Re: Tesla and quack medical products and Neon glow mugs

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: Neonglo-at-aol-dot-com 

In a message dated 5/4/04 9:03:15 AM Central Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:
Original poster: David Speck <dave-at-davidspeckmd-dot-org>

John,

I suspect that these are similar in principle to the "Neon Coffee Mugs"
sold by Spencer gifts.  A hollow glass mug filled with neon lights up when
it is set on a featureless black pad connected to a wall wart.

Has anyone hacked one of these sufficiently to figure out the circuit?
I'd like to have a slightly more powerful one to light Geissler tubes, or
to test laser tubes without the risk of puncturing the glass as can happen
when you hit them with a vacuum leak tester.  It is just a flat coil driven
by an RF oscillator?  I've heard of non contact testers for neon sign work
but they seem expensive, and I've never seen one for sale anywhere.

Dave

Dave, All,

You can get a small handheld high frequency neon tester from Daco Neon 
Equipment. It's the one at the bottom of this page:

<http://daconeon-dot-com/page7.html>http://daconeon-dot-com/page7.html

About $80, unless they have gone up recently. I'm guessing they operate at 
somewhere between 50 and 100 kc. It has rechargeable batteries and comes 
with a charger.

A high frequency spark coil is much less likely to puncture the glass than 
a standard BD-10 type line operated spark coil (like the one Terry F. 
bought a while back). The high frequency neon tester puts out less voltage 
than the BD-10, but gasses are more easily ionized as the frequency 
increases. These are handy for checking any kind of gas filled lamp.

Eurocom, Inc. also sells a similar unit that uses four standard 'AA' 
alkaline cells for about $10 less:

<http://www.eurocom-inc-dot-com/>http://www.eurocom-inc-dot-com/

Tony

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Tony Greer
Special Effects Neon
Lubbock, Texas
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