El-Hazard Online

General => El-Hazard Online => Topic started by: Vash on March 01, 2005, 07:21:28 pm

Title: project question.
Post by: Vash on March 01, 2005, 07:21:28 pm

I have a question does anyone know someone that works with electricty?  question being for as some of you may have ever thought about it, I am makeing a replica of the Power Key Staff.  So as with all the project I have started I have always trashed because of internal power problems I can never find anything to generate enough power because it has to be very small.  so if anyone can help or lend Ideas to make it intresting or anything at all please let me know.

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: mark_engels on March 01, 2005, 08:07:25 pm

I'm an electrical engineer by education and an electrician by trade.  What would you like to know?

--me

M. J. Engels
Signal Technician
Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen LU 14
CN Rail
Valparaiso, Indiana  USA

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: mark_engels on March 01, 2005, 08:23:10 pm

Is Youngberg still on this list?  IIRC he put together a convincing Makoto costume, staff and all.

Then again, maybe you could just ask Jenny how she did it.

http://www.fansview.com/person/0415pers.htm

--me

M. J. Engels
Signal Technician
Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen LU 14
CN Rail
Valparaiso, Indiana   USA

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Jojo on March 01, 2005, 08:55:56 pm

What exactly is the point of the electricity in the power key staff?

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Vash on March 01, 2005, 09:40:55 pm

I need to know how to produce at least 120 volt or wats through the staff which should be about 3"-3 1/2" in diamiter.  I will be trying to use plasma or electrostorm balls.

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Vash on March 01, 2005, 09:43:07 pm

this is a display piece yes but I want to be able to hold it and have the electroballs or plasma balls working

Title: Battery Powered Ball's
Post by: kalia_rocks on March 01, 2005, 11:04:23 pm

You can buy battery operated Plasma Ball's that would do. I think you can get them at a Radio Shack or look up stores on Google.

I remember seeing 6" plasma globes that ran off 8XAA batteries.

And it shouldn't be hard at all to wire all the switches together and move the batteries into the staff, PVC??

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Vash on March 01, 2005, 11:19:05 pm

not quite sure what I will be useing for the staff part just yet been too worried about the power problem... that 6" does sound like a good one thanks but I will still need one that is 8" and I think that one will be the problem.

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Vash on March 01, 2005, 11:36:49 pm

well I found one that is batteried operated but its only 3"  :bawl  so need to find one thats at least 5"

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator) on March 02, 2005, 09:43:18 am

Keep looking.  The internet is an amazing place of gadgetry.

Oh, and you can use the "Modify" button attached to posts if there's an update to your previous message required, y'know.  :P

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Saucer on March 13, 2005, 08:44:04 pm

I don't really have anything useful or constructive to add to this thread. Except....

That is the coolest idea I have heard in a very long time! Good luck and send us a pic when it's finished

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: Vash on March 15, 2005, 03:15:15 pm

lol thanks I will try so far been running into lots of problems

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: js_morris on March 15, 2005, 05:39:04 pm

Can I offer a suggestion?

I moderate a mailing list for the International Costumers Guild. You don't have to be a member of the ICG to take part in the list, but believe me, these people have seen and done it all, and more than willing to share their knowledge.

If you're interested, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ICG-D/ for more information.

JSM

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: belldandyfan on April 01, 2005, 12:06:50 am

Okay... here's what you do.

http://www.rainbowsymphonystore.com/plasmaball360.html

8 " plasma ball... okay.. that's the easy part... finding the large size plasma balls.

Next .. the electronics for them would have to be in the shaft of the staff...

Okay.. now the tricky part...
Since these sorts of things use DC power (hence the power supplies that generally plug into your 120 V 60 hz AC outlets. That said batteries can be used... by hooking them up in combinations of series and parallel configs (to boost longevity of the batteries and reduce the load on each individual battery. I'm betting the power supply is something 9V with an amperage rating  you can look up. The trick then is to just do a little math, and pull out a digital multimeter and measure the resistance of the circuitry itself so you know how much resistance you need to overcome to get the amperage rating you need to energize the spheres.

Taking a college course in basic DC and AC circuit networks will give you all you need to do this. I just took my 400 level classes in this for my engineering degree (just went back to finish my degree this last year) and it's not really as bad as you might think.
Baring this... get a Schaum's outline book (cost you 19.00 at a bookstore) on basic electric cirtuits will give you all the tools you need to do this.

If it's a 9 V power supply.. you can do this with a buncha 9 volt batteries and put them in the shaft and head of the keystaff.  it'll even add weight to the thing.
Hey.. if you do it... you should give Jenny a call and see if she'll break out the ultimate ifurita costume and dress up  with the staff at some point.  I think everyone who is an elhazard fan know's Jenny's ifurita outfit.

If you need specifics though... as in you need some help with the voltages and such... drop me a line.. I'll see what I can do... provided you have at least put some effort into figuring it out yourself first. The thing is... if you haven't tried.. then most of what I'd say would be greek to you right off the bat... and it'd be like trying to explain how to drive stick shift to someone that has never seen a car in their life.

The point is, you need to have the plasma balls on hand, or know what their amperage ratings and voltages are.

Here is why.

Since the plasma balls operate on DC current, you typically are using a step down transformer(depending on the voltage requirement), a voltage rectifier and a couple other devices in the powersupply to give you a nice steady (single direction) current. Now, current (amperage) is defined as the Voltage divided by the resistance.

So.... if you have a 120 V voltage source with a 100 ohm resistance, you get a 1.2 amp current.
Now, with the DC powersupply, you have two leads.. a positive lead, and a ground. So, what this means if that you -can- substitute batteries for the normally hooked up power supply by wiring the positive terminal lead of your battery supply to the postive lead of the plasma ball, and hooking the ground to your battery supply. Note I said SUPPLY, that's because you'll be hooking up some batteries (more than one) in parallel, and some in series... so that the load you need to create will be distributed across them. You'd also need to include an appropriate resistor (after accounting for  the internal resistance of the batteries)  so get your current right.

The one thing is... can you read schematics?... I hope so, because otherwise it's hard to explain to someone what exactly they'd need to do.

Title: Re: project question.
Post by: daguru on April 09, 2005, 04:44:23 pm

wow. I was planning on doing the EXACT SAME THING for a staff of my own. The problem with me is that I would want to carry it around as a prop at a con. Because the balls are glass, they can't hold the weight of the staff together.

If you could bend some sheet metal and create  small frame that would go around the outside of the ball (so an audience can't see it)  and connect to the other piece of the staff, that would work.