I recently got a deal on some plasma
globes on eBay and while they are pretty
neat I feel like with the right
modifications they could be a lot cooler
no I have a general rule that before I
go tearing into stuff I like to at least
try the original product now what can
you do with a plasma globe well for one
you put your hand on it like this yeah
little arc that goes up to your Danish
it's pretty cool but I mean honestly
this isn't gonna keep me entertained for
that long like the thing isn't even a
fire hazard is that too much to ask for
consumer electronics now luckily this
whole fire hazard issue can be simply
solved with just a roll of aluminum foil
but first a warning the craziness this
is probably about to unfold over the
next 10 minutes or so was done
completely for educational purposes in
fact if you were to try any of this
stuff at home you'd probably die so yeah
please don't do this home a piece of
aluminum foil on top capacitively
couples to that inner electrode and now
you can see it can draw more current no
even pull a little arc from the surface
which which is pretty nifty no I wonder
what it feels like on my finger ooh
actually tickles oh wow it's cool
drawing an arc from my finger all right
now it's time for a more important test
and that's whether it can burn stuff so
here I have a match and hmm doesn't seem
to be doing anything so I cover the
match and aluminum foil that way hey the
foil touches mean can complete the
circuit through ground so see if it
likes the match
that's arcing not quite lighting it one
eternity later yes there it goes sweet
that was actually pretty cool all right
no I'm bored this thing needs a lot more
power so I'm gonna tear it apart so I
went ahead and torn out that plasma
globin and what can I say I'm not
impressed with this driver
I feel like Nikola Tesla who actually
invented the plasma globe would be wrong
in his grave if he saw this dragon like
he was doing this stuff over a hundred
years ago and his stuff was way better
than this puny little thing if you go on
Google and look up how to make a
high-voltage circuit this is literally
gonna be one of the first results hits
like child's play in the realm of high
voltage electronics but regardless this
thing works by using this
555 timer here - generating a square
wave signal - this power transistor then
this feeds into this flyback transformer
or the rapidly changing currents causes
the relatively high voltage to be
produced and then it's fed through this
long lead here into the plasma globe so
how do we make this thing stronger
well the dumb way would be to just feed
higher voltage into the thing but that's
probably just gonna blow the timer
before anything interesting happens so I
guess the next best option is to a feed
a higher voltage into just that
transistor itself or even better use
this transistor as an amplifier to feed
an even bigger transistor and then let
me even higher higher voltages into that
alrighty so this is what the new setup
looks like so I start by feeding the
output of this scary AK here into this
IQ level 500 AC to DC converter and from
that that feeds into this MOSFET here
which is the main switching component of
the new driver and it's funny because
this this power transistor here that was
originally feeding the flyback
transformer is now acting as just a
little amplifier that powers the gate of
this MOSFET
so yeah let's give this thing a try man
I feel like this scene that's such a
great job of giving off the essence of
hobby electronics so let's dive right
into this because what could possibly go
wrong so let's start feeling a little
bit in the voltage there and hmm oh boy
over what's going on there so apparently
due to my sloppy wiring I ended up
frying this little power transistor it's
not like it really mattered in the first
place so now I just have the output of
the 555 directly driving the gate of
that MOSFET so let's give this another
go
oh sweet Oh something broke don't really
fry that easily no it's trying to go oh
well look at that I love when that
happens
I let out the magic smoke this project
has been a great reminder of how much I
suck at electronics so I'm gonna say
screw this driver
and instead uses EVs driver which is
much better and also use a flyback
transformer that's at least ten times
bigger not even the slightest glow so
that's how it's gonna be is it you know
I guess it wasn't really the plasma
Globes fault it's probably the built-in
rectifier inside that flyback
transformer that's preventing me from
being nice arcs in the globe alright
screw this I'm breaking out my massively
over driven car ignition coils because
if this doesn't do it I don't know what
will all right let's give this thing a
try
well it's certainly better the noise is
definitely an added bonus
but I still can't say I'm that impress
like there weren't even arc shooting out
of the glass I think I can still do a
lot better now I'm sure if I were to
