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My Ongoing Plasma Speaker singing Arc Project
This instructable will show you how to make a simple plasma speaker. A plasma speaker (or singing arc) is a device that generates a high voltage electrical discharge when we modulate to emit audible music. All the sound comes from the arc!The advantages of using an arc to create audio is that it makes it possible (with the correct driving circuitry) to create really high fidelity tweeters. Conventional speakers use directional diaphragms to push and pull air. However, when they need to move back and forth as much as 22 thousand times per second, it can become quite challenging. They have quite a bit of mass and it is difficult to get them to oscillate that fast. This leads to large power consumption, distorted audio, and overall poor performance. The arc generated by this circuit does not rely on moving massive things to create audio, and instead varies the "thickness" and size of the arc, which displaces air. We can similarly control the amount of plasma being generated to control the temperature of the air, therefore controlling the expansion and contraction of said air, and then these oscillations can ripple out and away to your ears as acoustic waves! Also, it is really cool! Why not?? ;)
How It Works:
In the 555 version, we will use the magic of PWM to create audible sparks. An Astable 555 timer circuit is the heart of this design. It makes a high frequency square wave of approximately 48,000 Hz and the pulse width is controlled by the audio source.
We can also accomplish audio replica Van Cleef & Arpels Clover Necklace with flower modulation by injecting an audio signal into the power supply rail, causing the output power of the flyback to change relative to the music! This method is used in the ZVS version flyback driver.
So what is PWM?
Well, imagine it sort of like flipping a light switch "ON" and "OFF". (only 50,000 times a second!) If you leave the switch "ON" longer than you leave it "OFF", the light will be brighter than halfway. and if it is left "OFF" for longer than it is "ON", the light would be dimmer. That's PWM in a nutshell. How we just need a way to control how long each pulse is "ON" in proportion to "OFF" based on the signal from a audio source, and now your light will flicker to the music! Now obviously, we cannot use a physical switch, it is too slow, and it needs to be controlled electronically!
Why 2 versions of this instructable?
Well, it is a really, REALLY long story. My original 555 circuit using cheap MOSFETs never really worked. It worked well enough for me to publish it, but it would always fail. Eventually I gave up on the unreliable circuit and built a much easier ZVS circuit, which did work a LOT more summer replica Van Cleef & Arpels Clover necklace reliably, but the audio modulation was done poorly, by simply injecting an audio signal into the series ballast of the flyback transformer. This worked well enough but I eventually returned to the 555 version, and this time with better transistors, more knowledge of electronics, and a tank capacitor to smooth out reactive power from the coil, I got HUGE performance! For the longest time I had 2 separate copies of the instructable that was the same except one was a copy of the other but only referred to the ZVS circuit. I merged the 2 together into this one long instructable. Sorry for the confusion.
Which driver is better?
This is really a matter of opinion. The ZVS version is very robust, almost never fails, and is very efficient. The arcs produced, however, are relatively short and very hot compared to the input voltage, and likewise the sound is very quiet. You would not be able to hear it in a noise environment. The sound quality though can be very good depending on the amplifier used to modulate the power supply, and the amount of ripple/noise on the beautiful van cleef necklace clover replica power supply.
On the other hand, the 555 can produce much longer arcs, but the since it is only a 555, we cannot achieve a true PWM modulation without also affecting frequency, and the sound quality is comparable to a telephone music, because the frequency of PWM is within audible range. The PWM frequency is comparable to a sampling rate, and a 15KHz sampling rate is really bad. You can of course increase the frequency of the driver, but you will lose performance as it becomes further and further out of resonance with the flyback transformer. It is a tradeoff. This circuit is better for impressing people with long, epic arcs. However, although sound quality is not the best in this driver, it can get a bit louder than the ZVS version and does not put nearly as much stress of the amplifier as the ZVS version!
Step 1: Disclaimers and Dangers!
