Project:Plasma Art 1 - The Nuisance

What is The Nuisance?

Everyone loves plasma balls. You touch them and little fingers of plasma reach out to you. Plasma is usually bad news to be around, but in a plasma ball it looks fluffy!

The Nuisance brings together a pair of plasma balls. One is turned on and the other dormant. As you reach out and touch the live one, it's intensity grows, the fingers of plasma reach out to meet you. But then it fades and the dormant one becomes live. The plasma escapes...

If you get wise to this and attempt to play with both, they both go out.

Present status

Glint in my eye

Progress

Done

To do

Some stuff has been gathered

• Arduino nano
• Proto shield

Some stuff has been purchased

• Stepper driver board that's really 2 half bridges
• 2 plasma globes

Done stuff...

• 2 x plasma globes purchased
• Wood plinth for globes cut, sanded, varnished and feet attached
• Plasma globes attached to the plinth and looking good
• Drive current measured (roughly)
  • About 200 mA while running normally
  • About 800 mA when touched
  • This gives confirms that sensing current will allow touch feedback control

Still to do...

• Gather electronics
• See if they will fit
• Probably modify them to fit (components on leads and whatnot)
• Program Arduino for control
• Play

Behind the scenes

Making it work is simple. When someone touches a plasma ball, the drive current goes up. Simply sensing this allows detection and sets in motion the action to be taken.

The Arduino can control 2 half bridges at about 30kHz easily enough and PWM the duty cycle for fading on and off.