perfecting and explaining the plasma toroid

[@varkboys9999]

I legit want a kit version of this. It'd be an incredible talking point on my work desk

[@JinKee]

he built it in a cave! with a box of scraps!

[@varkboys9999]

@@JinKee I'm sorry. I'm not Tony Stark

[@m.sierra5258]

I'd question whether this device is RF safe enough for work :D it must send electromagnetic waves like crazy

[@yoshibear7526]

@@m.sierra5258 It really wouldn't. Your router or microwave probably causes more RF interference than this.

[@vroomfondel5447]

I'd buy one! though, with neon if possible.

[@RubberGoose]

Great video man! Little tip for working in the shop, do not wear gloves when operating the band saw and drill press or most power tools for that matter. If they get caught up in the machinery it will pull the rest of your hand in before you can even think to pull away or shut off the machine. A little cut to bare skin is better than losing a whole finger or worse. Stay safe my friend! Keep up the amazing content!

[@coyotedomino]

^

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you!

[@AustinSteingrube]

@@BackMacSci On the same note, remember to drop the foot to a quarter inch above your work piece. All the way up is unsafe and bad for the blade :)

[@ChopFooey]

He ain't lying. I used to work on commercial food equipment and there was one call I'll never forget. A guy was operating a large meat grinder with the lid safety bypassed and dropped his knife in the hopper. When we got there the fire department guys didn't' know how to get him out. We had to switch one of the 3 phase power legs to reverse the motor and squish out what was left of him. There was another instance upstate where a guy got his arm caught in a 80qt. mixer, it ripped his arm off and proceeded to beat him with the bloody stump. You can never be too careful, to a machine everything tastes the same.

[@phreekinoriginal]

same as above except use a tool to push the work towards blade for close cuts...

[@nicknack125]

I would love to see this refined even more in the future! Cheaper gases + custom PCB = win for everyone. Also, good luck pushing towards doing youtube as a career/at least ramping up the channel! Love the videos so far.

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks for watching until the end! Yes, what you described (cheaper gases + PCB) is my plan.

[@jttech44]

@@BackMacSci Neon would be cool, because pink. Low pressure air, would probably work as well. It does seem rather sensitive to how the globe is positioned however. I wonder if the circuit could account for this.

[@lukehaworth5789]

I would be up for designing the PCB and sending out Gerber files for free if anybody wants them. I'm going to build one of these

[@Mark_Nadams]

@@lukehaworth5789 What program do you use to create your Gerber files?

[@Enderdragon91]

@@Mark_Nadams idk about him, but I use KiCAD personally. Open source and free, easy enough to use while still being powerful, I feel it's a good option

[@_shadow_1]

Watching the phasma jump to life has got to be one of my favorite things, I would love to see a high quality 10 minute extended looping footage with that plasma ring floating in the middle in a dark room something like one of those videos with a cracking campfire or ocean waves. Great job on the video by the way.

[@D4RKFiB3R]

4K 120 plz :)

[@SpeedrunnerG55]

Well, I guess you could say your desk is now officially out of this world! Congrats on the plasma toroid generator, and I'm excited to see what kind of colorful creations you'll come up with using different gases. As for the metallic potassium and platinum samples, I think my video idea would be a dramatic recreation of the periodic table. Can't wait to see what you come up with next!

[@BackMacSci]

you want the potassium sample? i like your idea!

[@SpeedrunnerG55]

@@BackMacSci I would love that! and hope your new youtube career works out! its exiting to see new creators, especially in the DIY tech space. super stoaked to see what comes next

[@BackMacSci]

@@SpeedrunnerG55 thanks man! what's your email?

[@AnilSagar09]

Hey Tate, I came across your video today and I want to say, excellent work. I love the content. Keep up the hard work and continue to improve your craft. You’re quite good at breaking things down for everyone to understand, you’re humble, not afraid to show accidents, admitted mistakes and willing to trying again. Yes you can make KZbin a career!!! Suggestions: - Try using graphics to help explain complex concepts - Please use personal protective equipment - Consider refining and putting into production the Plasma Toriod (different base materials, shapes, colors, variety of glass tube shapes, sizes, different color gases) these are way cooler than a plasma lamp and would look great in a kids room to an executive’s office.

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you Anil, I appreciate your kindness and feedback!

[@AndrewTann]

I've never become a Patreon supporter before...until now. Your videos are excellent and you supply files for how to etc. You have a massive future in science communication, and as a science educator myself, you have a natural talent for explaining complexities. Looking forward to more.