If you have not messed around with high voltages before, Please don't attempt to make this circuit. These drivers I built are easily capable of delivering 25,000 volts (25 KV) or more depending on the input voltage, at 5 50 mA of current. This output current can cause serious problems such as loss of muscular control, involuntary spasms, heart fibrillation, cardiac arrest, death, and perhaps worst of all, involuntary self urination. You definitely would not want any of that!
Show All ItemsStep 5: 555 Circuit Diagram and Prototyping / Troubleshooting
The circuitry is very simple. it is just your standard astable 555 with an audio input connected to pin 5 as you see in the schematic. The 555 drives a high power MOSFET, which drives a resonant tank circuit and the primary of the flyback. Often, components will burn out, but not always lead to magic smoke. Here is a list of what to check:
Thou Shalt check voltages! Test your power supply output with a multimeter while the circuit is turned ON, and while it is OFF or disconnected. If you do not have one, I recommend you get one, you can find cheap used one's on craigslist and eBay. It is just too easy to exceed the maximum Vgs and Vds ratings. Often, the failure mode is a internal short circuit (and shorted gate.) From my experience, if it dies in this failure mode, it will stress your power supply or batteries, and the MOSFET may then catastrophically fail, possibly exploding! Also, when this fails, the shorted gate will also take the 555 down with it. To test this, replace the flyback transformer with a lamp, and connect gate to +Vcc, and the lamp should light up full brightness. When the gate is grounded, the lamp should go fully out. If not, replace the MOSFET.
One of the most popular circuit for flyback drivers is the ZVS flyback driver. This circuit is essentially a Royer oscillator, that uses two MOSFETS to drive an LC tank circuit (C1 and L1). This circuit relies on resonance rather than the flyback mode of operation. Think of resonance like pushing some fat kid on a swing, and the transistors like 2 huge bullies on either side pushing that poor fatso kid back and forth real hard at just the right time, and as they do so he gains momentum (like the voltage). causing the voltage to rise almost 4 times the input voltage, unloaded!.
This instructable will show you how to make a simple plasma speaker. A plasma speaker (or singing arc) is a device that generates a high voltage electrical discharge when we modulate to emit audible music. All the sound comes from the arc!The advantages of using an arc to create audio is that it makes it possible (with the correct driving circuitry) to create really high fidelity tweeters. Conventional speakers use directional diaphragms to push and pull air. However, when they need to move back and forth as much as 22 thousand times per second, it can become quite challenging. They have quite a bit of mass and it is difficult to get them to oscillate that fast. This leads to large power consumption, distorted audio, and overall poor performance. The arc generated by this circuit does not rely on moving massive things to create audio, and instead varies the "thickness" and size of the arc, which displaces air. We can similarly control the amount of plasma being generated to control the temperature of the air, therefore controlling the expansion and contraction of said air, and then these oscillations can ripple out and away to your ears as acoustic waves! Also, it is really cool! Why not?? ;)
How It Works:
In the 555 version, we will use the magic of PWM to create audible sparks. An Astable 555 timer circuit is the heart of this design. It makes a high frequency square wave of approximately 48,000 Hz and the pulse width is controlled by the audio source.
We can also accomplish audio replica Van Cleef & Arpels Clover Necklace with flower modulation by injecting an audio signal into the power supply rail, causing the output power of the flyback to change relative to the music! This method is used in the ZVS version flyback driver.
So what is PWM?
Well, imagine it sort of like flipping a light switch "ON" and "OFF". (only 50,000 times a second!) If you leave the switch "ON" longer than you leave it "OFF", the light will be brighter than halfway. and if it is left "OFF" for longer than it is "ON", the light would be dimmer. That's PWM in a nutshell. How we just need a way to control how long each pulse is "ON" in proportion to "OFF" based on the signal from a audio source, and now your light will flicker to the music! Now obviously, we cannot use a physical switch, it is too slow, and it needs to be controlled electronically!
