This week progress was limited due to waiting on component delivery – the LCR meter needed for precise tuning and testing hasn’t arrived yet due to repeated Amazon delivery failures. I used the time to refine the interrupter circuit design and verify my previous duty cycle fix is still holding stable across the full frequency range. I also assisted Caleb with diagnosing the gate driver failure and confirmed the interrupter output wasn’t the cause – the issue was no output load causing power to dissipate in the chip. Next week once the LCR meter arrives, I’ll work with the team to tune the primary-secondary coil coupling and verify the complete audio modulation chain functions properly.
Team Status Report for 03/28/2026
This week a large amount of progress was made. The interrupter was redesigned and functions as expected now. The gate driver (though damaged in testing and repaired) works as well the primary circuitry. The secondary coil resonant frequency is nearly exactly what is expected. The only issue remaining currently is the primary coil inductance being too high, which will be easy to resolve.
The biggest threat currently is integration issues. Though with all the unit testing we are performing we do not expect to see much of that in the coming week. We feel that we are back near schedule at this point, and are confident that we will have a working demo sometime next week, leaving only some reliability testing and housing design.
Calebs Post for 3/28/2026
This week I performed a large amount of testing as well as fixed the interrupted circuit. Aside from a chip that blew, the gate driver circuit works perfectly (and will not blow a chip anymore). Also I discovered an issue with the primary coil, who’s inductance is much higher than intended.
This coming week I the primary coil issue will be resolved and I will be conducting integration tests. I believe we are pretty much back on schedule, minus the integration not being completed yet.
Jack’s Status Report for 3/28/2026
This week I dedicated most of my time to the testing for each individual component. This will be the final testing period before final assembly. I’ve spent time in the 220 lab testing the resonance frequency of our Tesla coil, input & output correspondence of our circuit, as well as many other important metrics. I’ve also purchased an oscilloscope for better and more flexible individual testing so we don’t have to always run to the lab. For next week we should complete individual testing by fixing the primary coil. After that we will go right into assembly, as well as the fabrication of the housing for the Tesla Coil.
Jayson’s Status Report for 3/14/2026
This week I completed assembly and initial testing of the 555 timer interrupter circuit with audio modulation capability. I soldered all components including the duty cycle potentiometer, timing capacitors, and the 3.5mm audio jack with DC blocking capacitor. During unit testing with the oscilloscope at TechSpark and the 220 lab, we discovered the interrupter frequency range stays on target in the expected 20kHz+ range, however the duty cycle is running too high with the minimum duty cycle at 40%. This needs to be corrected for proper audio modulation. Next week I’ll debug the interrupter circuit to adjust the duty cycle range down to the designed specifications, then work with the team to complete full system integration testing.
Team Status Report for 03/21/2026
This week the whole team performed unit testing on the circuit componentry. There was an issue in the interrupter circuit which has been identified as improper resistor values. A new interrupter circuit is currently being built to fix this issue, as duty cycles were far too high originally. This will result in a minor design change regarding the resistances used in the interrupter circuit, however those values have not been chosen yet. When they are, a post with an updated design report will be made to reflect those changes.
Once a new interrupter module has been built and passes unit testing for frequency and duty cycle range, the components will be assembled for integration based testing. We as a team plan to perform a large majority of the integration testing in one long period, which will serve as an apt stress test of our design as well.
As of current our biggest risk is integration. The time taken to perform these tests is non-negligible. While we do fear this may eat into our time to design our housing, we believe that we can power through. We still plan to have an at least basic functioning model by the interim demo date. An updated schedule will be included in the updated design report when that has been made.
Caleb’s Status Report for 03/21/2026
This week the whole team met and performed unit testing on the individual components of the broad circuit. We came across issues with the circuit that are currently being worked on and have halted further progress towards integration. One other issue identified was heat management, as such all ICs now have heatsinks, and a fan will be implemented in the final housing.
Circuit debugging is expected to be finished Monday so that unit testing may be finalized. Once that is done I plan to assemble the components together on Tuesday so that on Wednesday we can perform broad system testing and tuning, which has unfortunately been pushed back.
Jack’s Status Report for 3/21/2026
This week all three of us met up at TechSpark as well as the 220 lab for unit testing. We used devices such as the multimeter, oscilloscope, as well as wave generator to test both the primary and secondary coil and the designed circuit that we’ve soldered onto the board. We did witness errors, which was within our expectation for initial part testing. These errors will be describe in detail in the team weekly report. Next week we are aiming to debug what we’ve built, and once that is done, we are going to assemble the parts together and shoot for final overall testing.
Jayson’s Status Report for 3/14/2026
This week I finished assembling and testing the 555 timer interrupter circuit with audio modulation. The circuit functions properly when tested standalone – duty cycle modulates from 35Hz to 35kHz and the 3.5mm audio jack accepts input signals correctly. However, I’m encountering integration issues when combining it with the oscillator and gate driver circuits, likely due to grounding or timing problems. Next week I’ll systematically debug these interfaces with the oscilloscope and coordinate with Caleb on proper grounding between circuit boards.
Team Status Report for 03/14/2026
This week we managed to complete all of our assembly tasks. While an issue with a soldering iron kept us from getting back on schedule perfectly, we established our schedule with enough time in each task to allow for some play. Next week will be some broad scale testing completion.
Our greatest threat to completion is integration error currently. With coil winding out of the way now, we plan to run unit tests on individual circuit components to ensure that each is outputting properly before we combine each into one single assembly.
No changes have been made to the design or schedule, but you can find a picture of the completed componentry here in this post.