[@BackMacSci]

Hey Andrew, seeing this now. Thank you very much🙏⚗️🧪

[@logaminglog]

I know every experienced KZbinr says do not try this at home. But I'm a dropped out KZbin PHD holder in engineering. So, Yes! I'm trying this at my home. This is gonna make a great souvenir for my table as a show piece. Thank you for the explanation and the schematic sir.

[@ViiKing_]

I'm looking forward to seeing this channel expand, it's been a while since I found a fresh science channel

[@DavonGenes]

You’re such a wholesome person, you deserve to be appreciated and happy in your endeavors.

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you very much🙏 God bless you

[@tomking6006]

This is one of those things where if you saw it in a movie you'd think "wow, they've got no idea of how things really work". Incredible work! I really want one of these.

[@carazy123_]

I love that you add little explanations and definitions throughout the video. I don’t do much with electrical stuff so it’s extremely helpful

[@runrin_]

i'm surprised that the glass didn't shatter when you cooled it extremely quickly after it was heated by the plasma. please be careful. great video, i've been really enjoying following along with your experiments.

[@wagnerpereira8311]

Muito bom

[@you.findbitches6054]

Ikr when he dipped it in the liquid nitrogen I was TERRIFIED

[@kathleenrobertpogue6818]

Why didn't it explode. Ive had hot coffee cups explode in the sink. Im sure there was less of a temperature difference there.

[@BackMacSci]

This may be because pyrex glass has a smaller coefficient of expansion than ceramic and therefore can remain in one piece during a temperature change

[@kathleenrobertpogue6818]

@@BackMacSci i assumed is was regular glass. Even still, its crazy Pyrex can handle such a drastic temperature change. Thanks for the answer.

[@gkelly]

This is one of the coolest things and best explanations I've seen on KZbin. I'm not familiar with Tesla coils and so I was wondering why you needed such a heavily analog drive circuit... Until you explained that it's running at 15MHz! 🤯 Really enjoying your channel!

[@The_Petrichor]

Maybe see if you could use the plasma toroid as an artistic oscilloscope. If you could fine-tune it so you could see a physical representation of modulation with a base band tone for example, that'd be pretty sick.

[@quandarkumtanglehairs4743]

DUUUUDE that would be doooope

[@The_Petrichor]

@@quandarkumtanglehairs4743 it would also be the first developmental step for him to design his own device for playing music through the toroid (considering bT failed)

[@Danny_Maas]

The best kinds of KZbin videos are the ones that inspire people to go make stuff, and this here is an amazing example of that! Twenty minutes ago I didn't know this was a thing, and now I want to build one! Can't wait to see what improvements you make, and what projects you tackle next. Also, very class-y explanation of the class-e oscillator! And I love your method of designing/fabbing PCBs. Keep at it with the acid etching, the ability to make PCBs at home is priceless (not to mention a huuuge flex)

[@_Jitterbug]

I would love to see some harmonic resonance test between the toroid ring and the acoustic input - im wondering whether it would act like fire in making some interesting dancing toroid displays :) excellent work once again man, so cool seeing how far youve come with this tech!

[@ryandruth92]

Best of luck going pro, dude! You clearly have a passion for science and find joy in discovery. I hope you continue to share this blessing and inspire others. Good stuff brother.

[@coyotedomino]

I very much like your explanations in this, fantastic vid. I’m not very good at electronics but I actually kinda got that about the mosfet resonance zero v thing! Suggestions: If you can get all the input frequencies to match (or maybe be a multiple of) the xenon’s natural excitation frequencies, you might be able to get a lot more effective power to the plasma itself. Alternatively, a ring of a few electromagnets around the globe, powered in a sequence like a coilgun. Might be interesting to see particle acceleration with novel electromagnetic confinement.

[@weimullerjohann9118]

Eine ca 40 Mhz Sendeschlaufe liefert dicht angekoppelt im unteren Drittel eine Plasmainduktion mit einer Keramikkappe kann man wie bei einem Hornstrahler den Dipol noch anheben und z.B mit einer Erdungsplatte den ganzen Ring ausgleichn. Gut gemacht !

[@ethansprojects7399]

I’m definitely going to give a go at building one of these after I finish the 50 other things I want to build. Yours is just so cool!

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you Ethan’

[@Ivan.Wright]

So glad to see you test out the coil orientation to test for convection. That was an interesting result. Nice to see it still stay locked to the coil in the way it did and was just compressed due to the convection.

[@Carloss333]

An interesting video idea would be to test how different shapes of the glass would interact with the plasma. Maybe it would form interesting shapes if you use a spiral or a tube… I love your content and i would love to buy one of these.

[@LabCoatz_Science]

Nice work dude, you've done it again! The audio modulation was definitely a nice touch!

