Plasma Tube

**cannibal869** · 12-22-2010, 12:03 AM

Hi all,

Yes, I know the topic has been talked about before, but that was regarding the small plasma ball and the crackle tube...

Here's something I just found on evilbay and just wanted to give you guys a heads up.
I'm going to try to incorporate this into a future build (as a crystal chamber power source), since this form factor seems to be a little more up our alley, so to speak...

I present to you a Pilot 5" plasma tube...

box

dissected item

and a small movie of it in action

Anyhow, just thought you guys might find this interesting.
As far as I can tell, the unit comes with fifteen 1.5V coin batteries all wired in series (22.5V?!??) Going to have to do a little more testing since this is *supposed* to be able to run off of the 12V car battery...

-C

(sorry I know the pics are a tad big)

Oh and dimensions of the tube are something like 5 inches long x maybe 1/2 inch diameter?

**Azmaria Dei** · 12-22-2010, 12:25 AM

that's awesome! i can't wait to see how you integrate that into a saber. when you test it with various power sources let us know the results! ^_^

oh and just a recommendation... put it in a staff.

**dgdve** · 12-22-2010, 04:17 AM

its super long in my mind.. but I would absolutely KILL if they had a 3x 0.12 version... then you could sneak it BESIDE your crystal and the effects together would be freaking sweet... I see good things, so I'll be watching this

**cannibal869** · 12-22-2010, 11:56 AM

Hey all,

Yes, in the pics it looks like the tube is whited out. In real life, it looks a bit more like the old plasma ball effect except you have only one "lightning bolt" extending from the end. I tried to focus the movie in on that end so you could see it. The tube itself I think is an inner glass tube coated in an iridescent material, probably to help bring out the different colors, which you can kind of see better in the reflection off of the brown bathmat

One problem with it - after it's been on for a few seconds, it kind of "normalizes" out - meaning you don't get as much of the undulating effect, unless you touch the tube. I'll have to see what happens when it's inside a hilt, but I'm hoping that the effect will be ok...

Yes the tube *is* long and I'll have to try some experimentation to see how this is really going to work out. Maybe something more like a saber with a choke in the midsection to allow adequate spacing?? I've already got a design that I think I'm going to have to modify a bit to actually get everything in there that I want.

I too would prefer something in a 3 inch long form factor, but heck this beats the 1.7 inch ball that we were discussing earlier. At least I *know* this can fit inside a hilt and probably inside the MHS choke section. The only caveat is that once this is in, the saber will probably be more of a showpiece than something you can actually duel with.

Battery solution will be... interesting to say the least..... I may have to invent something.

-C