Nico: Bridging the Gap Between Musician and Tesla Coil

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.