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks Zach! I hope to actually get it musical soon.

[@elnico5623]

The editing is amazing, and the explaination is also very good, i liked this a lot

[@alexanderglass2057]

I saw the plasma channel and Inteza with their version of this, and my question and possible experiments I want to do if I get enough free time is see if you can do non circular resonators. If you could mess around with radio antennas as resonators and concentrated electric field zones around antennas with different amounts of poles, it might be possible to have a monopole whip antenna create a hollow cylinder around it and a synchronized dipole create a beam between the two rods. If we can mess around with this and start projecting in a planned direction from the resonator and ignite air with handheld systems... Well now we have real plasma light sabers, not the Hacksmith's very hot torches. And if you can send pulses that will persist for a couple feet separate the resonator down a resonator barrel now you have short range plasma weapons, likely to mess up any drones.

[@themadscientist40k]

I really want one of these. I would love to see a kit. I also love the idea of experimenting with frequencies

[@গারমারাগেলো]

বানচোদ আগা পেলে ২ টুকরো কোরে দেবো

[@Bobbias]

When you're trying to solder legs into the huge pads on your home made PCB, you should tin the legs first. Adding a blob of solder around the leg before attempting to solder it to the board. It helps increase heat transfer from the iron, as well as helps wet the surface so that you get nice adhesion. With huge pads covered in solder like that you're gonna have trouble getting the whole connection site hot enough to make a good connection, and you'll likely end up with a joint that is brittle and may crack and fail. You should also make sure to use some flux, even if the solder you have is flux core, flux will really help the solder wet.

[@CiaoBello21]

His parents that got interviewed at USC led me to his channel 😂

[@elijahwilt]

I LOVE finding channels like this! Keep going my man - I see 1M in your future.

[@jerrygaguru]

Fascinating project, but please stop wearing gloves when you use a saw or press run by electricity, if the glove catches the blade, it will deglove your hand removing all the skin of all your fingers leaving just a skeleton and no muscle. It’s a really ugliest thing to see when it happens. You need to use push blocks to use pliers, or hold it with a tool to give your hand distance away from the sawblade and drill press has enough muscle to do this. That’s the reason they make vices to mount to drill presses. You were safer doing it barehanded than wearing the type of glove you’re wearing that holds together very tight that if it got caught in any of these devices, it would remove all the skin and muscle off of your hand because . It took six years for me to get 85% of the use in my hand back from an accident at work. And I have never gotten 100% use back and that’s the best case scenario.

[@raptor29aaa]

I agree push blocks are way safer

[@SmolFenFen]

Or, this might be a stretch, use tools for what they are designed for...

[@SmolFenFen]

Sorry to hear of your accident. The slow recovery is unimaginable. You're kinda awesome for persevering and getting so much back from what you lost.

[@zinckensteel]

This is great! I especially appreciated your description of how a class-E oscillator achieves ZVS - you were doing a fair impression of how I'd expect a TA to handle a lab session on oscillator fundamentals (ie colpitts, pierce, armstrong, multivibrator, etc). I look forward to seeing more pretty dancing glowing plasma goodness in the near future.

[@AA-gl1dr]

Honestly I think he’s professor level at this point. I’ve not had a TA that’s built the things he has.

[@morrismutunga7622]

Doc-Oc: The Power of the sun at the palm of my hand Mac: The power of the Sun on your desk. 😂

[@jacobv_]

Really good explanation of why it's shaped that way. Good luck with your youtubing career! Here's a couple video ideas to get that platinum element cube: 1. Make a laser from "scratch"! 2. Make a more complex inductor + glass tube to get the ring to follow a different shape!

[@Pulverrostmannen]

it would be really cool to see what happens if you would use two oscillators on the bulb at the same time if it would be possible to make even crazier shapes of the donut that way. that or the two circuits gonna disturb each others fields is my guess

[@BotchedGod]

i believe the later yes, they do not like other fields

[@Pulverrostmannen]

@@BotchedGod there is only one way to find out right ;)

[@MaikMaster]

Man every video you make on this always intrigues the hell outta me! Absolutely beautiful!

[@natesgarage]

It looks like everyone is using a Steve Ward circuit as the power source. Are you planning to discuss the circuit specifics in this upcoming vid? I know @kcakarevska recently shared the Steve Ward HF Plasma Driver circuit revision 1.0 from 2022. I believe the Steve Ward circuit is up to revision 4 or 5. Is there a reason you're using Rev1?

[@BackMacSci]

If you’re hoping for circuit theory in this video, it’s at the end of this video, Nate. The ward toroid driver is just the plasma flame driver with no “secondary” and altered component values, so yes, we are using the circuit published at kcakarevska’s page still.

