Why You Ned to Buy Can You Imagine Pocket Plasma
Just received and fired up the green "pocket plasma" device.
I bought this as a test-drive for some SFX I'm needing for a steampunk prop, and wasn't expecting much to be honest.
Well, it blew me away. The display is bright and crisp, the patterns pretty much like what you see on the picture. I was completely surprised by just how impressive this inexpensive little gem is. The sound-to-light feature is especially neat (though I hadn't intended to use that particular feature I am now feverishly wondering how to incorporate it into my prop).
Admittedly it's early days. If the device fails to live up to my first impressions of it I'll come back and say so.
[EDIT] I've obtained several of these items now and I've found that the "static" display can vary greatly, from a very attractive lightning effect to a less striking "hair-like" corona. The effect is focused on all of them by placing fingers on the glass of course, but when the display is too "busy" for your taste I suggest switching to sound-actuated mode, which gives a different and quite striking effect. The vagaries of the tolerances of the individual electronic components must play a large part in the final effect, I think. Having said that, only one out of the six I bought showed the "overly busy" display. [/EDIT]
The device consists of a sandwich of glass discs enclosing a white gridwork, across which the green lightning-like discharges arc. These can be affected by placing your fingers on the disc to attract the streaks of "lightning".
The glass disc assembly is permanently mounted to a box of electronics, which is about 2.5 inches square and about an inch thick. You'll need two triple A batteries to power it up, and a teeny Phillips-head screwdriver to open the battery compartment. Don't over-tighten the screws when you put the lid back on. A switch on the top of the box turns the unit on and selects sound mode or continuous display.
The box has a belt/pocket clip on the back. In my opinion the electronics box makes clipping this to a shirt pocket impractical.
I intend some warranty-voiding shenanigans to incorporate this device into a larger prop, so I won't be using that feature.
[EDIT 1/18/13] I did indeed incorporate this device into the "Aethero-Galvanic Exciter" for my steampunk ray-gun "Colonel Moran's Aetheric Neuralizer", where its display is visual confirmation that the power-supply safety relay has actuated and the effects in the gun itself now have power (so if they aren't working there's a real problem and not just a flat battery).
I display the prop with the disc in full, glorious action, and it never fails to draw positive comment, and I took first prize in the costume contest for which I built the prop. The visual impact of what is in reality a bunch of pipe fittings and a wooden box is solely due to the display of the Lumin Disc and that of the plasma effect in the raygun. My steampunk prop looks like it works, and that is worth every penny I paid for the disc.[/EDIT]
I'm going to buy more of these.
The cell membrane, the upmost miniscule covering of a blood cell, it seemd kinda odd my pocket knife can cut something so intricate. Is it merely just sepparating cells?
ReplyDeleteI just bought the new 58" Samsung plasma, which comes w/ only a 1 yr warranty from Samsung. Is the $500 4-yr warranty justified??? Personally I'd like to gamble and not get it, but the fact that it's a plasma, and a big one at that, kind of worries me. Any thoughts???
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