Why 2 versions of this instructable?
Well, it is a really, REALLY long story. My original 555 circuit using cheap MOSFETs never really worked. It worked well enough for me to publish it, but it would always fail. Eventually I gave up on the unreliable circuit and built a much easier ZVS circuit, which did work a LOT more summer replica Van Cleef & Arpels Clover necklace reliably, but the audio modulation was done poorly, by simply injecting an audio signal into the series ballast of the flyback transformer. This worked well enough but I eventually returned to the 555 version, and this time with better transistors, more knowledge of electronics, and a tank capacitor to smooth out reactive power from the coil, I got HUGE performance! For the longest time I had 2 separate copies of the instructable that was the same except one was a copy of the other but only referred to the ZVS circuit. I merged the 2 together into this one long instructable. Sorry for the confusion.
Which driver is better?
This is really a matter of opinion. The ZVS version is very robust, almost never fails, and is very efficient. The arcs produced, however, are relatively short and very hot compared to the input voltage, and likewise the sound is very quiet. You would not be able to hear it in a noise environment. The sound quality though can be very good depending on the amplifier used to modulate the power supply, and the amount of ripple/noise on the beautiful van cleef necklace clover replica power supply.
On the other hand, the 555 can produce much longer arcs, but the since it is only a 555, we cannot achieve a true PWM modulation without also affecting frequency, and the sound quality is comparable to a telephone music, because the frequency of PWM is within audible range. The PWM frequency is comparable to a sampling rate, and a 15KHz sampling rate is really bad. You can of course increase the frequency of the driver, but you will lose performance as it becomes further and further out of resonance with the flyback transformer. It is a tradeoff. This circuit is better for impressing people with long, epic arcs. However, although sound quality is not the best in this driver, it can get a bit louder than the ZVS version and does not put nearly as much stress of the amplifier as the ZVS version!
Step 1: Disclaimers and Dangers!
If you have not messed around with high voltages before, Please don't attempt to make this circuit. These drivers I built are easily capable of delivering 25,000 volts (25 KV) or more depending on the input voltage, at 5 50 mA of current. This output current can cause serious problems such as loss of muscular control, involuntary spasms, heart fibrillation, cardiac arrest, death, and perhaps worst of all, involuntary self urination. You definitely would not want any of that!
Show All ItemsStep 5: 555 Circuit Diagram and Prototyping / Troubleshooting
The circuitry is very simple. it is just your standard astable 555 with an audio input connected to pin 5 as you see in the schematic. The 555 drives a high power MOSFET, which drives a resonant tank circuit and the primary of the flyback. Often, components will burn out, but not always lead to magic smoke. Here is a list of what to check:
Thou Shalt check voltages! Test your power supply output with a multimeter while the circuit is turned ON, and while it is OFF or disconnected. If you do not have one, I recommend you get one, you can find cheap used one's on craigslist and eBay. It is just too easy to exceed the maximum Vgs and Vds ratings. Often, the failure mode is a internal short circuit (and shorted gate.) From my experience, if it dies in this failure mode, it will stress your power supply or batteries, and the MOSFET may then catastrophically fail, possibly exploding! Also, when this fails, the shorted gate will also take the 555 down with it. To test this, replace the flyback transformer with a lamp, and connect gate to +Vcc, and the lamp should light up full brightness. When the gate is grounded, the lamp should go fully out. If not, replace the MOSFET.
One of the most popular circuit for flyback drivers is the ZVS flyback driver. This circuit is essentially a Royer oscillator, that uses two MOSFETS to drive an LC tank circuit (C1 and L1). This circuit relies on resonance rather than the flyback mode of operation. Think of resonance like pushing some fat kid on a swing, and the transistors like 2 huge bullies on either side pushing that poor fatso kid back and forth real hard at just the right time, and as they do so he gains momentum (like the voltage). causing the voltage to rise almost 4 times the input voltage, unloaded!.
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