no, charging using direct current attached at the top of the device. I call it an ariel system, but its really just a special circuit with a wire attached to the top of a tesla coil (that wire is basically the ariel of the circuit below it, its only meant to pick up the charge produced at the top of the tesla coil, which goes into charging the primary coil, and recycling that charge back into the circuit)
a tesla coil is kindof like an ariel itself, because the charge that comes to reside on the top dome, is not actually generated from the secondary coil, it comes from the atmosphere due to some correlation caused by the ground below the secondary coil and the resonance in the secondary coil....
... Im not sure what a zero input device is... but you need enough electricity in the circuit to start the resonance in the tesla coil working and functional, after that it should be able to sustain itself.