Plasma light inside res?!

[Lipe123]

So I had this brainfart today...

What if I take a small plasma light like this one: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX24448

And seal that sucker up nicely and then somehow fit that inside a water loop like a mini inline res with the liquid either doing a waterfall onto it or just fully submerging it.

What do you guys think that's got more experience than me with these things?

[DazMode]

This is interesting idea. I wonder how liquid around it may affect plazma effect.
Stay tuned for new YT video!

[Lipe123]

Well I know it jumps to the nearest conductor/ground but if its fully submerged it should act like normal?

I wish the store closer to me had them, hate driving to the north end of town for a $20 item
Might call them and see if they can send one down to the south side and then do some tests running it under a tap. I love that its already USB powered, makes for really easy hookups inside a build

*edit* oooh check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBSufGPmuHU

[bungwirez]

cool mods! sounds like fun.

[TripleM]

So if you plan on using distilled water it may act a little differently. You are right in saying it jumps to the nearest ground, but to be a functional ground you have to be able to conduct electricity, which pure distilled water does not. You may get stuck with the arc only going back to the base of the globe rather than all around the globe. I can't guarantee that is what will happen, but it's something to think about.

That being said, it's $20 and totally worth it to try because if it does work that would be really cool! Just maybe make sure that you have a pure copper ground going from inside your loop to straight to the ground in your PSU to avoid arcing through your components if something were to happen and water got inside the plasma globe thing.

EDIT: Oh actually if you have an additive in the water then it should conduct electricity, so you'll get the cool effects, but I still recommend some sort of solid copper ground.

[nass]

that would look cool in a aqua res...., let us know if it works... maybe have a piece of killcoil in the res? Or a strand of copper even.

[Lipe123]

Well I'm getting my res and stuff on monday and Sunday I'm heading north anyways so I'll go pick up one of these toys to see what happens.

Sidenote on conductivity, these things work with static elec and does not require an actual conductor, they will jump to pvc or anything thats good for static, not sure yet what im going to do but this just sounds like something that needs to be done!

Also having said that, lots of static buildup in the line would be bad so I'm going to have to put some grounds in somehow.

[TripleM]

Static electricity needs a ground before it moves, that's what the doorknob usually is lol. As for what can be ground in a PC that will definitely be the water in a loop and then the metal block touching the component. If there is an electrician here correct me if I'm wrong, but pvc can hold a charge and it will jump between spots on a length of pvc pipe, but that takes a lot of voltage so you needn't worry about anything other than the water bringing any charge to a component and to avoid that a pure copper wire that has less resistance than water hooked directly to the ground in a psu should do the trick.

Something else that might be a good idea is to install a 3 amp fuse in the line in case of short circuit.