Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome - Gizmodo Comments

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

ktulu1115 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:47:08 EST

@bobcostas - The reason they use fiber is to electrically isolate the high voltage section from the low-voltage MIDI driver. Using regular copper or whatever would result in a large amount of "magic smoke" with the slightest mistake in wiring (or component failure for that matter).

As for the frequency, Tesla coils don't run directly on the standard 50/60hz 120V mains power. Yes, that's where the power can come from initially but normally they have some form of a step-up transformer/HV cap/coil combo to form an oscillator generating high voltage at a very high frequency (at least several kHz, if not more). IIRC teslas have to be tuned to a specific frequency that matches the design of your coil to induce proper resonation (otherwise it won't work).

And the music... my guess is that the designer just modulated (PWM perhaps?) the resonant frequency to generate audible tones.... similar to how hobbyists can generate audio from microcontrollers [[www.uchobby.com]]. It has absolutely nothing to do with the 50 or 60hz you get from the outlet.

ktulu1115

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

SeattleTed — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:14:59 EST

OMG my childhood themesong!

SeattleTed

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Beryllium — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:01:30 EST

Oh, and also: Can they do the Metallic Mario theme from Mario 64 next? :)

Beryllium

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Beryllium — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:00:51 EST

I would be so bold as to suggest that this project is *shockingly* awesome.

Beryllium

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Fierock — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:11:45 EST

@Fierock: or "I will always love you"

Fierock

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Fierock — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:11:00 EST

It seems this music making ability is only for staccato scores. I'd like to see them try "Can you feel the love tonight" without draining the power grid - maybe if they used Pear Anjou cables instead of optic fiber?

Fierock

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

The Lab — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:01:46 EST

@hyperocky: Good to hear some other SRL alums are out and about. When I worked there we made the pitching machine and the hovercraft with the pulse jets. I don't remember the beach, did you work there before or after I did?

The Lab

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

uberfu — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:49:14 EST

@DaveTyranham: I second that notion_

uberfu

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

thehackerdude — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:45:29 EST

Ok, cool, now.... PLAY TETRIS!!!!

thehackerdude

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

hyperocky — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:27:04 EST

Oh how I miss the days of the Survival Research Labs. A friend of mine had this warehouse in SF which happened to be on the direct power grid of PG&E so they built a 25 foot Tesla Coil and would turn it on on Halloween. After the light show, fire breathing robots would come out and fight to the death. Then after that we would all go to the other side of the warehouse and relax at the beach. Yes, a beach. Complete with sand, hammock and one small blow up kiddie pool. =)

This is why I love living in San Francisco so much!

hyperocky

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Bakafish — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:37:03 EST

And to be even more pedantic, it is Hz. not hz.

Voltages can vary quite a bit from the standard line rating, hey are supposed to keep within 10% though. Also Tesla coils don't run directly off of line voltage, they have massive transformers which change both the voltage and frequency. These Tesla coils are supposedly 'solid state' which I would guess means a digital (switched) power supply, which are more efficient and compact than giant Iron core transformers and bridge rectifiers. They can also be very accurate in the frequency they output as can be seen by this demonstration;

Bakafish

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

bobpaul — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:02:13 EST

@IF ONLY THIS WAS FLESHBOT...

The US produces 120v at 60hz, though the actual votage varies by as much as 15%.

Europe produces about 220v at 50hz. Nobody produces 120hz or 220hz electricity.

bobpaul

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

cudthecrud — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:49:06 EST

I like the people trying to take pictures of the show using their cameras with flashes.

cudthecrud

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

honk4RC — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:42:05 EST

Hmmm... I would not want this technology in head phones.

honk4RC

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Reilaos~ — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:40:19 EST

I envy the maker of this amazingness. I wish I had the ability to truthfully say, "Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and tune my tesla coils."

The fact that the English language can incorporate words into such a sentence almost makes up for its simultaneous capabilities to make phrases like "cousin with benefits", "I did not have sexual relations", and of course, "Paris Hilton".

Reilaos~

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

tupark — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:16:02 EST

that's cool. i wonder if you could get enough tesla coils to make a tesla orchestra... could you imagine what it would look like if you played Toccata and Fugue in D Minor? could this be the new wave of music, where we not only hear but also see the effects of the sounds? is the world going to blow up with too many tesla coils? stay tuned... same bat time.. same bat channel...

tupark

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Drizzten — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:53:57 EST

There was a similar demonstration at the recent Maker Faire in Austin. They played the classic NES Zelda theme song. Very cool in person.

Drizzten

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

technophobia — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:50:33 EST

Where are you guys getting 120Hz?

Standard single phase electricity in the US is 120 VOLTS at 60Hz.

As far as I know, other countries use 50Hz.

technophobia

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

QWERTYthon — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:47:07 EST

Nikola Tesla is my hero.

QWERTYthon

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

mangochutney — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:40:46 EST

@strider_mt2k: "Hey they're getting a good sound outta those things!"

