styropyro

back to plasma devices

Playing with overpowered keychain laser pointers was fun, but it doesn't hold a candle to this project. After a bit of a hiatus, I started working on the huge vacuum tube tesla coil again yesterday. If the next week goes smoothly, I'll have this video ready by Christmas!

The coil is tuned to a low frequency that should encourage large, branching arcs that resemble a tree, thus it will be my "million volt Christmas tree" assuming everything works out. 

EVERYTHING on this coil ...

new video! patreon early viewing!

I got a little carried away with these little keychain lasers :D

clip from my new video

how do I *ALWAYS* underestimate how much time I need to edit?? I've been filming and editing like crazy this past week, and there's still so much left to do. Vid will be ready in a couple days though. Enjoy this reverse glow-in-the-dark effect for the time being. 

cute batteries

well these are certainly the cutest batteries I've ever used in a project. they perform better than expectations as well! I don't need long run times, just short bursts of high power. I bought fancy cutting edge supercapacitors for my keychain laser project but it's looking like these little batteries are going to do the job!

How big of a laser can I jam in a keychain laser pointer?

How big of a laser can I jam into a classic keychain laser pointer? I don't know the answer to this right now, but I will find out soon. I'm breaking out a bunch of different red laser diodes and funky batteries for this project, and may even have to resort to supercapacitors to maximize the output, even if it's just for short bursts.

I'm already pretty deep into filming this vid, so stay tuned! The project is pretty absurd, but it's still a great way to showcase cutting edge tech, as w...

bad week for receiving packages

In the course of little over a week, I had two vacuum tubes that arrived smashed and had another box containing laser parts seized by customs. I'll probably be able to get my laser parts back from customs, but I'll be eating at least some of the loss on these tubes. The tube in the first picture isn't shattered, but the filament is totally destroyed. I was going to use that one to upgrade my big plasma generator, and in fact I ordered that one in July! The tube that is completely obliterated ...

monster red laser diode array

Integrated laser diode arrays are going to become the norm for many applications involving laser driven displays and high power lighting. That being said, single chip visible laser arrays are still in their early stages, and many of the manufacturers deny that they even exist at this point! That means that obtaining samples directly through the manufacturer as a hobbyist is currently impossible, but mysterious and shady sources have been selling the blue arrays for a year now (and were the so...

mega vacuum tube tesla coil updates

I apologize for slacking on updates but I plan on making up for that this week! This past month has been surprisingly busy for quarantine, and there's a lot I'm working on (not all YouTube related)

For today's post I wanted to give some updates on my huge vacuum tube tesla coil. Progress has been slow but steady on this one. The worst part about a project like this is waiting on parts to arrive. Right now I'm just waiting on some silly bolts to show up so I can finish the cooling system...

MONSTER surgical laser

I got a great deal on this giant green surgical laser last year, but it wasn't in working condition when I bought it. It wasn't until last night that I finally got it to run. Most of the work I did on the laser was plumbing related, and in fact when I first tried starting it up the inside got SOAKED by a hose fitting that broke. 

This laser can run CW or pulsed (q-switched) and the output power is likely in excess of 100W average of green light at full power. When the q-switch is r...

more capacitor banks

After waiting for MONTHS, the rest of my soviet doorknob capacitors have arrived from Ukraine! These are going to be used in the tank cap of my giant vacuum tube tesla coil. I chose these specific capacitors as they are by far the lowest price caps that are rated for high RF powers. In fact, the final bank will be rated for over a megawatt of CW reactive RF power. 

Since I'm going to have to make so many electrical connections, I'm thinking I'm going to use some crazy geometry in t...

outtakes from recent vid

here's a collection of random clips and experiments that didn't make it into my final video. enjoy! 

New video!!! Patreon exclusive early viewing!!!

This is the next video in my Overclocked series! I start by unsuccessfully trying to upgrade my arc lighter, and I end up building a giant vacuum tube based RF plasma torch. This video is a good mashup of high voltage and chemistry.

The circuit I used is very interesting, but also extremely dangerous. Special thanks to the YouTubers Zilipoper and Teslista555 as their GU-5B plasma generator builds gave me critical info for my build. Also big thanks to YouTuber Vidduley for providing info...

magnesium mystery

I've burned a lot of things on my plasma generator for my upcoming video. I used electrodes of various metals as well as carbon electrodes loaded with various metal salts. Those behaved fairly predictably for the most part, although some were much more exciting than others. That being said, magnesium threw a hard curve ball.

