LIGHTNING DISK

Lightning Disk, retail $19.99 (www.wallgreens.com)
Manufactured by (Unknown)
Last updated 09-14-10




I saw this product in the Wallgreens flyer a few days ago (10-02-05); the store I went to was sold out so they issued a raincheck. I picked it up yesterday, and it was defective. So I returned it this morning (10-11-05) and exchanged it for another; and this one works.
It is being sold with the other Halloween decorations.

This is a decorative household lamp that - in my opinion - would look great in your house regardless of what holiday it is: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Martin Luther King Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Gay Pride Day, Independence Day, etc.

It has a glass disc with some type of gas (possibly nitrogen and argon) at low pressure inside, and generates bright colored sparks in salmon-red, green, and pale blue.

On the box, it reads "8 inches".
I believe this refers to the diameter of its glass disk, not the length of its {vulgar term for male urinator/inseminator}.


SIZE



To use this product, just take it and its included AC adapter out of the box, plug the plug on the end of the adapter's cord into the receptacle on the side of the lamp, and plug the larger rectangular portion into any standard household 110 to 130 volts AC 60Hz receptacle (in the United States).

To see sparks in a random manner, set the switch on the back to the "MANUAL" position.
To have the unit respond visibly to voice or music, set the switch on the back to the "AUTO" position.
And to turn it off, set the switch on the back to the "OFF" position.

It can be stood up on a table or be wall-mounted, using a screw that you furnish; the unit has a metal tab with a keyhole slot in it specifically for that purpose.



Because this product is designed to be operated from AC power only, this section is not necessary.



This is a decorative lamp meant to be used as a household lamp in a dry area, not as a flashlight meant to be carried around, thrashed, and abused, so I won't try to drown it in the toilet, bash it against a steel rod or against the corner of a concrete stair, let my housemate's kitty cat's ghost urinate or defecate on it, run over it with a 400lb Rascal, or perform other indecencies on it that a regular flashlight might have to go through. So this section of the web page will be significantly more bare than this section of the web page on a page about a flashlight.

The colors are generated not by having different gas chambers, but by three different phosphors inside that are energized when the electrical discharge passes directly over them. The actual spark is a very dim bluish-purple.

This product uses high voltage, so please do not use it outdoors or drop it into sinks, bathtubs, or toilets. If it fell in the toilet bowl or other water, unplug the AC adapter *BEFORE* reaching into the water to retrieve the lamp.
And if it falls to the floor and the glass becomes broken, unplug the AC adapter before trying to clean the area up.



Photograph of the product operating in subdued lighting.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the red sparks in this product.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the green sparks in this product.


Spectrographic plot
Spectrographic analysis of the blue sparks in this product.
USB2000 spectrometer graciously donated by P.L.



Quicktime clip (.mov extension) showing some of the Lightning Disk's patterns in manual mode.
This clip is approximately 4.5 megabytes (4,835,832 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.


QT clip (.mov extension) showing some of the Lightning Disk's patterns in audio detect mode.
This clip is approximately 4.4 megabytes (4,720,760 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than twenty three minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.
I cannot provide it in other formats, so please do not ask.

In this clip, the product was responding to the sounds from the TV near the end of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Ensigns of Command".




This is a video on YourTube showing what it looks like in "manual" mode.

This clip is approximately 12.388854547792 megabytes (12,536,788 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than sixty two minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.




This is a video on YourTube showing how "audio {sound}-sensitive" mode works.
The music from the Commodore 64 demo "PU********ED/TDM" that I wrote and released in late-1992 was used. The demo's actual filename is a toliet word, so I had to censor it here.

Think of a kitty cat being flogged with a long, extremely flexible instrument
used for administering a beating and you'll probably be able to figure it out.

This clip is approximately 38.988455237684 megabytes (37,775,706 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than one hundred ninety five minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.




Three plasma lamps in "audio-sensitive" mode reacting to a song from the coin-op arcade video game "Super Hang-On" made by Sega in 1992.

Lightning Disk
Wearable Pocket Plasma
Luminglas "Borg Lite"

This clip is approximately 56.222142389615 megabytes (56,418,504 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than two hundred eighty one minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.




This is a video on YourTube showing how "audio {sound}-sensitive" mode works -- again.
The unit is responding to music that my father was making on his synthesizer in the adjacent room.

This clip is approximately 40.923674592090 megabytes (41,087,644 bytes) in length; dial-up users please be aware.
It will take no less than two hundred four minutes to load at 48.0Kbps.

I cannot provide any of these videos in other formats; so please do not ask.



TEST NOTES:
Test unit was purchased at Wallgreens on 10-10-05. It was defective, so I exchanged it on the morning of 10-11-05.

Product was made in China. A product's country of origin really does matter to some people, which is why I published it on this web page.

The AC adapter is labelled to output 12 volts AC at 500mA.


UPDATE: 10-14-05
I decided to rate it 4 1/2 stars and place it in The Trophy Case on this website.
I rated it much more quickly than I might rate an LED or incandescent flashlight; this is pretty normal.


PROS:
Bright, vivid display
Low power consumption
Audio (sound) response mode really does work
Stays cool to the touch


CONS:
Glass disk can become broken, ruining the product
Uses high voltage - so please keep it away from water. Water & electricity don't play well together ya know!


    MANUFACTURER: Unknown/not stated
    PRODUCT TYPE: Decorative plasma lamp
    LAMP TYPE: Plasma-based disc
    No. OF LAMPS: N/A
    BEAM TYPE: N/A
    SWITCH TYPE: Slide switch on/off/mode change on back of base
    BEZEL: N/A
    BATTERY: N/A
    CURRENT CONSUMPTION: Unknown/unable to measure
    WATER- AND PIDDLE-RESISTANT: No
    SUBMERSIBLE: NO WAY HOZAY!!!
    ACCESSORIES: AC adapter
    WARRANTY: 1 year

    PRODUCT RATING:

    Star RatingStar Rating





Lightning Disk *






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