[@natesgarage]

Awesome! Thanks again. You guys are doing an amazing job with your improvements!

[@joaomrtins]

It's much more organised and beautiful now! Both the generator and the video.

[@Muonium1]

I really hope you can commercialize this because I really want one, but also don't want to die of electrocution and internal radio frequency burns trying to make my own 😑

[@nguyendesign4517]

you prob won’t die but maybe surface burns

[@coreytaylor5386]

no pain no gain, how else are you supposed to get a mad scientist hair if you dont electrocute yourself a few dozen times

[@Nathaniel-un9ow]

You are a master of the force use it wisely.No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket.💡✌️❤️

[@blanana_m]

I thought that that plasma toroid video was somehow faked until you made your videos because it looked too good to be real. I wonder what happens if you use different Gases like Nitrogen

[@BackMacSci]

It will work with any gas according to the papers from the 1950s. And the color and behavior of the plasma would largely depend on the pressure of the nitrogen.

[@sadasivam1535]

@@BackMacSci Wil it work with O2

[@Dsschuh]

I love everything about this! One thing - "I want y'all to hear something" - then we heard something for about a second and you talked over the rest. Just frustrating. What I heard was really cool

[@ProjectPhysX]

5:11 plasma heats the gas around it, and pulsed plasma makes the gas expand/contract very fast. Expanding/contracting gas is sound, and in audible frequencies humans can hear it. There actually is plasma speakers that operate by creating sound with a modulated electric arc instead of the usual vibrating membrane; I've built one myself many years ago, much fun!

[@thirds8243]

12:09 that was amazing and mesmerizing it is also satisfying to watch the plasma form love it

[@adrienw4704]

dude! that is mesmerizing!! and your video achieve some kind of perfection of "getting to the point" that is very hard to find on youtube! love every bit of it! good luck on your project!

[@kirkwoodcharles2932]

Hi There! Great Job on the Plasma Toroid Generator! DEFINITELY WORTH A LOOK!!! To get the field to interact with music or sound in general... Could a small speaker or sound generator output be connected to the glass to make the Plasma move inside the glass... Or do you think the sound would not travel in a vacuum... But perhaps it would cause the glass to distort ever so slightly, maybe enough to make the plasma move in the desired way. What makes the Plasma Ring move at all once it is formed..? Fluctuations in voltage, amperage or resistance as things heat up could be in play..? What if you pulled a vacuum in the copper tubing and stabilized the copper coil with plastic clips? Really Cool Experiment and Regardless of who did it first, it doesn't take away from anything you did! Just look at how many people watched it! GOOD job with the research!

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you sir, I don’t know about a speaker moving the plasma but adding more coils would!

[@theonlywaytogta6665]

Dude! That was complete sickness. You're a fricken genius, bro. I'm so jealous. Great video, great explanation of theory and practical application. Kudos!

[@roycastrojr]

I will support you anyway I can, Thank you for your time

[@ki4dbk]

That's great work man. With all the boring copycat HV stuff out there, it's great to see folks like I was when I was younger (and still am at nearly 50) like yourself are still out there. Bravo and keep it up!!!!!!!!!!! -Brett, a buddy of Steve Ward back in 2001. Terry Fritz, Ward, Richard hull, John Fraeu, Richard Quick. Yep, we invented and tested the MMC. Fun days...TCML, the SISG, OLTC, the first DRSSTC's. I there. Happy to see someone worthy of carrying on. Yay!

[@ATomRileyA]

Loved this video, great to see your improved version.

[@MrGothicruler666]

So glad that YT recommended your original Toroid video to me. It only had 200 views at the time

Best of luck on your YT journey. You may be able to get some pretty interesting geometries and movements as well as just generally more control by introducing multiple coils at different orientation and adjusting your signals independently.

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you Danté, Steve Ward has experimented with multiple coils oriented normal to one another and the toroid behavior is sporadic and jumps from coil to coil, staying parallel with coil plane, but his experimental results are not published to the public. Maybe they will be soon, and I plan on doing this soon too.

[@SpartanElite43]

What Happens if you build a second generator and have it feed through the top of the glass at the same time as the Bottom Generates Plasma from the bottom?... Would anything happen? Would they interfere with one another?... Im so curious now

[@matthewnardin7304]

Those animations were awesome. Hope this channel really takes off.

[@BackMacSci]

thanks, man!

