Lasers aren't the only dangerous thing thats fun to play with... try high Voltage!

Hey guys! I absolutley love playing with electronics and web dev, and physical computing, and last but not least lasers. I do a blog, more about my projects less about my profession, and just a few weeks ago I posted up a video of my plasma speaker. It's pretty sweet if I do say so myself and I thought you guys would be interested in it seeing as it is basically a focused beam of electrons... you want burning power? make one of these.... there will be a lot less damage to your eyes, plus MUSIC!

The Plasma Speaker Saga pt.III | The Best John

That's freakin nuts! So the sound is actually coming from that plasma beam!?

Yes, the high voltage arc is modulated so that it reproduces the sound

I was thinking of building this. A friend gave me 2 flybacks. You're running the whole rig on 12v?

I'd have to say that's pretty cool!

uber cool man, yeah we use transformers where I work to drive magnetic exciters, which are used to vibrate aircraft parts at a range of frequencies. Some times I can here the transformer tweeting along with the frequency sweeps we do. For example if we do a 2000hz to 3000hz sweep, I can hear the transformer tweeting along with that.

Yep, plasma speakers are cool, I've always wanted to build one but I rather take a giant leap and build an AM DRSSTC (audio modulated duel resonant solid state tesla coil) I sound smart now but I'm not really :cryyy:

That's really amazing! :gj:

Tech_Junkie said:

I was thinking of building this. A friend gave me 2 flybacks. You're running the whole rig on 12v?

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Yep the whole thing is off of 12V... it's pretty much a tesla coil the 12V induces a higher voltage, lower current flow into a secondary coil... let me tell you it has one hell of a kick. I'm currently looking at making a 170VDC version by rectifying my 120VAC mains... that would mess you up. When working with it you defiantly need to keep one hand behind your back as that much across your heart would not be good. This model is weak the next one will have like a 12' arc! Also this one burns the shit out of mosfets.

Gryphon said:

Yes, the high voltage arc is modulated so that it reproduces the sound

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You're absolutely right! The arc acts much like a lightning bolt by super-heating the air around it causing it to expand, and then getting cooler causing it to contract producing the highest quality sound possible. Just like musical thunder!

I have a very simple high voltage setup for producing 1" arcs, its terribly fun to play with.
I even had a go at a marx generator but the flyback driver kept frying after about 10secs
of doing that.

A few years ago, there was some company that came out with "plasma tweeters" based on this. I've also seen some similar stuff from my brother's father-in-law, who's one of the biggest Tesla nuts in the US. (He's from Romania and has a long beard, too, which totally makes it.)

+1 for you doing this, though.

Along the same lines, (and really, not to steal from the OP's glory -- at all) I'm sure a lot of people have seen this - but some probably haven't:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1O2jcfOylU

^ thats one of my favorite tesla coil videos, i can only imagine how loud they must have been.

Heres another video of a singing arc from a flyback (not my vid)

Ya that company probably went under due to not being able to sell them. It is basically a spark gap generator which was originally used to communicate over am (not modulated of course but by using morse code. turning on and off) anyways the FCC would never approve these as they give of fierce amounts of RF... so much so that I used it near my desktop and the RF induced a charge through my mouse's wire and crashed my usb hub on my motherboard... also if you turn a radio on around this thing it's all static... radio interference visa vie not passed FCC checks for non interfering transmission.

i wonder if you can modify a jacobs ladder to do that.

iwannapony said:

i wonder if you can modify a jacobs ladder to do that.

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Not sure but I know that I can modify this to become a jacobs ladder... as the arc gets higher and wider it gets louder. When I get some more MOSFETs I'll put up some more videos

Be advised.

Current intensity and its expected clinical manifestation are outlined below:

•1 mA - Not perceptible, probable tingling sensation
•3-5 mA - "Let go" current for an average child
•6-8 mA - "Let go" current for an average woman
•7-9 mA - "Let go" current for an average man
•16 mA - Maximum current a person can grasp and "let go"
•16-20 mA - Tetany of skeletal muscles
•20-50 mA - Paralysis of respiratory muscles (respiratory arrest)
•50-100 mA - Threshold for ventricular fibrillation

Ventricular fibrillation is the most common fatal arrhythmia, occurring in up to 60% of patients in whom the current pathway goes from one hand to the other hand.

When i saw those long nosed pliers in the operators left hand, the hair on my neck stood up, which brings up another point.
Iif the hair on your arm stands up, you might have a chance.
If you cant let go of the pliers, it might be too late.
Pray that the person who tries to rescue you has a good pair of high voltage gloves lest you both become part of the LOAD for this experiment.