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This instructable will show you how to make one of those cool lightning globes with about $5.00 worth of parts.
WARNING Just like my Monitor Hack instructable, this makes use of some very high voltage. It could be potentially lethal, especially if you are standing in a puddle of water.
Watch the video for the overview:
WARNING Just like my Monitor Hack instructable, this makes use of some very high voltage. It could be potentially lethal, especially if you are standing in a puddle of water.
Watch the video for the overview:
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Signing UpStep 1Supplies
Here's a list of supplies I used:
1. Large, clear light bulb
Not just any light bulb will work. It must be one that has been gas filled.
Typically, anything 60 watts or higher should work. Lower wattage bulbs typically have a vaccuum. 60 watt and higher usually have an argon nitrogen mix, which lights up nicely!
I found a 5 inch 60 watt bulb for about $2.49 at the hardware store.
2. Aluminum screen, painted black
The aluminum screen will be our ground to attract the high voltage.
Instead of shelling out a bunch of money for an entire roll of aluminum screening, just look for an HVAC vent with some right on the back.
I found the one below at the hardware store for about $1.50, and the screen was already painted black!
3. A cheap black plastic pot
This is going to be the holder for the globe. Since it will be used at night, it doesn't need to look pretty.
I found a black plastic pot for about $0.79, you guessed it, at the hardware store.
4. A high voltage power source
This is what makes the magic happen.
I used the same monitor as the one in my Electric Fence Monitor Hack Video
With people upgrading to LCDs like crazy these days, you can easily get a 15" monitor from someone for free. You might even talk them into paying you for removing the hideous eyesore from their humble abode.
WARNING: Color monitors put out close to 30,000 volts. This voltage can harm you and quite possibly kill you, depending on the depth of the water you are standing in or how old your pacemaker batteries are. Seriously, though, be careful.
1. Large, clear light bulb
Not just any light bulb will work. It must be one that has been gas filled.
Typically, anything 60 watts or higher should work. Lower wattage bulbs typically have a vaccuum. 60 watt and higher usually have an argon nitrogen mix, which lights up nicely!
I found a 5 inch 60 watt bulb for about $2.49 at the hardware store.
2. Aluminum screen, painted black
The aluminum screen will be our ground to attract the high voltage.
Instead of shelling out a bunch of money for an entire roll of aluminum screening, just look for an HVAC vent with some right on the back.
I found the one below at the hardware store for about $1.50, and the screen was already painted black!
3. A cheap black plastic pot
This is going to be the holder for the globe. Since it will be used at night, it doesn't need to look pretty.
I found a black plastic pot for about $0.79, you guessed it, at the hardware store.
4. A high voltage power source
This is what makes the magic happen.
I used the same monitor as the one in my Electric Fence Monitor Hack Video
With people upgrading to LCDs like crazy these days, you can easily get a 15" monitor from someone for free. You might even talk them into paying you for removing the hideous eyesore from their humble abode.
WARNING: Color monitors put out close to 30,000 volts. This voltage can harm you and quite possibly kill you, depending on the depth of the water you are standing in or how old your pacemaker batteries are. Seriously, though, be careful.
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....I wish more credit would be given to Tesla, just look at the things around us that we take for granted: AC power, High Voltage coils (what gives car engines spark to run), Radio (Marconi used Tesla's ideas).....the list goes on and on.....Nikola Tesla, Man Ahead of His Time.
The Tesla coil looking thing in the middle is still intact, but both the inner and outer bulbs were shattered. It would be a shame to discard this globe, as it worked vary well, and looked vary cool. The globe was about the size of a grape fruit, which made it even more impressive than, some of the tiny ones I've seen. Any ideas beyond a simple round globe would be appreciated as well.
Thanks
while one globe "might" be possible with some rigging, two globes sounds rather ........ impossible.
you could, however, look for another ibble that scratch builds a lighning globe and skip all the steps pertainting to the power and coil, and jump right to the globe filling..
(this is all theory, i'm not 100% sure)
be careful
I Gots To Get Me One Of THESE!
About 30 years ago (40?) Scientific American magazine's Amateur Scientist column did a DIY X-ray generator that used a light bulb, a piece of aluminum foil and a HV DC supply. Basically, it is the same set-up as this project except that they turned on the light bulb filament in order to boil electrons off it. The HVDC then accelerates the electrons to hit the foil target through the glass. Some weak X-rays are produced and if I recall correctly, they were used to cause mutations in seeds that were then grown to observe the effects of the radiation/mutations.
I shouldn't have to say it, but I will because there are always a few people out there will think it is a cool idea to try to x-ray their own body parts or those of their pets, girlfriends, etc. DON'T DO IT. X-rays are potentially dangerous. The mutations can cause cancer, etc. Here's an article similar to the one I am referring to: www.noah.org/science/x-ray/stong/
A big problem with these 2nd anode CRT HV supplies
is that they are only DC.
Since the glass of the bulb is an insulator,
DC can not flow through it to light the gas well.
In fact, HVDC can punch through the glass and ruin the seal,
letting atmospheric air pressure inside, which ruins its operation.
The bulb glass Does form the dielectric of a capacitance, and
will couple AC very well to the gas.
It is advizable to gut the rectifier diode out of the flyback transformer, or
where ever it is located, so that
you have access to the AC directly from the transformer.
All plasma globes use AC from their special transformers.
With a good source of AC, you dont need the external bulb screen.
A well placed finger will do.
If you use a flyback transformer that doesn't have diodes or wind your own coil, it has a display similar to a store bought globe. One of these days I should make an instructable on winding your own coil.
Don't ever touch a sharp metal object such as a key to a plasma globe! It will burn a hole in the glass and the fill gas will leak out and ruin it.
im not burning holes in them (well the first one i did) but this second one died without any hole. any idea why? these 5 inch bulbs are 4 bucks a pop