers, then coils have been made that are a few inches high and 
operate at less than 60 W.


Can a tesla coil be built with such specs that it could be used with
mobile computers without damaging them, yet put out enough energy
that data could be trancieved over a wide distance?

No.
1) Modern computer data transmission rates are well above the 
operating frequencies of a TC. The carrier frequency should be 10 to 
100 times higher than the data rate, not the other way around.
2) Higher frequency means smaller physical size components which 
means lower voltage and less power.
3) TCs have a nasty habit of causing severe problems for electronic 
devices that are within a few feet of them.
4) Ditto for people that are that close too.

Could it be used both as a power source and a data connection, so
that a laptop could be powered and have an internet connection?


New Age whackos to the contrary, there is no free energy. Tesla coils 
are resonant transformers that alter the voltage and frequency of the 
applied power. they do NOT create energy. Honest questions like yours 
often cause pseudoscience aficionados  to come out of the woodwork 
with their tired legends and unsubstantiated anecdotes, conspiracy 
theories etc., but not in the real world.


Thanks,

Joel



Hope this helps,

Matt D.