Ioniser with active dust mat.

Haha... when in doubt, add more hazers/lazers. :) I assume you're thinking about quick scene changes where a production designer would want the lighting to go from "moody" to "clear as a summer day" in 30-60 seconds, yes? I never had to worry much about that... I was usually just setting up one or the other, depending on the gig. :)

Chris Talbot

I can see Martinus' point though. A device which could clear the haze over a stage in a short period of time on demand would be very useful to production designers. I suspect he's barking up the wrong tree in this instance though. If I've got my physics correct, the only way to do that is to basically replace the air in the space with fresh air, which would be impractical for a number of reasons. :)

Chris Talbot

I usually just add more! Which brings the issue of getting rid of it fast in case of less than ideal hvac systems. But thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure how well it would work with haze, but generally the problem in theatres is keeping haze in the air.

Big Clive

I had the same thought. Like you, I've had a few of those around my house over the years and had the same problem with the now ionized stuff sticking to the nearest wall, etc. That version appears to be an attempt at reducing complaints, but at the expense of efficiency. Because really, you put a charge on something in the air, it's going to stick to something with the opposite charge. The more air you clean, the more stuff gets stuck to something. I've got an ElectroStatic Air Cleaner on my furnace, I have to remove the elements once a month and wash them. The dust, pollen, mold, etc that goes down the drain, ugly, but I'd rather it went down that drain than into my lungs.

Is it also able to pull haze out of the air? I could imagine a fair few uses on a stage if so. Or would it be too noisy (electrical and audible)?

To me it looks like it would limit the active area to between the needles and adjacent pad. If the pad had been a separate unit it might have worked better.

Big Clive

They still look silly cool though. So ionizer or just neat nightlight? :)

Now I have to wonder how that affects the efficiency. The idea is to fill the air with ion's that bind to stuff and drop it out of the air. But, if the ion's can't get very far because of that mat, IE opposite charges attracting, etc, they can't get very far. Add a fan to blow air with stuff closer, you've probably got enough of a breeze to blow the ionized particles far enough from the mat to escape it and you're right back where you started.

I think the big rock salt lamps ended up being incorrectly thought of as ionizers because the sodium chloride is an ionic compound :P

Jamie Magin

I left a comment on Fran's video earlier. I think Dave from eevblog is right and YouTube is giving lower priority to channels that don't include adverts. That's how they pay for their storage space and the serving of the content.

Big Clive

I built one 14 stage i used a 120 - 200 volt and 6.3 volt tube preamp transformer my caps are way bigger than needed 47uF 600v and 2 3 meg 4 watt resistors i used 2 #57 12 volt bulbs on the 6.3v wind as a power / night light

God 420

You mentioned changing the diode direction to change from negative to positive bias. Is that direction with respect to neutral and live, or to series of capacitors that have the needle attached?

Jeremy Impson

Hey Clive, I assume you've seen Fran Blanche's youtube channel. If not, check it out. Lots of vintage electronics. Anyway she just posted a thing about youtube that I think you would find interesting. She's kind of disappeared from youtubes suggestion links w/ no obvious reason. Check it out and maybe toss her a mention. She has good quirky stuff. BTW. posted here because I didn't want to spam your youtube channel. Be well. Now I can scroll up and watch the new video :)

Bill Kerr