#4849529
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Hi Guys, I've found a 12v Plasma Tube which gives a nice proton beam effect - a friend had a few installed in his car via a 12v adapter so I've nabbed one to see if I can adapt it into my wand.

Not sure if any ones seen the effect before but its basically a series of multi-coloured plasma ribbons inside a 10-11" tube - depending how well you remove it from the outer casing.

Currently I've hooked it up to the blue brick and the effect fires for maybe 2 seconds at most - its a great looking effect but I cant figure out why the tube lights up for only a few seconds at a time given it is a 12v source from a new brick so capacity should be fine.

Any electronic gurus out there who could offer advice; would be a nice component to integrate into a wand.

Here's an eaxample of one of them on ebay this ones made by Pilot but i've seen an auto parts catalogue with other types.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-PILOT-15- ... 1134992146

Thanks
#4849532
Send Spongeface a message, he's normally happy helping a fellow out with some new ideas...
#4849536
Yeah, I've sent Doug some crazy ideas before, and he came up with a solution almost every single time! He's amazing!
#4849537
I haven't played with one of those yet. Can't find the instructions on-line but the eBay listing has a picture of the package and that mentions it can "Pulse to Music", so maybe the switches/pot have something to do with a sound input or microphone trying to control the illumination.
#4849553
I'm no electric guru by any sort but I do have some experience with the Pilot neon/plasma tube . I too have the same 15" Pilot multicolor plasma tube light in my thrower. So if I can help in any way feel free to message me.

From what your describing it sounds like that you may have to change the setting on the transformer circuit board that is wired to the plasma tube.
If you look you will see it has a sensitivity knob and a switch next to it that lets you have the option of two different modes. Flip it up one way it should activate steadily when power is applied or flip it the opposite way it will activate by only sound. (Can't remember which way up or down was which mode) . If it's only illuminating for a few seconds I'd say try flipping the switch the opposite way it's on now and see if that will help. You may have it on the setting to only activate to sound and not steady pulse effect which will cause it to come on for only a second or two if your triggering the fire sound with it on the same push switch and the tube light will cut off unless your running really super loud sound effects . It works best when you have it switched to steady pulse so that when you apply power to it by pressing the push switch the tube will do its thing for however long you want. Every now and then I hit that switch by accident and have the same issue and have to switch it back.
#4849554
Just out of curiousity do u have resin or all aluminum gun body ???? Reason I ask is because a few months ago I upgraded from resin gun body to an all aluminum body. The new aluminum thrower was awesome but boy was it an absolute HELL'ish experience getting that Pilot plasma tube light to work properly in an all aluminum body. Now that it was being enclosed in a conductive material every time I fired the plasma light it would generate a enough high voltage current through my aluminum gun body causing electric shock. You can literally hold a piece of aluminum or any conductive material almost an inch away from the light and it will still generate enough charged particles nearby to still shock you.

My setup I have both GBfans lights and sound board. I'm using a Dpdt push switch to run the fire/fire off sound on one side and the other side connects the power to the Pilot plasma tube. For some reason people I know didn't have this same issue as I did but my fire sound could not be properly wired to the same push switch as the plasma tube without getting interference even though I had shileded wire. I would press the push switch and the plasma light would come on fine but my fire sound would only come on sometimes and if it did it wouldn't last long . But most of time my fire sound wouldn't come on with the plasma light At same time because of strong interference. So buddy of mine recommended to have the plasma tube wired to a relay so that the push switch can properly make the fire sound come on with the tube light without any interference. The relay fixed everything . I tried so many different push switches before that and none of them could run the fire sound and plasma tube light simultaneously without getting any weird interference. It would do one or the other but couldn't handle both at same time . I contacted a guy named BossaNova who was lot of help showing me how he wired up his plasma tube and he for some reason never had any issues. But he's also not using an aluminum body like I am. So I had a bit of a tough time getting that light to work without interference .

