NP,
As I recall, you had a design out for an electrostatic type speaker with using ionized gas (from RF) as a membrane. There is also a rumour I have heard that you got sick from ozone poisoning as a result. I believe there were also companion amps (which are probably less interesting than the speakers and plasma generatiors themselves).
I am really interested in a short story on this project. I have tried Plasmatronic Hill Type 1's and am still kicking myself for not buying the pair. Plasma rules!
Do your bit for the ozone layer, get ionic (but remember to put on sun-lotion and eye protection to shield from excess ultraviolet rays).
Petter
As I recall, you had a design out for an electrostatic type speaker with using ionized gas (from RF) as a membrane. There is also a rumour I have heard that you got sick from ozone poisoning as a result. I believe there were also companion amps (which are probably less interesting than the speakers and plasma generatiors themselves).
I am really interested in a short story on this project. I have tried Plasmatronic Hill Type 1's and am still kicking myself for not buying the pair. Plasma rules!
Do your bit for the ozone layer, get ionic (but remember to put on sun-lotion and eye protection to shield from excess ultraviolet rays).
Petter
Design idea: Cell phones to set up plasma?
I can go to any scrapyard and pick up a shitload of 12 month old GMS cell phones. What if I stacked them all close together and doctored them to keep hammering on the base stations?
It probably won't work, but they are strong enough to get my head hot and mess with airplane navigation.
Petter
I can go to any scrapyard and pick up a shitload of 12 month old GMS cell phones. What if I stacked them all close together and doctored them to keep hammering on the base stations?
It probably won't work, but they are strong enough to get my head hot and mess with airplane navigation.
Petter
The "ion cloud loudspeaker" used photocopy
machine ionizing nichrome wire strung in a flat
array a bit like a window screen, but with more
space between the wires, and charged to a variable
DC potential of about 10 KV.
This screen developed a layer of ionized air, and was
enclosed between two stators, much like an electrostatic
speaker, except that instead of a charged plastic diaphragm,
you had a charged semi-flat layer of gas, and you could
push-pull it with high AC voltages on the stators.
It worked fairly well, and gave new meaning to the word
"transparency".
It also had several flaws, one of which did result in a
trip to the local emergency room with breathing problems
similar to those sometimes experienced by arc welders and
caused by extended exposure to ozone.
The Wall Street Journal printed my comment:
"It was the perfect high end audio product: Exotic, inefficient,
expensive, unavailable, and toxic."
machine ionizing nichrome wire strung in a flat
array a bit like a window screen, but with more
space between the wires, and charged to a variable
DC potential of about 10 KV.
This screen developed a layer of ionized air, and was
enclosed between two stators, much like an electrostatic
speaker, except that instead of a charged plastic diaphragm,
you had a charged semi-flat layer of gas, and you could
push-pull it with high AC voltages on the stators.
It worked fairly well, and gave new meaning to the word
"transparency".
It also had several flaws, one of which did result in a
trip to the local emergency room with breathing problems
similar to those sometimes experienced by arc welders and
caused by extended exposure to ozone.
The Wall Street Journal printed my comment:
"It was the perfect high end audio product: Exotic, inefficient,
expensive, unavailable, and toxic."
Woo hoo! Plasma! Hot (electrically conductive) dickety dawg!
A trip to the hospital, huh? That's one way to know your having fun.
I've been wondering about the possibility of a laser-pumped corona discharge line source. (Laser doesn't make RFI.) Shine a laser down a knife edge, or maybe a fine-tooth saw edge. More "transducer area" than a point-source spike discharge. More bass? Yeah, I know, more ozone, too... Could gas-shield it, but I never liked the idea of big noble gas cylinders in my living room.
I also thought of loading a corona discharge with a downward-facing horn throat. Squirt a little helium up there, the corona heats it up, and its low density should keep it up in place. Helium flow could be very minimal.
A trip to the hospital, huh? That's one way to know your having fun.
