DIY Desktop Lightning Tower (USB rechargeable!) 

Your channel is brilliant, my grandson (7) and I watch it all the time, and we do some of them. My only (minor) complaint is that I wish you showed the circuit diagram, even if briefly (as ElectroBOOM does), so we can more easily copy it.

I just found your channel, but man. I absolutely LOVE what you do. Keep it up, man. You're a standout, brilliant dude.

Cuts and bruises on your hand shows your hard work and dedication to such experiments. 👏👏

As always, a fantastic job. I love the way you present your builds and experiments. I forsee many school science projects inspired by your work. Well done Jay, your are a champion.

I feel like your channel is extremely underrated and you should have like 100,000 subscribers after all of these high quality and informative videos.

How do you only have 22k subs for this high quality content?? Subbed! :)

Hooked up the tower properly and it works beautifully. You saved my lighter and no more shocks. Your assistance is most appreciated.

Hey there! Just finished making the Lightning Tower and the 3V Tesla Coil! Just posted my videos of me showing them off (I gave you credit in my description don’t worry!) Super fun projects that I had a blast making! Thank you so much for posting stuff like this that get me excited to be an EE student!

I got my voltage multiplier built and it works very good. I keep it at work where it generates a lot of questions. Thanks for sharing it with us.

My apologies for the messed up audio levels people. Somehow I messed up on normalizing the sound levels? Please comment on this pinned comment, if it bothered you enough that it merits a reupload. I need a poll. Yes, No?

MY SCIENCE TEACHER WAS SOOOO WOW WHEN I MADE THIS LIGHTNING THING,THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOULL GET A 4 MILLION SUBSCRIBER'S,I Hope for it but really thank you

I found this channel last night, and truly this channel is amazing.

I building a small 8 stage one with my 5ma diodes and gonna build the full 12stage with the 100ma, i’m using paraffin wax to seal the bottom to prevent leaks

“Carefully remove the lighter” *procedes to rip the lighter out of the case* cArEfUlLy

How am I just now finding you channel?! Awesome video... and may I add that you have a great sense of style too!

First of all I want to apologize that I forgot to turn on the notification because of which I missed this video. I'm here watching this after a long time it was uploaded. If I ever had to make a list of my top 10 favourite RU-vid channels, your channel will be in top 5. The simplicity of the instructions and the elaborate understanding of the steps u provide is the best thing I like about Plasma Channel. I don't know why your channel has only 12k subs. You deserve 12 million subs.

Most well dressed man in Plasma today...keep up the great video's :)

Class explaining class man class creation and you're good in soldering man

This is the best one i have seen ever before- I appreciate your way to teach or explain the project its really simple & easily understandable thanks for it . Three thumbs-up for you👍👍👍 & three thumbs-up for this project👍👍👍

Hey Jay, Love your channel!!! I made your voltage multiplier with 2 towers, 1 positive and the other negative and it works Awesome!! Keep up the great videos!! I hope you get that RU-vid play button!

Agent Jay' 👍 Gute' Danke für die Kommentare,Und Danke für die Schamatic...From KANSAS the land of Oz'ah's

can you tell which electrical ground the wire should connect to? The multiplier doesn't have a ground

Thanks for the video. I'm new to this stuff. Once all my capacitors and diodes came in I went to work right away building my own model. I was expecting it to explode but IT WORKED !! My arc is only about two inches but it's awesome. Thank you very much !!

My goodness....why doesn't this channel has a million subscribers already ?? You are awesome....

"How to make free energy" Well all this free energy comes from a powerplant, you still have to pay for it

Another question, when you have a moment: It's about frequency of the power supply vs recovery time of the diodes. Everywhere I look, the 2cl2j diodes are insanely expensive... but I have many different alternatives rated at up to 20kv. I was assuming that the 2CL2J diodes had a fast recovery time, but when I looked at the data sheet it isn't even quoted. What I have collected with limited funds: R5000 rated at 5kV and 2MHz recovery frequency. PRHVP2A-20 - rated at 20kV, unknown recovery time CL04-12 (MO diodes) rated at 12kv, 450mA - unknown recovery time I want to avoid wasting time and solder using components that will not work together. Do you think any of these rectifiers will be up to the task of an arc lighter, or should I make an inverter based on a 555-driven circuit limited to 2Mhz?

That's pretty groovy! I may put one together. Thanks.

