Jaycar Plasma Globe. 'Hey, what happens if you increase the voltage?' *poof!*

It's probably a trigger transformer.

What happens if you hit it with a hammer?

Gee, as Kamahl would say "Why are people so unkind".

Just do what every one else does, Take it back and complain, "It just stopped Working..."

I wanna another one....

Really ! Wow.

Maybe you should try the same excersize on you stereo, video, TV, microwave oven, and other electronic devices to see what happen with the same 'performance-boost' method !

geoff

What's upset you Geoff, did your sheep knock you back?

Who said that I'm upset. I am excited. (must get a variac, not a sheep that is...) I can't wait. My stereo will be muchlouder, although maybe only breifly.

geoff

Sorry... I thought there might be some smart people here who would know some answers.

My bad.

-Markus

Markus, The transformer in this unit is specifically made for it and thus sadly will likely be unavailable from any regular supplier. If a suitable replacement could be found it would probably cost more than the entire unit from Jaycar.

If you were really keen you could probably unwind and rewind the transformer but this will not be easy or quick.

This transformer converts the low voltage DC in to several thousand volts to run the plasma globe.

A possible replacement may be an automotive ignition coil, however this will require completely different circuits to run the plasma globe.

The most likely failure point in the unit due to excessive voltage/current will be a transistor, not the transformer. Try replacing the three legged devices in the unit near the transformer with equivalent device if available.

Good Luck, Brenden Ede

Markus wrote:

Thanks Brendan

I'll try that

Cheers Mate

-Markus

I suspect most people here are smart enough to realise that it is probably not conducive to prolong the life of electronic gear by powering it with more voltage that it was designed for.

What amazes me is that somebody would do that, blow up his gadget, then seemingly take pride in telling everybody just how dumb he was !

geoff

You've never blown anything up yourself? -not even when you were starting out? I find that hard to believe.

As I said, I'm a newbie. I even took the piss out of myself to that effect.

Newbies make a mess of things and then they learn from those mistakes. That's how learning works.

I came in with no attitude, and (with the exception of a few) all I got was smug 'har har har, aren't we all so much smarter than the new guy'. If you don't want to offer help, then fine - don't. But to pipe up simply to make fun of someone else is just mean.

I'm sure you people *do* know a lot more about electronics than I do - but I'm also sure there's a bunch of things I'm better at than you.

But if you start trying to learn some of the things I'm better at, I won't make fun of you, and I won't call you 'dumb', okay?

-Markus

"Markus" wrote in message news:ectihd$pe6$ snipped-for-privacy@news-01.bur.connect.com.au...

I can speak only for myself. It was in pre-PC times, and I had made a robust power supply for a single-board computer. (AIM65) It was about one o'clock in the morning, I was dead tired, alone in the house, and checked it one last time and plugged it in. It was on the floor and I was leaning over it. It took a minute or two before one of the BIG electrolytics exploded and shot up to the ceiling and left a crescent-shaped scar that is still there. It missed me. It didn't blind me. I had more luck than I deserved. Wired in back-to-front, of course. But not deliberately.

Don't worry about it Markus, you did well. You don't know electronics until you've actually blown something up, welcome to the club!

You'll learn a hell of lot by finding out *why* and *how* things blow up, invaluable knowledge that you won't learn from a book or a course.

Dave :)

Yeah OK. I came in partway through and didn't see that your object was to find out and repair the item and learn.

geoff

Cool, no worries.

-Markus