I've just had an idea. So it seems, you take a xenon flasher,

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Here's a pic of a normal led antenna.

glass is use because you need to draw a near vaccuum; anything flexible enough to bend will simply flatten under the difference in air-presure, raising the internal pressure.

>>1120814
>so glass and tungsten are a bit overkill.
Plasma is pretty corrosive. Glass is used also because it is air-tight and won't outgas much, unlike some random plastic hose.

>I can't seem to find anything about what pressure they are
Around 1/10 atm.
>how to get different colors
Current density has an effect and normal neon tubes just use different gases, gas mixtures and fluorescent coatings to get the desired color.

http://www.excelitas.com/downloads/app_pfl.pdf

also, using a discharge tube as a radio antenna ignores the fact that those flashers are radio noise sources, low-pass-filter or not. if you dont fry your radio with the powersupply, all you'll get is static

>>1120823
I wont be using it as an antenna.


I was planning on using some kind of thicker acrylic tube. Or something.
Not a hose, it won't need to bend much,
But will be exposed to a lot of shock.

Will I get the same results with Argon? It seems cheaper to get

>>1120827
Argon has been used in some specialty flash tubes. Afaik their light is very blue.

>>1120833
I just want it to do sort of like the pic in OP.

I am not looking for a full blown arc lamp as that would take way too much power and melt the tube. May setup some capacitors to make it flash though.

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>>1120814

I'm not sure how to get the arc, but what you're talking about is essentially a neon tube.

Any noble gas can be used to make an illumination tube like that, however, I really doubt you will be able to make it into an antenna for several reasons. You would likely have to use mercury to get good enough transmission for the electricity to arc, and to do that you have to use a purging transformer.

>different colors

For just a clear tube it will illuminate to what ever gas you use and what excitation level.

Neon - orange - red
Argon - blue - royal blue
Xeon - blue
Helium - yellow

I would just suggest using LEDs instead. Honestly gas tubes are hard as fuck.

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>>1120827
But anon you could use it as an antenna:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_antenna

>>1120814
It's just a tube with xenon in it.

You can buy these things as novelty lighting as plasmatubes, lightning tubes, or crackle tubes.
A crackle tube would probably work better. It uses phosphor coated beads
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crackle_tube

The pressure is probably near vacuum

>>1120827
Argon will probably work, it has been used to make atmospheric pressure plasma globes

>>1120820
I think the UV emissions would be more damaging the the plastic than any corrosive effects from the plasma

Xenon tubes are the wrong gas mixture for this.

Plasma globes have gas at atmospheric pressure, so that's the gas mix you want.

Getting an arc all the way from one side of the tube to the other would be madness though at atmospheric pressure, requires too much voltage.

So what you would have to do is run a HV coax cable along the tube and put alternating electrodes (ground&HV) around the tubes. Don't even have to put them into the tube, plasma globes work by barrier discharge.

Won't be very bright though, but with too much energy you'd chew up the plastic in a big hurry any way.

>>1120869
I'm not looking for brightness really, would be a plus though. What kind of voltage are we talking here? I don't see any downside to running extreme voltages as long as it doesn't take too many watts and generate heat.

>>1120874
Op, if there were any way to use plastic instead of glass they would use it. Plastic outgasses too much. The organic crap that outgasses will turn into soot and render your tube useless.

Its not that hard to blow glass, provided you figure out the metal to glass seal.

>>1120880
Problem is, can't use glass for this. It has to be semi-flexable and have some sort of shock resistance, as well as a lot of impact resistance.
I was thinking of using acrylic or polycarbonate.

What you're saying is the plastic itself gives off gasses that will mix with the charge and fuck it up? Even at atmospheric pressure?

There has to be some way...

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>>1120915
You could just, you know actually try this.

It seems it is possible to have flexible plasma tubes. Pic related use ptfe tubing and argon at atmospheric pressure

I wonder if you made the tube a coaxial wave guide (ie. put a grounded metal mesh on the outside, also a good safety feature) if you could create an arc with lower AC or pulsed DC voltages.

A voltage which can punch a 2 meter arc at atmospheric pressure is just a tad too dangerous.

>>1120929

That's with flowing gas, that leaves the question if it would still glow after contamination. An open question.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268391747_Generation_of_Cold_Argon_Plasma_Jet_at_the_End_of_Flexible_Plastic_Tube

>>1120950
>just a tad too dangerous.
As long as it doesn't just arc over to the body of the vehicle, I don't care really.

No touchy.
I have welding Argon and I can get pfte, I kinda want to experiment with it... What kind of voltage are we talking here for 6 feet?

>>1120915
Yes, plastic is full of additives and stuff from the manufacturing process. These are volatile organics that will contaminate the inside of your tube. Further, air and water can slowly diffuse through.
You'd need a flow, as in >>1120950

Thats a pretty interesting article. I guess you can read the article re. Voltage. Good thing is that the current doesn't need to be very high, so the risks aren't as bad as one may initially think. The abstract even mentions that one is able to touch the plasma with no problem.

From experience, a heavy-wall (0.5cm) 1" thick tube is surprisingly strong. As long as its up in the air like your pic and well-supported it shouldn't break. You could encapsulate it in acrylic to further strengthen it. Then the necessary voltage could easily be had with one of those old TV transformers. The whole setup would be pretty safe in fact.

>>1121187

As long as the additives (and their carbonized versions) don't catch too many of the electrons their presence doesn't really matter.

Outgassing in a near vacuum quickly gives you as many outgassed particles as the ones you actually want. Outgassing at atmospheric pressure does not.

>>1120819
>vacuum
>xenon tube
Sure.

>>1121238

I think the flash lamps are low pressure, the continuous arc lamps are high pressure.

>>1121216
You are correct. If this is atm pressure it wont matter much. I thought these tubes worked at low pressures though. Anyway I was just thinking there must be a reason all of the plasma toys are glass. Maybe its sone other reason. Would be interested if it works either way.

>>1121184

Just get a plasma globe and try to fill some small tubes first (start with say 2") and use the plasma globe power supply to try to create an arc. It's generally filled with neon with traces of other gasses, so you'll need a neon gas supply.

This has some more info :

http://w3.pppl.gov/~szweben/Papers/coauthorpapers/CampanellPoP10.pdf

>>1121251

A plasma globe has to work for years, if this even works it will probably require regular refresh of the gas.