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That $200 Tesla coil kit I bought showed up missing the main capacitor
I was at my buddy's barn in rural Oregon trying to tune it for a lightning demo, and without that cap the whole thing just hummed and smoked. Has anyone else gotten a kit from those surplus sellers that was clearly missing critical parts?
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karenh561mo ago
Rural Oregon is the last place I'd want to be when a high voltage capacitor goes missing. 200 bucks is a lot for a kit that literally just sits there and hums at you. I've bought surplus electronics before and the quality control is basically zero, they just grab whatever's in the bin. That smoke smell is probably going to haunt your barn for weeks too. I'm honestly surprised it didn't blow a fuse or trip a breaker right away. Surplus sellers must figure nobody will bother mailing back a heavy coil for a refund.
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the_jennifer1mo ago
Right, "the last place I'd want to be when a high voltage capacitor goes missing" is exactly what I was thinking. I actually read a forum post the other day where a guy's surplus coil caught fire in his shed because the wrong gauge wire was used inside. These sellers really do just grab whatever's in the bin and hope for the best.
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elliot_gibson271mo ago
I've actually been there with the smoke smell thing, had a transformer start smoking in my garage one time and it really does hang around for weeks no matter how much you air the place out." The whole "grab whatever's in the bin" thing is spot on, I've seen surplus sellers mix up components that look similar but have totally different ratings. It's almost like they're just hoping you don't notice until it's too late, which is rough when you're already dropping two hundred bucks on something.
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