At some point you’ve got to resign yourself to the fact that the TV you’ve been trying to resurrect is just not salvageable. But if you’re knowlegable about working safely with high voltage, you might get quite a show out of it yet. Here [Aussie50] finds beauty in destruction when he fries a large plasma panel from a broken HDTV.
The flyback transformer from a microwave oven drives the display. The video after the break starts off kind of boring at first but before long it takes off. As portions of the display burn out the electric arcs jumping those gaps provide a thrilling view for the remainder of the 14 minutes.
Don’t want to commit to a video that long? Here’s a display that gives up the ghost after just four and a half minutes but we don’t think it’s quite as cool.
[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZTIY-YIBZA&w=470]
Yay Aussie50! He’s one of my favorite Youtubers; has a variety of cool stuff on his channel.
Does the “Breathtaking Beauty” in the HaD title have anything to do with breathing acrid smoke from toasted electronics?
Great show.
BTW, he appears to be using a normal iron-core MOT, not a flyback version (if that’s it sitting in front of the screen)
Microwave ovens don’t use flyback transformers, just regular ones.
Damn pretty vid.
They actually can use flyback transformers, but only the more modern ones. Well, to nit-pick, they’re not flyback transformers, just switchmode transformers (they don’t store energy in the core like flybacks).
Here’s some examples of what they look like:
http://4hv.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?85515
Modern microwaves do actually use solid-state power supplies, which incorporate a flyback (or more likely just a push-pull) transformer:
http://4hv.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?85515
hmm anyone have an xray film to put behind him?
Yeah, microwave oven transformers (MOTs) are different from flyback transformers. And from what I understand, this is -low- voltage, not high.
Flybacks produce a high voltage at a low current.
MOTs produce a low voltage at a high current.
Ah, whoops, MOTs do produce high voltage – just not nearly as high as flybacks. My bad.
Stunning! I’d love to see the variac driven by sound – you know,a vca with a mic input, or something like that.Just because something is absurdly dangerous is really no reason not to wow everybody at your next party!
This would make a great screen saver
I see what you did there.
For some reason, it looked like Borg nanoprobes assimilating a television. >:)
What a shame.
Most likely the caps in the power supply overheated and changed value (poor design, usually, and one of the most common failure issues). They just dried out to the to the point they could no longer function effectively.
Might have taken nothing more than a few bucks and a little time with a soldering iron to re-cap the unit.
Aussie50 does a lot of plasma repair videos; this one had no bad caps. The chip-on-film for the x sustain (I think) were going bad. There’s a video on it on his channel.
Thanks Frank,
I’ll check it out.
Cheers.
Might be cool to do something like the singing tesla coils for this… even if it doesn’t really output sound, it would make a trippy visualizer.
Wow the writing style of HAD is really going down the toilet.
(I accidentally hit the “Report” button. Seriously? It hasn’t been fixed yet??)
Of course – that’s why I (sadly) have not been keeping up with HaD much anymore.
As was mentioned by Sci, microwave ovens do not use flyback transformers – they use regular iron-core transformers.
To all editors of HaD: Please do not use terms which you are unfamiliar with simply because it sounds technical. If you do not know what type of transformer it is, a simple Google search could suffice. In fact, there is a lovely Instructable article which details the differences between different AC transformers.
This is a technical blog – we should have a high standard when it comes to this sort of thing.
/rant
Really cool flashing, though. Who would have thought?
+1. Please…
+1 Very disappointing indeed.
And THAT’S why Plasma TVs are better. (Try doing that with an LCD.)
When one microwave transformer is not enough, use two and a hammer! Extended directors cut here 😉 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkpjMvXH1Rc
Why haven’t I seen roasting plasma screens sooner?
It would be fun to play a looped video of this, complete with sound effects, on an unsuspecting person’s plasma screen. I bet I could rig up one of the heated air fresheners with ‘burned bakelite’ smell for the whole ‘my TV is on fire’ effect.
This is quite possibly the best way I spent 14 minutes this week. Awesome visual.
I’ve seen every form of combustion known to man, but this beats me.