Now that my fire sound comes on same time as my barrel light when pressing the push switch I have one last final small issue . My GBfans bar graph light is getting interference from the plasma tube light now too. The wires that connect my led hat light and red SPST push switch located on the gun ears are running alongside the plasma tube light in the front barrel and it sometimes causes my bar graph to not do the center out sequence when being fired. If I unhook those gun ear wires from the gbfans light circuit board my bar graph will do the center out display when being fired with no problem. So It's def the gun ear wires that run through the front barrel alongside my pilot plasma tube to the Gbfans circuit that is causing the interference on my bar graph illumination when being fired. I'm gonna try replacing the GBfans gun ear wires to small shielded wire hoping that will be enough to block the EMI getting to my bar graph. If anyone else has any other ideas on what I can do that may help keep EMI from getting to my bar graph through those wires will be super appreciated . But hopefully I will figure that out last issue out soon haha!! I could have totally saved myself months of aggrivassion by just running the LEDs that came with my gbfans light kit but I just love that plasma tube effect !!! It looks so damn cool I don't want to use anything else!! It's just so tough to isolate nearby electronics from plasmas many types of strong EMI it gives off.

Let me know if switching that switch helps your problem and if u want I can make up a diagram of how I have mine wired .
#4849555
HI, yes that was it - the instructions were useless it was more to do with mounting than features on the light- I realised last night that flicking between the 2 would result in a steady beam or a drop out - I was assuming it was some form or regulator maybe a step up or step down - but what you says seems to make sense; instructions were useless!!!

Ive started the strip down on the tube, theyve really glued it in so i think the dremel will have to take part. In terms of the tube length im assuming youve hidden a portion of it in the gun body as its a bit too long I think - I havent taken the end cap off but how are you dealing with that at the wand tip - is it obvious theres tube inside it - I can see theres a wire running underneath so Im assuming theres just an end cap and not a big chunk of electronics on it.

Im using a resin kit but I know from experience what you mean about shocks - I used to sit at an end table and the guy on the other side had a plasma light/air ioniser and periodically down the table leg id get a whack if I was touching the frame Im assuming theres static build up from this.

Its more of an experiment at this stage and if my electronic skills were up to scratch id stand more of a chance getting it right first time but this will be step by step trial and error. Maybe Doug (spongeface) will pick up a tube and be able to make sense of it, he was a great help getting the basics of my electronics up and running using his products and various add on upgrades.

Its a really nice effect, have tried to video it but the cameras just picking up a bright light and doesnt do the real efect any justice you get some very nice streams inside that tube - perhaps that in conjunction with Dougs wand tip light would create a really good effect - streams for the the sides and a good forward beam using a powerful led.
#4849638
Yes I thought the same thing about instructions as well very little info. If u want pm me your email info and I can send u some pics on what I did . Unfortunately I only have an iPad right now my computer isn't working or else I would upload pics on this site. Not sure if I can upload photos on this site with iPad or not.

I used a dremmel to cut off both plastic ends of the tube and it worked very well. Just be careful to not cut too deep and hit the tube is all . The one end of the tube with the electronics you can do one of two things...... You can completely remove the plastic that surrounds the circuit board or you can just cut part of the plastic caseing where the tube ends by the circuit board freeing the tube and leave the rest of the plastic caseing to keep the circuit board covered. Just be careful because from the circuit board are two short wires (+,-) that connect the tube to the circuit board inverter . The wires are not soldered very well to the circuit board and the tube and they can disconnect very easily while handling it (happened to me a couple times) . So I just replaced both those positive and negative wires with better solder contacts and made the wire a bit longer so that this way I can fit the whole plasma tube light inside the barrel with the wires hanging out one end going into the gun body to connect to the circuit board . The plasma tube is roughly 11 inches once completely removed from the pilot plastic surrounding. So the whole light can fit in barrel without sticking out into the gun body. The positive and negative wire between the circuit board and light are connected using wire nuts so I can disconnect the tube light if I want and change out for a different color light tip if I want . I have three interchangeable acrylic tips with different color plasma tubes. The Pilot multicolor and a red and blue color tube that's made from a different company . But the multicolor Pilot plasma tube I feel is the best looking by far.

I did try that idea you said with using a led light to light up the acrylic tube along with the plasma tube . But you could barley tell the led was lit when the plasma tube was on and it didn't make any difference in effect. So I just used the plasma tube .. It's cool idea though.

I will get together some reference pics of my gun and send them to u so u can get a better idea what everything looks like. Feel free to ask me any questions if you run into any problems or need advice.
#4849639
while I get my pics together check out this other build thread with pics courtesy of theBossaNova who helped me when I first did the plasma tube. The thread is in German but pics may help a little. I will get my reference pics together here in a day or so and send them to ya. Here is the link to the BossaNovas build :
http://www.razyboard.com/system/morethr ... 475-0.html

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