[@headbanger1428]

Congratulations with all your hard work and progress. I admire your passion, enthusiasm, and respect for the science. Also very good of you that you gave credit to prior works. Bravo! Regarding an idea, I believe a large circle induction loop would be interesting; one that doesn’t touch the sphere, sort of like a Saturn look. That would also give you the real estate do add some other smaller coils to manipulate to toroid in artistic and analog ways. All the best!

[@BackMacSci]

thank you Head Banger, that saturn design has worked well for teslacoilpro / magic_plazma , the ones who repopularized the device

[@Snowsea-gs4wu]

At 6:15 “dancing more” sooooo awesome!

[@surajjaiswal1371]

All the Best Bro 👍. You are doing great stuff man! Keep it up.

[@elpeco6429]

Oh! thank you very much for the available subtitles!) now everything has become clear

[@soyboy3274]

Much luck, I'll be here watching your journey!

[@headbanger1428]

…and thanks for the deeper dive after the outro. Very satisfying:)

[@scottmiller2591]

Nice job getting the ring to float in the center! That, I think, is what most of us were looking for. It seems like putting a shorted copper loop on the top of the globe would help stabilize the ring - by Lenz's law, it would have the opposite current and flux, and would give you some push-back on the ring. You'd have to play around with the size and thickness of the loop, but it probably would stabilize it over a much larger range of drives. Don't forget that this ring will be dissipating some power, so it might get hot under some circumstances. I'd start out with smaller diameters at large separation from the lower winding.

[@BackMacSci]

thanks Scott! Would you like one of the element cubes? I think that shorted copper loop is a cool idea!

[@scottmiller2591]

@@BackMacSci I appreciate the offer - give it to someone else, and keep up the good work!

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks! And will do.

[@kirkwoodcharles2932]

Just another thought.. Could you use a tube coil like you constructed. Then connect it to the output side of the secondary coil from a microwave transformer OR maybe a transformer from a neon sign? Could a large clear light bulb serve the same purpose as the glass you used. I have some very old bulbs that are probably larger than the glass you used or would the filament interfere with the plasma formation? I'm guessing you would want to insulate the bulbs original connections just in case that plasma wanted to get out... LOL

[@------country-boy-------]

Awesome !!! Maybe try using separate coils - one for each current direction. It would simplify circuit design. Collapsing magnetic fields generate a voltage spike in the opposite direction but maybe that's not a problem for air cores. Spikes are usually shorted by a high speed diode or passed backwards through the inherent body diode of the MOSFET. If you got a function generator with multiple outputs you could just basically do everything with that and just amplify the weak signals with mosfets. Also a ferrite core transformer with single wound primary and dual wound secondary might do the trick to split a single input into 2 outputs (if you only have a single output function generator). Maybe use variable resistors to adjust MOSFET gate pull up or pull down. Maybe a coil could be placed on top of the bulb and one on the bottom of the bulb to help plasma float in the center. Might be able to play music in the plasma by playing audio through a third coil - just run the audio through an amp first - speaker coil to side of bulb ??? I have no idea. Anyways great video and great editing!!! I been working on an invention for about 20 years. I will make a video about it maybe next year. Too busy right now.

[@milogonzalez1334]

get some high speed camera footage of it. shine a laser through it. see how it reacts to external magnetic field, try different shapes of magnet. i also like ideas from other comments about adding a second coil and maybe 3-d printing some kinda separator/coil housing to keep the glass from directly touching the coil(s). also, how bout trying biflar coils? if you use two coils, see how it would react to the same frequency bumping through both but set one 180 degrees out of phase. see if theres any difference between square wave vs sine.

[@navneetmishra3208]

I genuinely thought that I’m watching someone with over a million subs! Your content is great!

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you so much, Navneet!

[@anitox]

Great work, and great explanations! I really enjoy your videos on this project. Keep it up!

[@MycoMikesMushrooms]

first video i ever seen of yours. this is awesome man very well put together video very informative. will be coming back to this video a million times so i can try and build one haha

[@PopeRobot]

Hey bro. its lovely to see how enthusiastic your videos sounds through your voice. It´s clear that you absolute love this.... and thats awesome. brilliant videos. Internet needs more people like you. Thank you for sharing everything with us!.. by the way, could you share with us the actual schematic for this modified driver w/the part list? keep going bro... you´re awesome.

[@wesjohnson5204]

Thanks again great experiments!Probably answered already in the many comments, but the sound was audible when the separation of the glass and coil was in a close resonant range so they could talk about it.