As you can see in the video, it produces MANY different colors. Not just little bits of color either, the flames switches dramatically to a deep red and switches ch...

startup of the fire coil

It's been a rough week but I'm still on track to finish the video soon! In fact, I have so much footage that I've already removed parts of it from my draft in an attempt to keep the video under 20 minutes. That means my Patreon crew will be getting a lot of extra footage from this project when it's over. :D

I also encountered some mysterious phenomena with this device, one of which I'm about to try solving with my spectrometer. More updates coming tomorrow!!

New vid coming soon!!

I'm getting closer to finishing my video and expect to have it ready within the next couple weeks!! I really want to make sure I do this device justice so I keep changing stuff and taking footage. Here are a couple frame grabs of the plasma generator on startup. Stay tuned!!

electromagnetic fireworks

A vacuum tube plasma generator with some cesium and lithium chloride on the output electrode. The only gas burning in this device is air, so yes, that flame is purely electromagnetic.

I started filming this video today (well other than the build clips), even though I built this device a while ago. I've played around with component values and honestly wanted something a bit more impressive, but at this point I need to produce some videos for you guys. :D I will drive that poor tube a bit...

I bought a pole pig!! thank you everybody!!

I used the money you gave me to buy a 15kVA distribution transformer!! let the mischief ensue. I'll have to come up with a ballast at some point but for the time being I can at least run it at lower powers using my big variac. I'm pretty confident you will find this to be a good investment for my channel. :D

pro gamer move with huge vacuum tube

yesterday I wound a filament transformer by taking a toroidal transformer of unknown ratings and wrapping it with as much 2AWG welding cable as I could fit. Hooking it up to the tube's filament gave PERFECT results without having to change windings! I never get this lucky!! I spent a whole day coming up with the right filament transformer for my last vacuum tube project (that you'll see posts of very soon)

Yes that's 105 AMPS going to the filament, meaning it takes nearly 700W just to b...

I need moar power

It's time I take things to the next level. I keep blowing microwave transformers because they just aren't made for the crazy conditions I put them through. At this point I need a "pole pig" distribution transformer. This "little" one would cost as much as all of your patronage in a month, but I'm confident you'd see it as a good use of your donations when I power my future creations with it.

That being said, does anybody know of a cheaper way I could score a pole pig? There are no elect...

my first collab!! the Hacksmith's militarized cybertruck!

check it out!! my 100W blue laser meets the Hacksmith's insanity 

pausing June payments

Hey guys! Your support during these crazy times has been incredible, and amazingly I have added a lot more patrons recently. That being said I haven't produced any content for you this month and I can't in good faith accept your money. Pandemic blues have put a damper on my video making. That being said I *have* been building, and you'll see a lot more from me in the coming month. Stay tuned!! 

New video! Plasma images via Kirilan Photography (aka making a corona virus in my lab :D )

An incredibly high effort pun, but still pretty cool. I shot this video for fun yesterday and won't be posting it on my main channel. It's been a while since I've just thrown together a video without any outline so it was a nice change of pace, although the quality is certainly lacking lol. I'm planning on more videos like this in between videos on my main channel if there's interest.  

Overclocking a Plasma Lighter

For my next video I'm planning on continuing my "Overclocked" series with a mega plasma lighter video. My intent was to go the route of a several kW, vacuum tube based RF plasma generator, but now I'm considering a smaller solid state version that would be portable. The tube based version would be much stronger, but the solid state version would be small enough that it would be less of a stretch to call it a "plasma lighter" when finished. :D
Which would you rather see?

my first YT collab

Check out this 100W blue laser setup I built for the Hacksmith! It's very similar to the laser in my most recent video, but will be used in a setup capable of longer run times. This is my first ever YT collab and I'm super excited to see what comes of it. He has a couple projects in mind for it but one of them will be mounting it on his Cybertruck build!

outtakes from 100W portable laser video

Thought you guys would enjoy some bloopers and outtakes from the most recent video. Sorry about the language :D :D 

100W handheld laser vs chemicals

I'm still deep frying a thumbnail for my next vid, so enjoy this clip from it while you wait!

laser bottle opener

almost finished with my video so enjoy this part while you wait!!

quick clip of 100W laser burning wood in thermal vision

experimenting with my 100W handheld laser on a thermal cam and I think the results are pretty awesome!!

The video of my 100W laser has taken a while to film but I keep going back and re-shooting portions that I don't like. I want to make sure I do the laser justice!

100W handheld laser blooper :D

Here's a quick blooper from the video I'm working on (language warning :p ) This video has been a lot of work, and there's still a lot left to do, but it's going to be so awesome!!

quick test of crazy laser array!!

check out this insane laser diode array that I've been working with! I'm in the process of jamming it into a handheld laser housing right now. full video to come soon!!