Great build! I have electronics background and plan on building this with my sons, possibly building a 16 stage multiplier!

Im going to ask a dumb question here.... Where precisely did you hook up to the ground? I'd rather not burn up lighters if I dont have to.

Can you rexplain the procedure of fixing capacitors to board , It was hard to see

Being a (sometimes between jobs?) actor really does have some benefits. As an Electronics/IT R&D Engineer, I just don't have the time to do all the fun High Voltage ⚡⚡⚡ things that I used to do as a teen.

Hope you have a great 4th of July weekend Jay, I really enjoy your series and would like to build your multiper

Hi Jay. planning to make it can I use city power (220V) instead of an arc lighter? (ofc with a power button on the cable) And if I do that , the discharge must be connected to the ground?

Again a nice build! Will it zap you badly when the arc hits your finger?

You have such an awesome channel...Thanks for it!

I subscribed and liked this video, BECAUSE it's awesome! Keep doing more of such great things!

Can I use a fly swatter circuit?

Where did you get the figure of x2.8 from? A voltage multiplier adds 1x the input-voltage at ever stage. The lighter seems to give a higher output than you stated too.

Awesome to hear from you again

Really Awesome Plasma Channel...Design is so nice...i hope i will make it in future and also give cradit of you💓

Okay so it says "do it yourself" but it looks more like "don't try this at home" or is it just me?

I would like to build a voltage multiplier using one of those ebay musical tesla coil kits as the power source. Could you please do a tutorial video on how to do it? It will be such an awesome build to see if it would amplify the music as well as the spark. Thank you for your consideration. I've subscribed and followed, hope to see it someday, as I don't wanna injure myself trying to figure it out. ( ; D)

What you built was a Walton-Cockroft voltage multiplier. Multiplier is a misnomer, it's actually a voltage adder - it increases the offset of the AC waveform by the voltage of the primary source at each stage.

love watching your channel and made a few of your projects

scared in Current not in Volts 😊😊

fuel, electric y, and Chinese technology. what could go wrong? :D

Just discovered your channel and so far, so good :-) For educational purposes it would be great to see a DIY PSU in place of the lighter with its hidden internals, or at least a discussion on how the lighter is amplifying the battery voltage. Is this something you have covered? Thanks and keep up the great work.

Why doesn’t this guy have more subscribers, I like this stuff.

Hey sir, I'm 16 and my school is closed for some days and I don't want to waste my holidays I'm thinking to do some experiment like you .but i think all u do will harm and danger can you make a science video for students if you don't mind ....

I have built one of these lightning towers and powered it from an arc lighter DIY module which outputs 3-5 kV from 3-5 VDC input. The DIY module seems to be able to accept up to about 12 VDC for an even higher output to feed to the tower. I won't go much higher because the secondary windings of the small transformer might not be able to take much higher potential across them. Now, I'm planning to build a second one of these lightning towers. If you draw out the schematic to the lightning tower you will notice that you can mount the diodes in one of two ways. My first tower has the diode polarity such that it conducts negative voltage up the diode ladder resulting in a large negative DC voltage at the top load. I plan to build my second one with the diodes mounted in the opposite direction up the ladder to create a large positive DC voltage at the top load. Then if I common the ground points of the two towers I should end up with -60 kV at the top of one tower and +60 kV at the top of the other for a net potential difference of 120 kV between the two top loads. It should be possible to generate some pretty good sparks between the two top loads of the two towers. Not quite the 400 kV of the giant tower in the other Plasma Channel video but pretty good. Oh, by the way, I dripped some paraffin wax on the solder joints on the back of my first lightning tower to reduce corona losses from those. It's hard to eliminate all sharp points from the leads of the components. The paraffin insulates those and helps reduce losses. I considered using hot melt glue, it's easier and cleaner to apply, but I wasn't sure about the high voltage properties of it. Also if I ever had to replace a diode or capacitor I'd have to burn through that hot melt glue and it would be messy. I can scrape most of the wax away first if I ever need to make a component change.

Plasma channel rocks.👍

wonderful DIY video, great explanation THANK YOU!!

Your efforts are valuable , the result is top quality videos. . Many thanks

You made the video very neatly... 👌 nice and clean.