[@ErgoBytes]

I have a few ideas for videos, mostly about the plasma toroid. It would be interesting to see what would happen if you introduce a second coil, would it be possible to make 2 toroids in the globe? They'd have to be separated enough to not interact with each other of course. As someone who's into audio design, I'm also interested in manipulating the waveform you're using to generate the toroid. If you've ever seen "Oscilloscope Music" you may know that combining a signal with a square wave duplicates an image. I believe in this case the square wave would need to be be very high frequency. Essentially using the same coil to generate two different electric fields with different positions/shapes and switching between them very quickly. I'm imagining a cool "stack" of toxoids, but it'll probably not be so simple lol. I think all sorts of additive synthesis principles may yield interesting results. Final toroid idea, having other electromagnets around the globe to manipulate the position/shape of the toroid, with some clever programming you may even be able to use external electromagnets to stabilize the toroid easier/faster. Non toroid idea, exciting Nobel gas/vacuum vessel with high voltages with samples of other elements placed inside can change the color, even when it's not a gas. For example, salt would introduce sodium ions and change the plasma orange/yellow. There has to be all sorts of solids and liquids that would add change the plasma interesting colors. Good luck on your KZbin career!

[@BackMacSci]

i love these ideas! thank you!

[@GarrattPowers]

This was really great. Thank you for the lesson! Someday in the near future, we will learn “plasma” heals everything.

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Beautiful project! Interesting about the mosfet switching at the 0V point. Have dealt with this on thryristor firing circuits, but hadn't thought about it being a factor in a very high frequency design such as this.

[@First_Command]

Idea: Traveling plasma ring through a long bending glass tube that either spells a word, like a neon sign with multiple letters, or a light phenomenon that looks like a gushing river of electricity. I also noticed how the plasma ring looks different in it’s different phases before it disappears, and looks like an aurora. Green lights. A simulated standing aurora that dances in a consistent pattern would be cool. Basically, movement is the idea. If you could control the movement like the Krypton prison rings on Superman the movie, that would be cool. Keep creating. Great stuff.

[@AA-gl1dr]

This is seriously the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I wonder if introduction of fields at additional angles would influence the possible loops able to form. Perhaps through interference of different frequencies some really exotic shapes could emerge. Anyways, very cool. Favorite channel I’ve found in a very long time!!

[@mbunds]

Beautiful build; plasma science is fascinating, thanks for your channel!

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you so much! I love it too and I look forward to exploring it with you all!

[@xaytana]

