High Voltage

Plasma between two copper plates fed from second anode of a 13" color TV.

Fall has arrived....

Tube B+ Power Supply

Assembled today from parts scavenged from an old PA system, an audio multiplex switch box, and a zip drive box; output of 325 VDC for tube projects.

Magnetic Field

If you did not believe in the effect of a magnetic field on moving electrons....The 70's have returned....a magnet from a tweeter out of Ohm-H speakers

40 Years Ago...

I built this when I was a kid. The tube is a 6U5 with 1M resistors mounted in the rear. We assembled a power supply from parts harvested out of a very old PA system including a 6V4 full wave rectifier tube, transformer, and 16uf cap to provide B+. Remarkably, some many years later, the Magic Eye still works fine. The case partially open to permit access to wires and internal connections.

Laser out of a CD player

Unexpected image from a laser extracted from a CD player shown on a sheet of white paper. The infrared energy is visible only with a black & white video camera or video camera with night-shot capability. The focusing coil is controlled by a joystick interfaced through a bank of transistors.

While your toes are warming in the sand at the beach.....

Who knew the beach wasn't safe after all.....These guys are aggressive hunters....A Hairy-Necked Tiger Beetle...count your toes at the end of the day...

Latest Air Cannon

This is our latest air cannon sized for tennis balls. The design has two electromechanical valves to maximize the rate of air pressure release.

Air Cannon with two tennis balls

A short video with sound of the new air cannon in action. The object that falls off to the left is a Gatorade bottle used as packing as it fits perfectly inside the PVC barrel. The two tennis balls are loaded after the bottle and some water is added to increase pressure seal and provide some smokey aesthetics. Note the tennis balls simply dissapear into the sky; excellent performance, difficult to find the tennis balls when they land.

Light Painting

David built a multi-color light pen using a tri-color LED and some switches and a battery scavenged from various devices fed into the disaggregation machine in the basement. Shot in near total darkness at ISO 3200 with shutter open for drawing duration.