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Registered Member #567
Joined: Tue Mar 06 2007, 10:55AM
Location: Singapore
Posts: 147
Sorry about the title, it seems rather misleading but I couldn't come up with anything better!
I read the book '(number, 25, I think) electronic gadgets for the evil genius' in the library yesterday.
Well, most of it is exaggeration, I really doubt that some of those projects will really work... One of them is an EMP generator which is supposed to knock out electronic gadgets at a long range by exploding a wire... Yeah, right. Well anyway...
One of the projects that caught my eye however, was the 'lightsaber'. I know there's such a product on the market, this book gives plans. Only thing is, it apparently needs a special neon tube only orderable through their site. No details given. It's on this page: ,aboutthree quarters the way down. It's called NE26 - 26" Colored Neon Tube. No other details given.
Does anyone know abything about these mysterious tubes? I mean, are they just normal neon tubes or what?
Registered Member #193
Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022
Just for a start it's not a neon tube. For most practical purposes neon only does red and they offer a range of colours. My guess is that it's more like a long thin "plasma globe".
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
You can get 'neon' tubes for just about any color you want, which are made usually with Hg and a phosphor. They are still called 'neon' for whatever reason.
The key behind those sabers is the driver, the driver out of one of them can make any 'neon' tube glow with only one end connected.
Registered Member #10
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 09:45AM
Location: Bunbury, Australia
Posts: 1424
"Neon" tubes are the warm colours of red yellow and orange. Only the red does not use a phosphor. The cold colours of green blue and violet are from argon and a phosphor. In my lifter display, I use two argon tubes as well as little neon pilot globes on the lifter.
Note that the one sided electrodes for the neons are not that. They just have a very fine wire to the other end.
Registered Member #567
Joined: Tue Mar 06 2007, 10:55AM
Location: Singapore
Posts: 147
Actually, TDU, it apparently is a one sided electrode. As I remember (I don't have the book right now), the circuit only needed a single connection to the tube.
I think that the tube is lit up in the same way as a fluorescent tube and a tesla coil or a plasma globe. The power supply is a 2kV AC supply, I think. Do you think a conventional neon tube would work?
EDIT: [sarcasm]Goldsphere, I don't know. How did you know?[/sarcasm]
Ps. I think they're just called neon tubes. I mean, you use neon sign transformers to drive tesla coils, right? But they're not called tesla coil transformers except by rather sad people.
Registered Member #964
Joined: Wed Aug 22 2007, 12:39AM
Location: Stockton, CA
Posts: 134
Yah, just normal "Neon" tubes.. and like the other people said for different colors. It can also be driven w/o the internal connection, the book says capacitive coupling works well. (Think Al or Cu adhesive tape wrapped around outside of "Ne" tube base for connection)
I like that book, already built the "2-inch TC with timer". I wouldn't call it a TC, since it doesn't use resonance in the tank circuit, but It's still pretty cool. The timer doesn't work on mine for some reason... oh well.
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Neon 'Light saber' (Misleading title, sorry)