Even if you can't get it to 'play' music, I'd still mess around with different waveforms and frequencies. Just making the toroid move around and contort is enough of a cool display to make the experimentation worthwhile. The audio input circuit also only needs an amplifier, don't expect a ton of power from most headphone and line devices, nearly anything you use will require some form of amplification on a line-in jack; it doesn't have to be a high power amp either, just something that'll drive the chip, you should be able to get away with a typical transistor or op-amp power amplifier circuit. I'd also be curious if there's any off the shelf oscillator chip that could work for this, even if output has to be driven through its own power amp(s). Y'know, just to simplify things with ICs. Keep production in mind, this could easily become something a lot of people are interested in; besides the very expensive plasma globe, that's really the only deal breaker at the moment, though that's an issue for a different topic of discussion given the circumstances of why its so expensive currently. Even if this ends up as a DIY project for most, or a group buy of PCBs for a DIY kit, things should still be kept to where manufacturing is simple, and some SMD ICs is a step towards simplicity when manufacturing is concerned; essentially make the design pick-and-place friendly, then make building the end product (at least electrically) the finished PCB, a donor heatsink, and the large coil, as this makes production at any scale, including DIY, the absolute simplest. You should also look into putting a case around the thing, even if it's just 3D printed for now. Make it look presentable, make it look like someone could have this on their desk or a shelf. This would definitely get more eyes on the project. The average person would show more interest if a project looks like something they could purchase or build themselves, there's quite a bit of psychology behind it, but for a growing channel and especially as you're making this channel your career you'll want to break out of just niche communities and into the broader audience; just take note of how channels like DIY Perks, Great Scott, Tom Stanton, etc., stay afloat, also play by the algorithm's rules and stay reasonably active with a consistent upload schedule- a loyal community, short-term virality, and off-platform clickthroughs are one thing and will only do so much for channel analytics, but doing this as a full-time career needs long-term projection to stay positive, and get a decent set of sponsors to keep revenue flowing, content creation isn't just a career but also your own business and you need to keep an entrepreneurial mindset. Designing a case to make this look more like an end product would also put you into the spheres of design and engineering, possibly even into manufacturing if you 3D print stuff or any kind of forming method, etc., which could positively impact who sees your content and open the door do more content creation. Personally, I'd also look into some kind of dampening or isolation between the coil and the glass, just to quiet things down a bit. The glass itself could still resonate, but it wouldn't be resonating against a metal hoop, or any kind of casing. If people want this as a kit or product, especially as a desk toy or shelf lamp, keeping noise (and heat, we all remember lava lamp fires, right?) to a minimum is almost a must. As for other project ideas or video ideas, I don't really have any specific suggestions. Just do what interests you, but keep a balance of short-term and long-term projects, and have simultaneous projects that you can switch between so you don't stagnate on a singular thing. You've done chem stuff, some biochem, expanded into electrical engineering which includes some math and physics stuff, I'd suggest continuing the trend of exploring relevant spaces. Maybe consider being the practical side of general academia while explaining the theoretical side; maybe also get into the history of topics as well, such as going through the original discoveries of the plasma toroid. As I suggested before, you could branch into design and engineering, which would go well with the current electrical engineering and tube lighting arc of your channel, you could get into the math and science behind various topics, etc.; general academia has a nearly limitless potential for content, and showing the practical side of things adds to that. For example you can go over all the chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, math, and theory of the plasma toroid, but you're also producing a physical counterpart that shows the practicality of it all which gets into actual design, manufacturing, etc. Keep this kind of mentality behind any project and I think it'd be a good model for content, both for short and long projects: Conceptualize, theorize, experiment, iterate, produce, then finalize, while explaining the important bits along the way. Though one interesting field could be robotics, which covers most of this. Not necessarily developing a full robot or just building stuff, but going over different mechanical things, like air bladder actuators, microfluidics, electrically stimulated muscle tissue and how that works (which gets back into biochem), etc.. This could then stem into the control design which would include circuit design and possibly get into things like ML/AI and various sensors as well, which could then get into an actual project that goes over engineering and design, etc. Multiple short-term topics mixed in with longer-term stuff, that covers basically all the basis of general academia and the practical side of such. And this isn't just limited to robotics itself, that's just one field that has a lot of potential that covers a lot of areas, some of which (biochem, chem, EE) you seemingly have interest in given your content history. I'm not really the best at spitballing ideas. The main takeaway here is to keep your horizons broad and tackle any subject you find interest in, but don't limit yourself to the point of potential stagnation, while also keeping your content topics wide enough to pull in a general audience to avoid falling into hyper-specific niches. For example, as cool as the plasma toroid is, it can't go on forever, and tube lighting in general is a niche that could only produce so much content itself. There's limitless potential if you play your cards right, keep a broad audience, keep a consistent schedule with decent activity on the channel, always aim for high production quality, etc.; keep viewers happy, keep the platform (and its algorithms) happy, and keep (potential) sponsors happy, and you're in a good position by what numbers and analytics will tell you- but most importantly, keep yourself happy, don't burn out on creating content, pace yourself, and keep your interests broad enough to where you won't stagnate or the platform will put you into a rut, maybe also continually learn new things along the way as well and expand your horizons.

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you for all that, Xaytana. I think IC’s are not used because the circuit is simple enough as it is-power and drive stages in one. And the frequency required to get this phenomenon going is quite high for an IC. Content wise, I’ve planned out a year of videos, and I like your tips about exploring all facets and disciplines of each project with videos to maintain an upload schedule. I’ll see you around, and thank you again.🙏

[@justins3810]

Thats really awesome dude! The best thing I ever did was use a 555 timer circuit to trigger a mosfet triggering a cars ignition coil to create a Jacob's ladder arc between 2 coat hangers. The transistor kept burning up so I then used an old ignition module from the 70s to do it. Cool channel!

[@BackMacSci]

Sick! I haven’t done that before. And thank you!

[@Antotoooooooooo]

I would love to try this! I'd think that you could get a very stable ring by using a setof 2 resonating coils rather than one: the helmholtz configuration gives a very uniform B-field that may help with ring stability

[@faked8586]

you should totally get some manufacturers involved and sell these! i bet you would make a fortune

[@tiger12506]

Don't give up on chemical etching. Sharpie interferes with the HCl + peroxide etchant (personal experience). Try a paint pen, or just go full on toner transfer (I use thin magazine pages from the Jameco catalog). Also, quick dip (1 sec) in the etchant before you put on the mask really helps make the copper uniform and sticky for any mask (turns a nice salmon pink).

[@BackMacSci]

Oh nice, thanks

[@mobilemarshall]

nice job, really compact kit you've put together

[@covodex516]

by the way, your german pronounciation of Hittorf's name was almost impeccable. - sincerely, a german who is appreciating your effort.

[@beautifulsmall]

Super project. Excellent prototyping. A scaplel can easily cut through copper clad using a v shaped cut, might be cleaner than dremel. Great investigation.