drive this coils even harder I can make
the globe a little bit brighter but
really at that point I miss grasping for
straws because what I really want is to
draw the maximum of power I can possibly
get from my electrical socket I want
giant arcs of electricity to shoot
directly out of the glass I want a
million volts to come from my driver to
feed into the globe now how does
somebody like me generate on a million
volts well in fact I don't need fancy
identities or field effect transistors
fact I don't need silicon at all what I
do need are microwave ovens microwaves
are full of parts that are useful for
the electronics hobbyists
and can be sourced for cheaper even
sometimes free so let's tear this thing
down now I should point out that nobody
without extensive electronic experience
reason being you touch the output of
this while it's live you're dead you
touch this without discharging it first
you're dead you break this and inhale
the dust and before long Berlioz's comes
creeping in slowly suffocating you and
sucking every bit of life out of you
until finally you're dead anyway the
main thing that I'm looking for is this
transformer here now unfortunately it
only does a little over 2,000 volts but
luckily I can string a few of them
together for higher voltages but I'm
going to need more microwaves
I need transformers with relatively
similar electrical characteristics that
way they don't fight each other when
chained together now I found four that
match each other quite nicely and I
wired the secondaries in series in the
primaries in parallel and of course
accounting for phasing now if you try to
change any more than four of these
together then the voltage is just going
to blow through the windings on the
secondary but even adjust for this can
be an issue so to prevent this I mounted
them in these ammo cans here when I
submerge them in mineral oil now this
arrangement gives it voltage about ten
thousand volts which is certainly not
that one
and definitely not that one he didn't
even work on that can we just stop it
with this whole free energy conspiracy
already ah yes that one the magnifying
transmitter or even better the
modern-day equivalent which is the aptly
named Tesla coil the Tesla coil is a
type of step-up transformer in which the
primary and secondary sites form tank
circuits and they're tuned so that they
resonate the same frequency they're
capable of generating extreme voltages
well in excess of a million volts now
luckily many of the materials needed for
a Tesla coil can actually be found at a
hardware store for my primary coil I use
3/8 inch copper refrigeration tubing as
the conductor now a Wye conductor is
really important because the skin effect
makes thinner wire quite resistive at
radio frequencies
I made some mounts out of acrylic to
hold the primary windings in place and
then mounted it here on this coffee
table on the primary side I needed a
tank capacitor rated for the grueling
high voltage high current operating
conditions of a multi kilowatt Tesla
coil but off the shelf these are very
expensive
now some people make their own
capacitors out of things like beer
bottles and foil but these tend to be
quite lost
I ended up meeting the middle by
building a bank of smaller poles
capacitors which gives great performance
at a much lower cost for the secondary
side I needed a coil with over a
thousand turns now I start a winding one
by hand but without access to a lathe
this task turned out to be quite
painstaking so I ended up just giving in
and buying a fully wound coil on ebay
for 60 bucks
four and a half inches wide 22 inches
tall and 1,200 turns now I stuck a small
top load from a much less awesome Tesla
coil on top to increase the capacitance
on the secondary side the final piece of
hardware to add was something to switch
the primary tank circuit at well over
100 times per second while also allowing
the capacitor bank to charge it before
firing now I don't even want to know the
cost of transistors actually rated for
something like this so I ended up
following the path of many other Tesla
coil errs of the pass and built an
asynchronous rotary spark app I started
with the absolute cheapest angle grinder
I could find which turned out to be a
fourteen dollar unit from Harbor Freight
now for the spinning disk I use bakelite
because it's both a great electrical
insulator it's also tolerant of high
temperatures so I cut into something
close to a circle and honey I was never
quite the arts-and-crafts kind of guy so
I stuck it on a bench grinder and then
ran it against a file and after a few
lungfuls of formaldehyde later I had a
nice circular disk i mounted brass acorn
nuts as the flying electrodes and then
used brass bolts for the stationary
electrodes now when the angle grinder
spins the electrodes into place the
10,000 volts jumps the gap and allows
the primary circuit to oscillate now
when the gap fires it is incredibly loud
nearly deafening it's funny because
