It's relatively a simple hookup for the most part. The Pilot Plasma tube runs off 12v just like everything else in my pack so I was able to only use one 12v 20000mah lithium blue brick battery to power everything just fine : Jupiter pack lights, Gbfans sound & Gbfans thrower lights , 15" Pilot Multicolor Plasma tube. The hardest thing for me was mainly just trying to pinpoint the multiple EMI issues I was having being I started out with little knowledge of how plasma works and EMI shielding . The plasma tube fits great in the acrylic tip when carefully removed from the plastic housing it came in. I didn't really have to change anything big to make it work just a few minor things . In fact I have a total of 2 other interchangeable acrylic tips made up i can pop in and out if I decide I want to use a different color plasma tube light red and blue. But the multicolor in the video is my favorite.
My biggest issue that I ran into with the the 12V Pilot Plasma Tube light was I couldn't get my fire sound effect to come on in sync with the plasma light like it was suppose to when pressing the Dpdt push button. The plasma light has a small inverter circuit board that converts DC to high powered AC current causing a lot of extra interference . Even though I was using a Dpdt push switch keeping the sound and light on separate polls the light still was strong enough to interfere with sound. Either one or the other would work fine by themselves but not together . So I installed a relay in between the plasma light and push switch which fixed the problem and now both plasma light and fire sound work in sync when the Dpdt fire button is pressed like it should. I was also at the time using a Crix sound chip and 7w canakit amp and the amp would pick up tons of humming and popping from the plasma light. I then purchased the Gbfans sound board to replace my old Crix sound and 7w Cana kit amp for better sound and that worked much better for some reason cutting out all the extra hum I was getting when firing the plasma light.
Now because I have an all aluminum thrower enclosed with the plasma light it would generate a charged electrical current through the conductive aluminum body giving you a little shock each time you fired the plasma barrel tube light . So I wrapped a ground wire around one of the two Allen screws that sit on the front aluminum barrel of the thrower grounding my gun which would now keep me from getting shocked when the plasma light would come on.
My last little issue I had ran into was I noticed my Gbfans thrower bar graph light was not always doing the center out sequence when firing every time like it should. I narrowed the issue down when I noticed by unhooking the 3 wires that ran up the inside of my front barrel (right next to the plasma tube) connecting the front "gun ear" LED hat light and (vent) push switch the bar graph would work fine and center out display when being fired. Only when the 3 wires were connected to the Gbfans light circuit board I would have the issue . Since the wires ran through the front handle right next to the plasma tube there was no other way to reroute them and I didn't want to have to keep my "gun ear " hat light LED and push switch that controlled the vent sound not hooked up . So I contacted Spongeface and he recommended I add a simple .1uf capacitor between two of three wires on the connector that connected the gun ear wires to the Gbfans light circuit board. This was just enough to drown out any access noise that was acting like an antenna getting to my bar graph causing it to not do the center out sequence when fired. Not sure if you are familiar with the Gbfans thrower light kit but here is a pic to show you what I had to do and how I mounted the cap. The 3 red,black and yellow wires in pic are the wires that connect my gun ear.
Now I'm no electrical expert by any means . After doing my own research on plasma EMI and help from others I was able to eliminate one issue after another. To some people it may sound like too much of a pain in the ass to even bother but I feel it was all worth the couple months it took me to get the Pilot Plasma light to work without causing interference to my other electronics . . For months I was trying to get this plasma tube to work with zero interference issues and I could have just settled for the RGB thrower tip LED light that came with my Gbfans light kit but I just loved the neon plasma tube effect so much I didn't want to give up.
Now since everyones setup is different and unique . Others may not have or run into the same type of issues like I had. In fact the one guy I got the plasma tube idea from Tommys Pack build by "theBossaNova" never had any of the issues I had for reasons I still can't completely figure out why he didn't and I did. Though he has a resin body not aluminum which cuts out a lot of issues right there. He also didn't need a relay like I did to get the plasma tube light to work with the sound on his push switch. He is sharing a single spst push switch for both the plasma tube light and fire sound without getting any interference issues . I first tried wiring mine just like he did. Since the plasma tube can run off 12v same as the sound I thought it would be easy to hook them both to spst push switch and not even need a Dpdt push let alone a relay as well. I first tried wiring mine exactly as he did (trying multiple different switches and wiring) yet for some reason I had to resort to a Dpdt switch with a relay to separate the strong interference . There was no other choice for me .
I will be sure to post more reference pics and wiring diagram So you can better understand how it's hooked up. Though it's pretty simple. Feel free to ask me any more questions u may have on the tube . Will get some photos up in next day or so. Have to dig em up.
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