I've been wondering about the possibility of a laser-pumped corona discharge line source. (Laser doesn't make RFI.) Shine a laser down a knife edge, or maybe a fine-tooth saw edge. More "transducer area" than a point-source spike discharge. More bass? Yeah, I know, more ozone, too... Could gas-shield it, but I never liked the idea of big noble gas cylinders in my living room.
I also thought of loading a corona discharge with a downward-facing horn throat. Squirt a little helium up there, the corona heats it up, and its low density should keep it up in place. Helium flow could be very minimal.
Petter said:
Do a search for "plasma tweeters"... basically, you use a small tesla coil to create HV and ionize air near a wire to create a "flame"; the high voltage then gets modulated to an audio signal to create the sound. As i recall, this works only well for a tweeter and the sound is suposed to be quite good. As you said, ozone is a concern (it's poisonous in high concentrations) so you might want to play that on an open room
I have some schematics laying arround if you can't find it on a search engine.
There is no kit, no manufacturer.
Various schematics can be found in the internet just by typing +plasma+tweeter
The horn is taken from the Visaton TL16H horn tweeters.
I use it with a 5 kHz 24 dB crossover, soon it will be changed to 3,5 kHz.
It sounds very real...
I have curves somewhere, but I am not shure if they are correct, my notebooks soundcard isn´t so good.
Various schematics can be found in the internet just by typing +plasma+tweeter
The horn is taken from the Visaton TL16H horn tweeters.
I use it with a 5 kHz 24 dB crossover, soon it will be changed to 3,5 kHz.
It sounds very real...
I have curves somewhere, but I am not shure if they are correct, my notebooks soundcard isn´t so good.
Your chassis and horns look so nice, I thought it must at least be a kit.
Nice work!
I've been through the DIY plasma tweeter sites, but none of the pics looked as clean as yours.
Is there any danger of arcing to your metal horn throats?
What's your approximate efficiency with the horns? From what I've read, the other DIY plasma tweeters are plagued with inefficiency.
Bill
Nice work!
I've been through the DIY plasma tweeter sites, but none of the pics looked as clean as yours.
Is there any danger of arcing to your metal horn throats?
What's your approximate efficiency with the horns? From what I've read, the other DIY plasma tweeters are plagued with inefficiency.
Bill
Hill Plasmatronics!!!!!!!
Sounded good above 1 kHz. Absolutely rotten below. We used to refer to them as a "supertweeter on top of a garbge can". I don't know what happened to the pair the store I was at had. I think UNT bought them.
The big hoot was when Dr. Hill and the guy from Princeton that designed the Synclavier put on a demo in Dallas.
Jocko
Sounded good above 1 kHz. Absolutely rotten below. We used to refer to them as a "supertweeter on top of a garbge can". I don't know what happened to the pair the store I was at had. I think UNT bought them.
The big hoot was when Dr. Hill and the guy from Princeton that designed the Synclavier put on a demo in Dallas.
Jocko
Glow in the dark tweeter fun
Ah yes the Hill plasmatronics..... a hissing helium plasma tweeter with a very audible crossover from a 5 inch driver with volcanic rocks in the enclosure..... if I could make up stuff this weird I would write sci-fi like Grey.
H.H.
http://www.audiocircuit.com/9108-ionic-circuit/Commercial/Plasmatronic-PLA/9108CMPLA-PIC.htm
http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/ionovac.htm
http://members.aol.com/uhaumann/eng_plasma.htm
Ah yes the Hill plasmatronics..... a hissing helium plasma tweeter with a very audible crossover from a 5 inch driver with volcanic rocks in the enclosure..... if I could make up stuff this weird I would write sci-fi like Grey.
H.H.
http://www.audiocircuit.com/9108-ionic-circuit/Commercial/Plasmatronic-PLA/9108CMPLA-PIC.htm
http://www.sundial.net/~rogerr/ionovac.htm
http://members.aol.com/uhaumann/eng_plasma.htm
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