DIY Homemade Ignition Coil Driver


Posted on Feb 4, 2014

One of the simplest ways to make a battery powered High Voltage power supply is to use a common car ignition coil. Ignition coils are a type of induction transformer based on the Tesla Coil invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891. The voltage rise is not given by the turns ratio like in a standard transformer, but is proportional to therate of change ofcurrentin the primary circuit. This means to get a high


DIY Homemade Ignition Coil Driver
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output voltage you must be able to stop the power flowing into the coil as quickly as possible. In old cars this was simply done mechanically. For use as a HV power supply this needs to happen rapidly over and over. To do this a spacial square wave power supply is uses which switches power on and off to the coil hundreds or thousands of times per second. Standard ignition coils can be obtained from most car parts stores for around £25. It is not essential to use two 12V batteries like shown in the circuits shown below, but it will allow you to obtain bigger sparks. We have some compact induction coils available for sale for under £20. Click the link to check stock. This driver circuit is based on the commonly used 2n3055 transistor due to it high power switching capability. While these are cheap and high temperature tolerant, they are susceptible to voltage spikes caused by the inductive nature of the load (ignition coil). Pretty much any power transistor, IGBT or MOSFET can be used in this circuit as long as it is rated for at last 5A and 100V. Ones with higher voltage ratings will be less likely to be damaged by spikes. Further protection methods are outlined lower down this page and in the comments. If you use a MOSFET or IGBT instead of a bipolar transistor like the 2n3055, you should also add a pulldown resistor of about 10k between the base/gate pin and GND. This next circuit is designed for a higher powered output....




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