Hi everyone
I have been looking online and haven’t found much in the way of plasma ball generators.
I want to turn some lightbulbs into plasma balls, but cannot find any reliable circuit diagrams that are:
A) Safe to leave on for hours at a time and,
B) have easily adjustable voltage and frequency (Different glasses require different frequencies/voltages).

Does anyone know where I could find a reliable kit/pcb/diagram?
Any help is much appreciated.
Cheers

 

Most plasma-tube devices are directly line operated and are also fairly strong sources of interference. I have seen that this whole discussion part of the site does not allow direct line powered circuits, and often has issues with interference generating systems as well. So good luck.

 

NOTE THE RULES ON HIGH VOLTAGE GENERATION on this forum...

Plenty of circuits on Google, here is one with auidio input...

 

I was looking for advice around whats safe - a lot of what I find online, you cannot tell whether its safe or not.

I couldn't find anything in regards to high voltage in the rules sorry, or for direct line powered devices (Im new to this, so have no idea what direct line is) still cannot find any rules after looking for the last ten minutes...

I guess I want to know the best and safest way to do it, if thats against the rules then Im sorry before hand!

 

I was looking for advice around whats safe - a lot of what I find online, you cannot tell whether its safe or not.

I couldn't find anything in regards to high voltage in the rules sorry, or for direct line powered devices (Im new to this, so have no idea what direct line is) still cannot find any rules after looking for the last ten minutes...

I guess I want to know the best and safest way to do it, if thats against the rules then Im sorry before hand!

My intention was not to be critical nor to be antisocial, simply to caution that they do limit some things. One circuit has been published, I am not in a position to evaluate how safe it is, except that it is not directly line powered. But it will probably create a lot of electrical noise.

 

I was looking for advice around whats safe - a lot of what I find online, you cannot tell whether its safe or not.

I couldn't find anything in regards to high voltage in the rules sorry, or for direct line powered devices (Im new to this, so have no idea what direct line is) still cannot find any rules after looking for the last ten minutes...

I guess I want to know the best and safest way to do it, if thats against the rules then Im sorry before hand!

Direct mains is termed " Transformerless Supplies" ie No Transformer is used to connect to mains.

Bottom of page ...

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/user-agreement/

 

Ok, so that answers that, there would most definitely be a transformer, I don't fancy a 240v 10A shock!
Others I have seen videos on all have transformers and run on something around 12v supplies, upping that to really high voltages, high frequency, with absolutely no current.

 

Ok, so that answers that, there would most definitely be a transformer, I don't fancy a 240v 10A shock!
Others I have seen videos on all have transformers and run on something around 12v supplies, upping that to really high voltages, high frequency, with absolutely no current.

I have wondered how they produced the effects that they do. That is a lot like the old "Violet Ray" devices, which I never figured out how they produced their display. All that they had was 60 cycle power, they were way to small to have any tubes. How did they work, I wonder.

 

Others I have seen videos on all have transformers and run on something around 12v supplies, upping that to really high voltages, high frequency, with absolutely no current.

Look at these - https://www.allelectronics.com/category/274/high-voltage-devices/1.html

Or the projects here - https://www.rmcybernetics.com/science/diy-devices/diy-ignition-coil-driver