Plasma Ball

Corbin

Corbin

New Member
I took a plasma ball that I got at walmart and cut off the two prong power plug, and soldered on a four pin adapter (so it could go into my power supply, and could go into my computer) like shown here..... http://www.overclockers.com/tips1066/
I plugged it into my computer and it doesnt work.... does anyone know why it wont work?? Could I have done something wrong? Or does my power supply not give enough power to the plasma ball??
 
Well, power consumpitn could be a problem but perhaps not, are you sure you connected the + to + and the - to -, not the other way round, it wont work if you do, because the palsma ball relies on the central column to be charged positively, if it is connected to a - then its not gonna work.

Check all your connections, are you sure the plasma ball even worked in the first place??
 
the plasma ball did work (I made sure of that before i did it).... there is a red and a black wire.... Black is negative right?? If it is I connected it to the center :( . I will see if it works. (I hope it does)
 
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I put the right chords in the right spots and it still doesnt work.... could it be that it is not getting enough power??
I honestly dont know what this means (I dont know anything about how a light bulb operates in full detail) but the box says:
4w
120v:60Hz
Im geussing it has to do with power consumtion....
should a four pin plug on a power supply be able to supply enough power to the plasma ball? If not is there another type of plug on a standard computer power supply that will supply enough??
 
only 12v comes out of a 4pin molex, you need some kind of transformer or something, or a plasma ball that uses 12v...
 
was there actually a power converter in the socket of the plasme bal?

it would be a heavy piece of metal. if not,. the ball works on 120V 60Hz, so it will never work on the PSU.
however.. you could put a relay on the +12v rail, and swicht the 120V to the plasma bal with that :) )
 
Why not replace the "4 Prong" with the original 2 prong connector and run tha power cord out the back of the case?
 
Sorry guys... I dont know anything about electricity terms.... can you please explain
however.. you could put a relay on the +12v rail, and swicht the 120V to the plasma bal with that )
Click to expand...
in "newby" terms. I need this quickly becuase I want something to do when the Hurricane comes (I'm kinda excited) -and yes.... I live in texas
 
well.. a relay is a electronically swiched swich.
you mainy have 4 pinns on a relay. 2 for the magnet to swich the swich insied ( its a electro magnet, so a inductor) the 2 other pinns are of the swich.
now, if you but a normal relay (so, a Normally Open, wich means, if no power is turned onto the inductor pinns, the swich is 'open'.) and you sold the 2 pinns of the inductor to a 4 pin molex. ( so 1 pin on the +12v and 1 on the ground. ) the swich would swich on when you turn on your pc.

now, you can sold 1 wire of the bal to the relay ( to 1 of the swich pins.) and the other pin, you link to the cable. the 2nd cable ( and the ground cable if it has one) tou can just put them back on the bal directly the way they were.

anyway, if you want to swich it this way, i recommend you swich the fase cable of the bal. ( so the 1 that carries the 120V. but since im not fammiliar with american electronic standards i cant tell you wich colour that is. but in the netherlands its brown) and make shure you isolate it properly afterwards. ( and if you can. tape the relay somewhere in the case, so it cant move around.)

if anything is unclear, please tell so, because my english isnt quite good. ;)
 
Yeah.....Sorry but i didnt really understand, could you get me pictures showing how to do it....... I LOVE pictures they help me alot :D :D
 
I can only imagine the sort of interference this would cause with your computer, especially while using your computers power supply (which will send the interfering signals to every component in the computer).
I once had a plasma ball that made my touch lamp across the room go nuts, it was pretty wild. Honestly, I don't think you want something like this in your computer.
 
really??? So you think it will mess up my computer?? I saw a guy on the internet do it, which gave me the idea. He didnt say anything about interferance or anything. I'm just trying to have my computer stick out from the rest..... I was also thinking about putting in one of those disco ball spinny things instead, which would look pretty sweet.
 
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