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks for the tip and I’m glad you liked the vid :)

[@nilamotk]

Chemical etch with ferric chloride. Use 3d printer to slosh back and forth. Also, use paint marker or something ontop of the permanent marker to better protect. A bit of heat form the printer heated bed can help too.

[@chemistryscuriosities]

So stoked I found your Channel again! Your back!

[@BackMacSci]

Thank you! I am!

[@Riki_Spanish]

Can’t tell if I should be more impressed by the toroid or the editing!

[@BackMacSci]

Thanks Fleisch. Hope your doing well man!🙏 turtle man

[@NGPerez247]

Good luck on your journey with KZbin! Some ideas going forward: Try different gases Try different pressures of said gases Give the plasma the slow mo guys treatment Make and sell a plasma ring lamp Looking forward to seeing more content. The circuit explanation along with the demonstration of one cycle was something that really helped my understanding. I also suggest checking out Griffin G Brock’s work. Cheers!

[@JediBuddhist]

Nice Circuit walkthrough.. All in all... Top Banana Dude !

[@R-Tex.]

A great video!!! You can chop an old wired earphone/headphone and solder it to a simple amplifier (a low power transistor, a capacitor and an appropriate resistor) and use it as the signal generator.

[@masterfulfishsticks]

Beautiful, even more impressed by the stable ring, I just may have to make myself one and tool with it, perhaps using a universal wound coils that ive been experimenting with. Good job man.

[@Hylianmonkeys]

I would love to see this with a mixture of xenon and heilium. The gasses sepperating could have interesting effects.

[@johnnymnemonic8487]

I believe the sound was actually the coil vibrating against the glass not the plasma. If it's AC current going through the coil, then it could be the Hz at which it oscillates. If the power for this thing comes from the outlet in your home and is unaltered from the device then I'm guessing the coil is vibrating on the side of the glass at 60Hz. As it moves the pitch changes from the vibrations carried through the glass. If it DC then there could be a vibration from the device itself and that vibration is being carried through the coil hitting the side of the glass getting the same effect.

[@hardrivethrutown]

I can't wait for these to come onto the market as a finished product or kit

[@colinmcnamara344]

This was awesome! thank you for the additional explanation of the oscillator circuit. This may be a silly question- as its been a long time since i worked with any gas discharges for my Physics lab in uni: have you noticed any more difficulty in generating the toroid on days with higher solar activity? Lately there's been a few solar storms and flares of decent strength . Depending on how stable the oscillation is to geomagnetic disturbances i wonder if you've had days where it wouldn't work at all, inexplicably. I have a few related curiosities, like whether the toroid likes to settle relative to the direction of the earths magnetic field? or does rotating the bulb along its secondary axis affect the toroid? my bad if you've answered any o these already, and thanks for the motivation to continue my own science tinkering.

[@wally4304]

Awesome! Great work man. You are doing what I always wanted to do in college. I never got to the experimental stage because I was dealing with homelessness and had to leave before the end of semester.

[@BackMacSci]

Ah crap, sorry about that man. I hope you are well now!

[@sudoboat]

Good luck, man. You're awesome!

[@sk8pkl]

I wonder if you could interlace 2 plasma toroids using something like a klein bottle or doubble klein bottle... And what would it do? Or maybe having multiple torroids stacked within a tube that act as "lenses" to focus whatever field that comes out of those... I mean... We all know particle accelerators like a tokamak use a plasma toroid, but there is probably other ways around using plasma torroids and humm maybe there are new applications to them when "configured" into diffrent geometries a bit like im saying above. Very interresting! Thanks for sharing!

[@RayceVR]

Actually I think the guy in the beginning of the video did something similar. In his experience he uses a plasma gun (idk what that is either, but it sounds awesome) and shoots two at each other. He found that it was a very good demonstration of 2 galaxies slamming into one another! Also, what’s a tokamak. I’ve heard of it and tried searching it up. Didn’t get much.

[@andymouse]

Diode Gone Wild would be proud of that PCB, good luck going forward !....cheers.

[@JamesThompson-xl4yu]

You might try placing a coil around the center of the glass that might stabilize the plasma ring. Just apply a counter magnetic field at the same frequency as the primary, but adjustable power.

[@eckyf15a]

Legit. Awesome. From NZ and will be showing this channel to our high school. I found your approach engaging and will be encouraging oir students to engage with your channel. FYI I am accounting teacher who enjoys science. Keep up the good work. Could you do something around electrostatic floating rings with a difference - conductive object floating between two plates with high voltage but not in contact to creat a quasi stabke levitation -Earnshaw Theory. Also, could look at electrostatic floating rings.