Tesla-Powered Band Electrifies Maker Faire

(energetic electronic music)

We're a multimedia performance group,

and we're from Austin, Texas,

and our specialty just happens to be

playing music through big audio modulated Tesla coils.

We also have a robot drummer,

and we play instruments and stuff,

we play guitars, and bass guitars,

and keyboards, and things like that.

(intense electronic music)

So basically our Tesla coils are a little different

than traditional Tesla coils,

in a matter that they are solid state.

That means that they use transistors,

and so basically what ends up happening is,

we have a computer that we have built

and we have programmed to interpret MIDI data,

and we take that information and we turn it

into a fiber optic light pulse with a micro controller,

which goes into a digital logic circuit board

inside our Tesla coils,

which controls the pulse rate modulation,

which allows us to change the pitch of the spark

that we're producing from the Tesla coil.

Each one draws 220 volts from the wall,

and they can draw up to 50 amps,

but depending on the note that we're playing out of it,

it varies, it can be anywhere from five to 50 amps,

and on the output, each one of the Tesla coils

can produce up to half a million volts,

and maybe up to an amp of peak RMS current.

(frantic electronic music)

(loud electrical buzzing)

When you're electrocuted it's because your body

is passing a current, right?

So if your head is at half a million volts

and your feet is at zero volts,

then you're gonna be passing current, right?

And so what the Faraday cage does

is it encapsulates your whole body, right?

So the voltage potential of your head and your feet

are the same, so if your head is at a million volts,

and your feet is at a million volts,

that means that there's zero volts across your body,

and so you're passing no amps,

and that's basically why it works the way it does.

(frantic electronic music)

(audience cheers)

(mechanical surging)

(light instrumental music)