Models Suitable for Display

quixote · Post by **quixote** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 2:40 am

If you were just after looks, given the relatively small dimensions of the models, you could use an ordinary light bulb plasma ball.

http://www.organizeit.com/plasma-night- ... mpid=gbase

There are also usb ones (though they look kind of lame).

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/964e/

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:54 pm

quixote wrote:...
There are also usb ones (though they look kind of lame).

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/964e/

hey! not so much with the lame. i got one of those. i call it my '5MW unit' and imagine it powers my laptop... i talk to it... darn-it Spok... it has personality, but not as we know it...

they seem pretty sensitive ot magnets and grounding and stuff. i was thinking making up 6 6V coils,, wrapping them in auminium foil, and by croc clips to.... one of the HT lines inside maybe, though some sort of attenuator/invertor...

then put the whole thing in some sort of perspex 'safety container', with a couple of knobs on the front, and a 'magic-eye' tuning meter... an art-deco style chrome-metal plinth or something ... a placard reading '... to all those brutally optimistic early pioneers .. it never happened that way.'

something along those lines, powered via usb to one of Eric Lerner's local substations in the basement

[edit] well, a model of one anyway[/edit]

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:10 pm

ladajo wrote:I have a couple of spools of 14 THHN, and I was thinking to start with that and low volts DC to see what happens. Then I will look to step up the current in increments and see how it changes. I am a little concerned with setting it up so I don't get some unintended capacitive effects across the glass. But I think the THHN will solve that. Depending on how things go, I have enough kit that I can power the coils with up to 240VDC. But I don't think I will need to go that aggressive to see some cool effects on the plasma.
I think high turns and 12VDC or lower should be interesting enough. I have a couple of current limited supplies I can adapt, and then it becomes a matter of turns. I have soccer games tomorrow, so it may be a day or two before I get something running.

go get get em Lodajo! you too could soon be the proud owner of a 5MW net generating machine, made from scraps, like my own

(note: JC could have one too, but he is too stuborn).

i was thinking, even if it cant to be made to do something 'moderately representative' with the plasma in there, we could make it look pretty with some 'animated' representation using digital circuitry and higher speeds. just a thought. (ps. see my idea above also, or some sort of US Navy theme perhaps...)

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:57 pm

PS. WARNING! to any children out there wishing to do this at home: IIRC There is quite possibly stuff in these plasma globes that can kill you!
Might be the safest assumption.
Do not inhale.
Or touch shit.

On the other hand, I think there are circuit diagrams of these things out there on the web. possibily even some established 'plasma-ball-moders'... who knows ...

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 5:04 pm

PPS. kool super big museum grade plasma ball video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv ... huf2M&NR=1

ppps: http://www.angelfire.com/80s/sixmhz/globe.html - Greg's Homemade Plasma Globe Page

pppps: http://www.heal-me.com.au/km.htm - {sonic?} /Low RF Novelty Plasma Ball Modification

ppppps: ordinary plasma ball bulbs look pretty kool without any clothes -

courtesy: http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2002/11 ... ma_globe/1

... on the trial..

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 5:43 pm

a totally separate idea: we could make a real hologram out of happyjacks data! just need a hologram-maker...

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 6:29 pm

http://www.instructables.com/id/Amazing ... hings-fun/ - Solid-state-things-fun

http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/12/24/pla ... ontroller/ - and some basic stuff with DA converters and a pc software controller ( ... nice globe in the vid! - i think the standard ones are Argon and neon - hence the pink+violet colours - something we could use to advantage in a polywell rendering, i should imagine..)

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:09 pm

"Re: QA - Your Shapeways Order No. 60881 - Useless Statistics

Jan,
When my model left your facility, it had 196 polishing stones inside. About five fell out on the way here and I removed the other 191 stones. Eight are the cylindrical stones with the remainder of triangular cross-section.

I finally found the crack in the model. I'm glad you didn't waste time, etc. printing another.

Best Regards,

Robert

P.S. I'm tempted to put the stones back inside the model and giving it to my children to teach them about persistence and improve their hand-eye coordination.

P.P.S. It gets easier to remove stones as they come out. I used a bamboo skewer with a sharp tip and a blunt end to help manipulate stones into position to fall out."

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:38 pm

Submitted for ladajo's consideration:

and with zip-ties to hold the corners together:

I expect if enough current is running it would self-erect (just before the wires melt?).

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:37 am

Something simpler to build for Proof of Concept, inscribed on a tetrahedron:

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:14 am

Thanks, ended up out of town today...but I am going to work on this over this week. If I don't kill myself doing it, I'll try and get some pics up.

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:19 pm

@raypeters: another idea: had you thought already of constructing your previous most excellent (printed?) geoid designs out of transparent plastic, then fill each cell with a simple noble gas mix (depending upon the 'shell') and fit each cell with a simple anode/cathode/electrical feed through.

jerry rig the driver of a standard plasma globe to kick it off running. very nice. (and a good fall back if we cant 'sculpt' the plasma itself in some way).

re: your 'squarials'/magrids above, love the last one. seems like we would make it with large drinking straws; also represents a quick easy way of winding some copper coils, before 'configuring' the pieces about some retainer, (and a plasma ball - is what you were thinking?).

we might need to cheat and use some shaped cathode foils, etc, or some old lcd displays perhaps. i've no real idea how a standard globe plasma can be sculptured. i know there is such a thing as 'plasma sculpture', as an art form, people do it (allegedly), but i haven'e seen anything terribly impressive from them yet.

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:39 am

rcain wrote:@raypeters: another idea: had you thought already of constructing your previous most excellent (printed?) geoid designs out of transparent plastic, then fill each cell with a simple noble gas mix (depending upon the 'shell') and fit each cell with a simple anode/cathode/electrical feed through.

No, I hadn't. There are complications to printing the KCDodd surface. Long story short: I'm pretty sure it needs to tipped onto a corner to be printable as one volume (to keep a good seal). viz:

I have no idea how the transparent plastic reacts to even weak plasma bombardment. Just one of those things to find out along the way...

rcain wrote:re: your 'squarials'/magrids above, love the last one. seems like we would make it with large drinking straws; also represents a quick easy way of winding some copper coils, before 'configuring' the pieces about some retainer, (and a plasma ball - is what you were thinking?).

Yes. ladajo is perfectly capable of coming up with fun and useful coil configurations for his experiments, but I wanted to use some earlier thinking about single-coil configurations in hope he might find a single-coil a good way to go because of coil winding simplification.

rcain wrote:we might need to cheat and use some shaped cathode foils, etc, or some old lcd displays perhaps. i've no real idea how a standard globe plasma can be sculptured.

We are about two steps away from sculpting our own plasma enclosures. If you're interested, I can model and .stl one, some, for your experiments.

rcain · Post by **rcain** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:52 am

rjaypeters wrote:....
We are about two steps away from sculpting our own plasma enclosures. If you're interested, I can model and .stl one, some, for your experiments.

excellent!

you have convinced me. i too will try and gather some materials together over the week. will let you know if i can justify any modeling, (stl?). thanks for the offer.

we should certainly post images up/video on youtube.

looking forward to this

rjaypeters · Post by **rjaypeters** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 10:57 am

At your service...