World's Smallest Plasma Globe

[Oznog]

I found this at Autozone today, and am excited for no good reason.

OK, it's a plasma ball, standard fill that makes bluish-white streamers with red blooms at the surface. It runs off the cigarette lighter.

But here's the thing- this thing is TINY!! I calipered it and it's just under 1.6" diameter.

They actually make a 2-piece spherical clear plastic housing around it, I guess they thought it was too likely to get broken sticking out of a cigarette lighter plug. This means it won't respond to your touch. But it's easy to pop the retainer holding the halves together and get the sweet 1.6" sphere out. The power supply is small too of course.

I'm sure I can figure out something nifty to do with this. I suppose this is the only time in my life I might wish that I had lost an eye to my Red Ryder BB gun and had a handy cavity when you take the glass eye out.

It's called the "Thunder Ball" by Pilot Automotive http://www.pilotautomotive.com
but I can't find this item on the website or in the catalog. Couldn't find anything on Google either, just a lot of hits for that James Bond movie.

 

[HoopleHead]

pics!

 

[gollum]

any pics links info please

 

[karlthev]

Well, I got in touch with http://www.pilotautomotive.com and they didn't have a clue.:sigh:



Karl

 

[Oznog]

Ah well I didn't think the pic would add much since it's a plasma globe... just smaller. But now I'm not sure people even believed me!

I already took it out of its boring housing that suppressed its finger-chasing abilities. The white light is one of those slowly color-shifting LEDs, a gaudy addition which brings nothing to this magnificent globe. Frankly it also washes out the light of the globe the way it was installed. Note the quarter included in the pic for size reference!

The back of the case is removed, the top right is half the post that goes into the socket. The ring holds two clear plastic hemipheres together that house the ball.

It responds pretty much like any other plasma globe:

It's product # IP-139PL there.
The URL for http://www.pilotautomotive.com is explicitly stated on the packaging.

 

[Oznog]

If you call up Pilot Automotive and ask for Ty he can give you a number to set up a buy. He said they're too new to be in the catalog, rather than too old. So the supply looks possible.

My head's still swimming, what can be done with this thing...? Surely something cool.

 

[gollum]

thanks Oznog ...pics look good
I'm tempted to contact seller but I doubt they'll post to Aust.
any mention of cost?
cheers

 

[Brownstone]

What was the retail price at AutoZone?

 

[Sgt. LED]

Can someone mod it into a drop in for my 6P!

 

[lasercrazy]

That's so cool! I'm definitely getting one of those asap.

 

[Lumenz]

If that thing could run off 5 volts, I could plug it into a USB port on my computer. Useless sure, but it would be an interesting useless thing on my computer.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

USB plasma ball

 

[Illum]

Can someone mod it into a drop in for my 6P!

0_o

:shrug:... :candle:... ...green:...:sick2:....:thinking:...

 

[B@rt]

USB plasma ball

That one is 3.5 inch, more than double the size of the "Thunderball".

 

[Oznog]

Well, along with that color-changing LED, it draws 120mA @ 12V just sitting there, and 280mA @ 12V when you wrap your fingers around it to really draw it out. It is not regulated and 11V and 13V look significantly different.

This is unusually high for a globe so small. I suspect the supply may be pretty lossy but I haven't checked.

Even if the USB plasma globe is bigger than you like, the POWER SUPPLY is still 5v and will probably work swimmingly with the tiny globe. The USB plasma globe is large and flat so you'd need to rig up something totally new, but at least the transformer will still work on that low primary voltage you'd get off of batteries.

AutoZone price was $20. A bit steep, a USB plasma globe can be had for less, but it's unique.

 

[lasercrazy]

Any updates on this? I still can't seem to find any place online that carries them.

 

[Illum]

not the same as the USB ball
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/3022/lit-83/PC_Ready_Green_Plasma_Light_Ball.html
this one goes for $20, plugs into the power supply...your gonna need a voltage regulator if you want to run it in the car though

Funny thing though, Automotive plasma balls can only be found on european sites

 

[Oznog]

Any updates on this? I still can't seem to find any place online that carries them.

Go to http://www.pilotautomotive.com
get the phone number, ask them about product # IP-139PL.

They do catalog orders, they say it's active just not in the catalog. So I *THINK* you can just order it.

 

[MoonDragn]

I found this link last week from doing a google search as I was looking for a tiny plasma ball. I went and ordered the ball from autozone. A week later it arrived in a Fedex box, but when I took it out it was all broken. The button that was supposed to stick out on the left was not in its place, and it looked like someone tried to pry the button out as the plastic was all messed up. When I opened it up, I noticed the glass in the plastic globe was broken.

Since the Fedex box was pristine, I think that this thing was damaged before they shipped it. If so, it seems their quality assurance is very bad. Anyone know where I can probably order this direct and not from Autozone so I can save the headache?

Also has anyone seen anything smaller? I'm actually looking for one that would fit inside a 1.5 inch tube. Doesn't have to be a globe, a small cylinder would do also.

 

[Oznog]

I think I saw one at Pep Boys awhile back IIRC. The button is kinda dicey it's only glued onto the case, the hotmelt type stuff. Well, there are major space problems there. ***** all you want, it is what it is and still a remarkable product and you're probably gonna want to disassemble it anyways.

They don't make smaller ones, come on. I think there is a minimum streamer size too, so a very small tube would just have one streamer inside which is somewhat less interesting.

This guy:
http://www.teslaboys.com/Plasma/PlasmaCharge/index.html

talks about custom filling. He can do it for a fee but it's not cheap. The gases aren't cheap. Well argon no problem (welding gas, those are big tanks) but I don't even see where argon is ever used, neon is a bit of a problem to get, krypton and xenon are harder to find and outrageously expensive. Xenon, smallest container is a 25L $500 bottle. Gold is cheaper.

It sure would be fun to get into custom-filling any hollow glass object. And since these globes are very low pressure the actual volume of gas used is quite low. Much more gas is lost flushing the air out of the manifold.

You could get a single-color "capillary tube", those are designed to make a stable arc not moving streamers though.