At elast better than out of the mono speaker of my first generation Gameboy from 1989. Which is still working perfectly fine by the way.

mangochutney

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

lightshow — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:37:33 EST

@soldstatic: Exactly right. In electronic music terms, they are essentially performing additive synthesis to artificially produce frequencies other than 120hz. Fun fact - the 120hz at which electricity is conducted in the US causes power lines to always hum a (slightly sharp) B-flat. Likewise, since European power runs at 220hz, their power lines hum a perfect tuning A. For those of us without perfect pitch, this is a great reference point for figuring out relative pitch.
[en.wikipedia.org]

lightshow

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

oo0EveryoneElseWasDoingIt0oo — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:29:28 EST

uhhhhh...i mean....yeah.....that was.....good. I mean, like, it had sounds and i liked it, and it was um, mario bros. i know resign my post to everyone else that was speechless.
Way better than that other tesla thing yesterday. Keep up the good work Frucci, one day you'll be on the team maybe even a starter.

oo0EveryoneElseWasDoingIt0oo

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Bokusatsu_Tenshi — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:28:32 EST

LOL Nice. Also much better than the previous "installment".
The thing is: If they already made it read MIDI, they can play thousands of different musics with that.
I'd like to hear some Zelda, other Mario levels, and some other nintendo games.
Or even better: Monkey Island themes and Rise of the Triad?

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

tnkgrl — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:25:24 EST

That's also how electrostatic speakers work.

tnkgrl

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Stang70Fastback — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:11:43 EST

Guys, c'mon. That is so photoshopped... the reflections are all wrong...

Stang70Fastback

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

mettleh3d — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:05:24 EST

whats the bill for that thing if everyone wants to demo a song?

mettleh3d

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

vshank — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:44:10 EST

There's something very "Close Encounters of a 3rd Kind" about that.

vshank

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

discounteggroll — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:39:28 EST

GIMME GIMME GIMME

discounteggroll

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

trailingedge — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:34:14 EST

cool...scientists must've been bored that day..

trailingedge

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Townie — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:24:09 EST

This is the coolest thing i have seen in ages...
(yeah that says alot about my life)

Townie

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

stonefry — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:19:55 EST

I hate to be a Mario nerd (actually, not really), but that is the original SUPER Mario brothers song.

stonefry

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

dead_red_eyes — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:11:56 EST

Hell yes!

dead_red_eyes

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

homerjay — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:29:53 EST

FAKE! I call shenanigans!
Thats so fake!

I really don't think its fake, actually. I just wanted to be 'that guy' for once.

homerjay

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

soldstatic — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:26:46 EST

for those that are curious about how this works, I looked this up when I first saw a couple of these clips cause I was going to make one. Turns out the theory behind it is pretty simple.

The tesla coil shoots out lightning, whatever. the humming of the electricity is ALWAYS at 120hz, the frequency of the juice coming out of the wall its plugged into. The ELECTRICITY is always at 120hz. BUT:

They turn the coil on/off at a high sample rate. This takes the sound coming from the coil to the high amplitude, and low amplitude alternating obviously, faster than 120hz. this means that they can effectively change the frequency of the sound that we hear. If any of you are electrically inclined, its like trying to turn the 120hz into a series of impulse functions to change the frequency domain.

soldstatic

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

who_me — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:16:04 EST

With any luck we'll see this at Burning Man next year. Dr. Megavolt, are you listening?

who_me

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

ttrimble — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:10:30 EST

Nicoli would totally be loving this. If he was alive today, he would've been demonstrating this in his lab to the likes of Sting and Bon Jovi.

ttrimble

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Mongoose — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:08:46 EST

How do they get the alteration in tones? That's the part that has me stumped. I don't think it has to do with where it connects from coil to ground-point....

I'm going to puzzle over this a while. But awesome, it is.

Mongoose

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Kryptinite — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:03:07 EST

I am amazed. I have no idea how they did that but I don't need to know because this post alone has made my day.

That is all.

Although I wish they would have did level 1-2.

Kryptinite

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

TVGenius — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:00:28 EST

@bobcostas: Wouldn't the spark be creating a decent amount of 'noise' if it were a copper link?

TVGenius

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

strider_mt2k — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:53:13 EST

Hey they're getting a good sound outta those things!

strider_mt2k

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

yougottabekidding — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:44:45 EST

Freebird!!!

yougottabekidding

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

sandro — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:43:33 EST

@P3nnst8r: +1 !!!!

I'm wondering if they could put this into the Tesla Car sound system ? It would be awesome and but will probably consumes all the batteries at the first song too :P

sandro

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

P3nnst8r — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:34:35 EST

Nifty, now if they play the A-Team song, i'm sold.

P3nnst8r

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

sirwebster — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:30:36 EST

@pupaboy2: It's well documented that Tesla was actually a bit of a looney, so he'd probably be loving this.

sirwebster

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

pupaboy2 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:23:39 EST

Telsa is probably turning in his cold dark grave over this affrontment.

pupaboy2

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

bobcostas — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:21:34 EST

ive seen this stuff live.
its awesome.

whats funny to me, they use fiver optics to transfer MIDI to the controller on the coil. haha, 5gb/s for a 10k file... hahaha

but seriously, its not for speed. its to keep ~half a million volts from grounding to their Dell...

~CR

bobcostas

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

JacquesAss — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:17:35 EST

"Unsurprisingly awesome"? Nay, that is still surprisingly awesome.

How is this not installed at some casino in Vegas?

JacquesAss

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

car47 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:14:05 EST

I don't understand! Does a specific voltage create a specific tone? That's crazy. Crazy delicious.

car47

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

DaveTyranham — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:11:09 EST

Yup. That'll be the coolest thing I see all day.

DaveTyranham

Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme are Unsurprisingly Awesome

Ericnet69 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:08:27 EST

i hate when the guys like awwwwww yeah at the start

Ericnet69