[pseadynamo]

Here is where I am with the plasma tube:



parts I used:
- Pilot 12v Plasma Tube
- 12v relay
- small ferrite choke on power line into GB fans soundblaster board

[kregiec]

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That's awesome man! I'm happy to hear to everything worked out for you. With everyone's setup being different along with that plasma light you never know what other weird issues you can get. I'm glad the relay solved everything. For while now I've been looking to find a plasma tube a bit shorter so that you wouldn't have so much of the tube hiding in body. Pilot did make a smaller 9" which is very rare . I got my hands on one but the the tube diameter is just way too small to see the effect. There are two other companies I bought plasma tubes from if you want to check out . Logisys make a blue, red and green . I have the blue and red. They look cool as well but I like the pilot multicolor . There is this other company on eBay that has a multicolor effect just like the Pilot plasma tube and its smaller which is awesome. The only thing is I noticed the color in the gas of the tube is a bit foggy and not as clear as the Pilot. So I do t use it. It's possible I just got an old one that doesn't work well. So if your interested in maybe trying one a bit shorter here is the Ebay link to check out . Looks great man! Can't wait to see it finished! It's nerv racking as hell removing that glass tube from the plastic housing it came in isn't it?!!??? Lol.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/161658095815

[kregiec]

Just heads up ! You may have this other same issue as I did once putting the wand together or you may not. But once I had my light installed in the gun and the fire sound and plasma light was working fine after installing the relay. I had one other little issue that I did post up above in one of the earlier comments on this thread.

I was having an issue with my GBFans Bar graph led . It would light up fine but when I fired the plasma light the bar graph would not do the center out sequence animation like it was supposed to while firing . I made sure I had the GBFans wand light setting set correctly . I mentioned the problem I was having to Spongface and he helped me figure out the issue thankfully . It's a simple fix. Since you have the GBFans wand lights like mine you will be running the other push button (ear connection vent push button) and led that goes on the gun ear up along the front handle. Which places it real close to the plasma tube and makes it highly vulnerable to the EMI the plasma gives out. The ear connection consists of three wires Yellow, Black, and Red (well, at least on mine) . I noticed when I unplugged the ear connection wires from the wand light circuit board my bar graph sequenced fine with no issues or interference when firing . So I knew these wires were the culprit. Sponge recommended that I placed a simple .1uf capacitor in the connector . At the time I was new to this and didn't know a lot about capacitors . I just knew from what sponge told me that it would hopefully drown out enough noise that was causing the interference. So I basically found some random used capacitors on other circuit boards I had lying around and figured I'd try it. I placed the capacitor on two of the three wires and it fixed the problem!! I have two photos above showing how the capacitor sits in the connector . One was pic from Spongface and the other is mine. I believe it went on the red and black wires. But if that doesn't work try the other yellow wire . Be sure both the cap leads are making contact to the metal pins in the connector. Once I found which two of the three wires were bringing back the noise interference to the bar graph I just simply hot glued the capacitor to the connector so it didn't fall out.

So once you install the light and get to that point . If you don't mind . Let me know if you have the same issue with interference on the bar graph led like I did. Just curious to see whether or not I'm the only one that had that issue. You may or may or have that issue . But if you see it happen you know what it is.

So, keep the updates coming ! It's nice to know that i wasn't the only one with those type of issues and happy to see my crude diagram drawing actually work and be of some help lol.

[pseadynamo]

Oh yeah! this thread you made is a big help. I really like the look of the plasma tube, it's like the idea behind the matty wand nozzle but 100x better.
I will let you know when I assemble the thrower if my bar graph flakes out. I hope not. but I have a decent electronics store ( not a radio shack) that I can get small caps from.
I was able to get the plasma tube inside my Acrylic. I had to add a small LED to the end since there was no light at the tip of the tube. I preferred to having a flashing LED at the nozzle.
the bare wires are a little risky, but I could not fit insulated ones down the tube so I had to separate them with electrical tape hidden inside the front handle.

[kregiec]

Nice!! Great idea! That's looking awesome !! Thanks for sharing a pic of it!! Good to hear everything working out!

[kregiec]

Not sure if you were able to fix it or not yet but I was watching one of your YouTube videos regarding the plasma tube build and noticed u mentioned that you are having the same issue I originally had with the bar graph not sequencing properly (center out sequence ) when firing the plasma tube but it does when you fire the led tip. That's exactly the same problem I had . Most likely it's the plasma light is interfering with the three (red,black, yellow) wires that run up along the front barrel connecting the gun ear light and push switch to the GBFans wand light board (connector labeled Ear) . Because those wires are so close to the plasma tube it's picking up the interference and taking it back to the bar graph causing it to not sequence when firing plasma tube . Thanks to Spongeface he showed me how to resolve it . It's real simple . All you need is a basic cheap .1uf capacitor from radio shack . ( I salvaged a few from random electronic broken circuit boards that I had laying around ) . I posted a pic on the first page of this forum u can use as reference but all you need to do is push the .1uf capacitor in two of the three (gun ear led/vent push switch) wires pin connectors that connects to the GBFans wand light board . I just used hot glue to hold it in place but make sure the .1uf capacitor is making contact with the two wires . I think it was the red and black but if that doesn't work try the other black yellow. This capacitor shields all the interference from plasma tube that's getting to the bar graph.

Before you do any of that run a test to make sure that's the issue (which I'm pretty sure is ) first unhook the Ear connector (three wires red ,black,yellow) from the GBFans light board and try firing the plasma light to see if the bar graph led sequences properly like it should. If so then you know for sure that's were the interference is being drawn from and install the .1uf capacitor . Any questions let me know ! Build looks awesome and I love the idea of putting a led light on tip. I may do same as well!

[sremick]

Necro bump... did anyone ever buy one of these and not end up using it? They seem impossible to find now.

I'm absolutely in-love with the effect.