High Voltage Steampunk Plasma Bulb

The material

A Neon filled bulb (any type will do but the fireballs are best)
Electronics from a disposal camera
A potentiometer 200K
A handle
Some fittings made of copper and brass
A base plate made of wood

Find the right camera

First of all you buy a disposable camera from Fujifilm or other one from the picture.
If you buy other models you will find inside an AAA cell instead of the right AA cell.
In this case the soldering points for the power output are different.

Open the case

Remove or loose the plastic flaps on every side and open the camera.
Now you can pull out the flash module.
Attention!!!
The capacitor often is charged.
If you touch the board with your fingers on the wrong place you get quite a shock powerful enough to numb your arm for a while.

Find the right connection points

On the back you must solder 6 wires on the right place the picture will help you.
For the power input I use an adjustable DC power supply.
Don't use more than 3 Volt otherwise it will burn out.
The module takes around 350mA.
Then you can use two wires to take away the power switch from the module.
It makes more sense as to bridge the two solder points on the circuit and switch the power supply on/off.
The wire of the high power output of the circuit goes to the middle contact of the bulb.
The three arms outside of my bulb are connected to the power -

Preparing the parts and mounting procedure

 

First cut a round piece of wood and an other piece in same size the base for the blub.
glued this together and mount the potentiometer on his round plate.
As a knob to turn used a E27 bulb fitting. Inside the E27 glue an E14 bulb fitting that fits exactly to the axis of the potentiometer.

On the last picture you can see the first mounting of the parts.

Then polished the copper and the brass parts.

Cabling and finish

The cabling is very easy:
You can see the optional battery case and the low voltage cabling running from the case to the switch and then to the electronics and back.
The high voltage cabling is easy as well. From the electronics to the middle contact of the potentiometer than from one of the other potentiometer contacts the middle contact of the bulb. The other wire of the high voltage output runs to the big brass stand under-need the bulb.

Finished

 

 

Lets have a look at what happens if you touch the bulb.