Holy shit he's alive. I bought one of these a couple years ago for my desk at work. It lasted about a week before dimming to invisible and it was into the microwave for a glorious valiant death after that. The metal swarf is a repurposed stainless steel wool dish scrubber and the black inside the end is conductive carbon paint. It's used to spread the current through the glass so a tiny pinpoint area of conduction doesn't form, heating the glass, making it even more conductive in a runaway feedback effect, and eventually boring a hole through and letting air in. This happened on a lot of Bill Parker's early globes and you can see it happen in a video by Starmute VII called "The Tragedy of the Blue-est Plasma Ball".
Not ferrite but a carbon slurry that is conductive inside the tube. Best to use a power supply that is grounded on the secondary, as otherwise you will break down the secondary winding insulation, or the class Y filter capacitor, as it will have the 10kV AC applied across it. Do not plug into a PC, it will at best reboot, or fry the USB port or main board. They do make a very effective dust trap. As well take a bunch of grapes amd see just how the grapes also act as a finger and attract the plasma discharge.
The versions I picked up from Flying Tiger used SMD components for the oscillator. The electrolytic, transformer and switch are the only through hole components. They also don't have a barrel plug power input, just batteries.
Thanks for posting. It's impressively cost reduced down to the bare minimum parts, yet still makes a pretty good effect. Found that resistor that's placed on top of that green film capacitor pretty funny. Did the barrel jack PSU come with the unit? Those plasma balls do require somewhat special PSUs to both make them work properly as well as to prevent damage to the PSU. Using an isolated class II PSU can result in them being dim but also can put a lot of stress of the insulation and Y class capacitor. Kinda doubt they did that though as I assume this was super cheap. Also I'm not convinced the primary winding is on the outer edges of that flyback, it looks like that's just the tape holding the E-core ferrite together. I would expect the primary to be co-axial to the secondary on the central part, likely separated by the plastic part you've crossed sectioned at.
Nice to see you upload again
Missed your work
I haven't watched your vids in like 5+ years. The top down teardown with your voice hit me with some serious nostalgia
Holy shit he's alive. I bought one of these a couple years ago for my desk at work. It lasted about a week before dimming to invisible and it was into the microwave for a glorious valiant death after that. The metal swarf is a repurposed stainless steel wool dish scrubber and the black inside the end is conductive carbon paint. It's used to spread the current through the glass so a tiny pinpoint area of conduction doesn't form, heating the glass, making it even more conductive in a runaway feedback effect, and eventually boring a hole through and letting air in. This happened on a lot of Bill Parker's early globes and you can see it happen in a video by Starmute VII called "The Tragedy of the Blue-est Plasma Ball".
Lovely to hear your voice again, and join others in interesting disassembly. Thank you.
Been missing you!
Not ferrite but a carbon slurry that is conductive inside the tube. Best to use a power supply that is grounded on the secondary, as otherwise you will break down the secondary winding insulation, or the class Y filter capacitor, as it will have the 10kV AC applied across it. Do not plug into a PC, it will at best reboot, or fry the USB port or main board. They do make a very effective dust trap. As well take a bunch of grapes amd see just how the grapes also act as a finger and attract the plasma discharge.
Thanks for the additional insight!
Oh jeez ! Nice to hear from YOU again ;D
Always nice to see your teardowns!
Great you're still alive...
Missed you man
Welcome back! Really enjoy your videos.
You're alive! How's that ole buried Raspberry Pi doing? I demand an update (please).
So glad you're back
even the microphone picked up some noise, some time after 2:45
I recognized the sound immediately. Sounds just like the one I had as a kid when I wrapped tinfoil around it and used it to burn holes in things.
The versions I picked up from Flying Tiger used SMD components for the oscillator. The electrolytic, transformer and switch are the only through hole components. They also don't have a barrel plug power input, just batteries.
Finally! A new update!
Welcome back!!!!!
Very interesting
Looks nice
Nice to see you back. Hopefully for more than just this vid. Any updates on those LED or CCFL bulb longevity tests?
How can the enamel of the thin wire of the secondary, withstand those voltages without arcing within itself?
I did an impromptu teardown once as a teenager when my Radio Shack Illumi-Storm fell off my bookcase and exploded.
Thanks for posting. It's impressively cost reduced down to the bare minimum parts, yet still makes a pretty good effect. Found that resistor that's placed on top of that green film capacitor pretty funny.
Did the barrel jack PSU come with the unit? Those plasma balls do require somewhat special PSUs to both make them work properly as well as to prevent damage to the PSU. Using an isolated class II PSU can result in them being dim but also can put a lot of stress of the insulation and Y class capacitor. Kinda doubt they did that though as I assume this was super cheap.
Also I'm not convinced the primary winding is on the outer edges of that flyback, it looks like that's just the tape holding the E-core ferrite together. I would expect the primary to be co-axial to the secondary on the central part, likely separated by the plastic part you've crossed sectioned at.
👍
How well would one of these work as a ozone generator without glass? the 12v ones for in car always die after a year of being plugged in
Figure out why it died or get a better one, not worth screwing around with this in your car.