~Proceedings ICMCISMCI2014 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece
NICO: An Open-Source Interface, Bridging the Gap
Between Musician and Tesla Coil
Blake Johnston
Victoria University
Wellington, New Zealand
johnstblak@myvuw.ac.nz
Josh Bailey
j osh@vandervecken. com
Dugal McKinnon
Victoria University
Wellington, New Zealand
dugal.mckinnon
@vuw. ac. nz
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the design and implementation of a
new interface, Nico, which allows new and existing musical devices to control Tesla Coils. The interface uses an
Arduino microcontroller to convert OSC and MIDI control data to TTL pulses that command the behavior of a
Tesla Coil. This paper will give some background on the
Tesla Coil, outline the design and capabilities of the interface, and will discuss the performance possibilities that
Nico creates.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Tesla Coil has become a fascination of many, spawning a community of hobbyists and enthusiasts who build
their own coils. As well as a strong hobbyist community,
Tesla Coils have been installed in museums, schools and
universities. The interest in Tesla Coils is often in their
visual and physical qualities, as they can produce impressive electrical arcs, often spanning meters. These electrical arcs also produce sound, and many Tesla Coils are
now built to be 'Singing Tesla Coils', also known as
'Zeusaphones'; a portmanteau of Zeus and sousaphone.
These coils modulate the input to the coil, in order to control the frequency of the energy discharges.
Figure 2. - Left - ArcAttack. Right - Bjork performing
'Thunderbolt' live with Tesla Coil above.
Nikola Tesla originally invented the Tesla Coil during his
research into electricity and wireless communication.
Tesla built a small electrical resonant transformer circuit
in 1891 that allowed him to demonstrate the ability to
discharge high voltage energy, producing an electrical arc
traversing five inches [1]. Ten years later, he was able to
produce powerful discharges that traveled a thousand feet
and as he put it, 'flashed a current around the globe'. This
technology then became extensively used in electronic
appliances like televisions, radios and ignition systems.
1.1 Previous Music Examples
The possibility of controlling the sound of the Tesla Coil
has lead to a plethora of musical examples, with many
people posting videos online of their coil recreating anything from the Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor to
the Super Mario Theme tune. Often these are performed
as a demonstration of the coil, and are controlled via custom-built methods to modulate the input.
One of these custom-built projects is Robert
Connick's investigation into building and examining the
acoustic properties of Tesla Coils [2]. A glove with embedded sensors was designed as a way to control the Tesla Coils output, converting the gestural behavior of the
performer to control data.
Tesla Coils have also been used in public performances with an early example being ArcAttack' s work
starting in 2006 [3]. Their performances usually consist
of a mixture of traditional instruments and their two large
Tesla Coils, creating a visual and sonic spectacle. A stunt
man often MC's the performances, and wears a chain
mail Faraday suit to interact with the Tesla Coils. This
Figure 1. - A live Tesla Coil in a musical performance.
Copyright: ~ 2014 First Author et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms ofthe
>rdwhich permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
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