there's probably even a little bit of
laser emission coming off that gap
considering the ambient nitrogen that's
getting zapped by the high voltage and
here is the completed driver it
definitely looks terrifying and I went
ahead and added some warning stickers
there just to keep people safe then also
one thing I want to point out is I had a
ton of these microwave oven capacitors
here to act as a capacitors ballast and
then over here I have my spark gap
mountain and there's my capacitor bank
so yeah I guess we're ready to try this
thing out now first I want to test this
Tesla coil without the plasma globe on
top that way it can compare it to the
original plasma globe driver because the
plasma globe driver doesn't even make
any visible Corona when it's ran in open
air so let's see if this Tesla
is any different all right here we go
man why don't we even do this kind of
stuff
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
it's hard to convey just how loud that
spark cannot actually
[Music]
so the new plasma globe driver clearly
works and actually produces sparks in
midair unlike the old driver but I guess
that was expected considering this new
driver draws 350 times as much power as
the old one that way it can feed the
output of the court directly into the
globe but in hindsight I should have
used iron for this because iron has a
very high magnetic permeability so it's
equivalent resistant to the skin effect
it's going to cause very high losses hum
but truth be told I'm actually shooting
this part after the fact and I've
already blown up on my plasma globes so
there now it's art all right here we go
let's hope it doesn't explode on the
very first run
[Music]
check out those amazing patterns but
still though it's not shooting arcs out
of the glass but I think I can fix this
just like I did earlier I'm gonna stick
some aluminum foil on top that way it
capacitively couples to the top of the
coil and it's funny because of these
frequencies whatever capacitance that
this arrangement has is going to have an
incredibly low impedance so the arc
should just shoot straight through the
globe
[Music]
ah yes there's that wonderful arc that I
was after it shoots two feet out of the
top of the glove which i think is pretty
impressive but maybe could we do even
better if we add more foil to the thing
I used aluminum tape this time instead
of foil because it sticks to the sides
better now this time I actually have
five pieces as opposed to one so let's
see how this thing performs
[Music]
you know it's funny you'd think after
all the time I just spent building this
new driver I would have remembered to
actually attach the plasma globe to the
thing but as they say science can't move
forward without breaking some omelets or
whatever
I stuck another globe on the driver and
this time used some zip ties to keep it
held down now for my next experiment I
want to see if I could use this thing to
remotely power up another plasma globe
[Music]
try doing that with an off-the-shelf
plasma club let's give that a try with
some fluorescent tube lights aka the
much less awesome plasma globe
equivalent
[Music]
now I know what you want to ask here's
the new plasma globe of fire hazard well
let's test it with some very special
balloons
[Music]
[Applause]
amazingly for all the experience you
just saw I was only running the power
supply and half the power I built it for
but even so the voltage it generates is
so high that arcs back to itself now on
the left it hit the ground you strike
rail but that's fine because that's what
it's meant for but on the right the
strike came back and hit the secondary
coil and it's only going to take a few
more of those to completely destroy it
so in future videos I'll be sure to add
a much bigger top load and then see if I
can pull off doubling the input power
now I feel like I'm going to get some
complaints about the title of this video
because my plasma globe was just over
Bolton now overclocked right well
technically was overclocked and no one
can't run Crysis but the original driver
had a frequency of 23 kilohertz and the
new one XJ is a frequency of 265
kilohertz so it's actually been
overclocked by a factor of more than 10
but yeah I was totally clickbait all
right so that's enough insanity for
today and I actually think this is gonna
be my longest video yet so if you
actually watch the entire thing I'm
pretty impressed but I first I'd love to
give a big thing you tell my patrons on
patreon because was it for all your
generous support I want to be making
videos for YouTube anymore so a big
THANK YOU to you guys in fact I'm gonna
let you guys see this video first before
I make it public anywhere else and uh
yeah you guys should also check out my
Instagram page because I post a lot of
project updates there before you see
them anywhere else so there's a link in
the description be sure to check that
out and yeah until the next time stay
safe and happy lazing