Wow this is awesome. I'm quite young and am not really sure what I want to do with my life but I am starting a few new hobbies. I'm really glad I found your channel because it inspires me to make things like this. Problem is I'm torn between the spark gap coil or this lol

This quality deserves at least a million subs...

great to see you after few weeks.

Your soldering is great, whenever i make multipliers the ends are a bit edgy and so i have leakage, but your solder joints are like completely round

Great build.

AWESOME!! Thank you! Can I use double volt multiplier set of capacitors/diodes for more distance of the arc?

I love your projects

A Plasma Channel.............! The gods are generous!

Did it works with a bubble aquarium on the top and your body connected to the exit wire without injuries ? This remembers me the plasma bowl that are sold

Awesome and Clean Build !

Nicely done! I built a 14 foot tall version a few years ago for a big contract.

Another awesome Vid. Thanks Jay! You’re the Don man. I was You was my science teacher when I was at school, I’d have learned so much more. Jay, question.... could you also use a similar system of diodes and capacitors to up a very low voltage (about 500-750mw) to something useable?

Very good Jay!

This is the best channel on youtube!

This is the best toy to have on desk and fry some usb drives. lol

Awesome tutorial have to build one of these.

Hi! Do you think that it would be possible to use an electric fly swatter circuit as the original HV voltage source instead of the lighter? Kind-of like in your museum mini tesla coil video.

exactly what i need to build an arc starter to welding .

This is amazing! I would really like to see a electrical circuit of that, I tried to understand in which way you connected the capacitors to the diode’s and I had no idea how you made it, I by myself want to build this so please upload a diagram or make a new video and try to explain a little more because some of the information was missed, thank you very much, i send it to improve!

How did I not see this video of your channel before? I made a Tesla Coil experiment some years ago, now I will try the resonance circuit with this tower instead of the coils, and a microwave transformer as PS. New suscriber. Thanks and greetings from Mexico.

Hi. Can you explain or give reference on the circuit design; meaning what actually happens when we give voltage to the circuit? Thank you and great video!

I have build a flyback transformer power supply and I'm gonna use to recreate this amazing project of yours. I'm blow all the kids mind in the neighborhood haha

was considered adding a resistor on top of multiplier to limit output current?

The bass following the spark explains the blasting thunder in large scale

Love this guy.

ty for all the info and trouble you go thru doing this and teaching others i had a question i wanted to know if you can connect multiple of these to increase he voltage even more? or is there a limit ? ty for your time mike

This is such a great project. I could not tell inbbthe build where the ground lead you talked about was built in though. Where should that be? And does the copper pipe at the top need to be a closed loop like that or can it be a cylinder extending up? Thanks for help and thanks for all the awesome videos!

Forgot I was subscribed to this channel along with keystone science

I guess one way to describe what's happening is like if you had a faucet hooked up to a bunch of reservoirs and then to top something to push out all at once cuz even though the faucet at the bottom output is very little the reservoirs hold the water and allow it all to blast out at once

The way it zig-zags down from above...Brother.....is that a man made mini "Tree of Life"? 😄😊🙏🏽🙏🏽

lol why not more subs, damn good video! instant subscribed

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen on RU-vid!!! This so amazing!!! I am not understanding where to connect the positive supply from the lighter and where to connect the other lose wire to get spark from the copper tube... can you please explain this... please

I really enjoy of watching this video (I watch it 20 time) ,👏🏽👏🏽 You really professional , But Can you Learn how we can wire this circuit for beginners like me 👋🏽Thank you Jay

how do the charges not run away from sharp points and also what did you do to your fingers!

Hi Jay, Again, a bit late to the party, Only one suggestion..... Ok, 2. 1 a circuit digram for those that don't know what multiplier you are using, and 2 where the circuits ground should be, I did not see you show it. Other than that a perfect delivery, Thank you for your hard work in making these videos.

Hey j, I'm building a version of the lightning tower I had a question the the top bolt is that connected to the copper on top Or does the proximity serve as a type of spark gap? thanks again keep up the good work love the videos

Hey Jay my arc lighter has four high voltage wires how do I make that work?

If you were to combine 16 mini teslas, would that increase the size of the spark gap. The spark gap of lightning seems limitless but obviously from the clouds to the ground.

love your videos...wishing a gift from you.lol

Is it okay to do it with 20 diodes and 20 capacitros and how do i know where is the ground of the multiplier

I used to work in a TV shop. A flyback transformer does the same thing and produces 30kv to charge a picture tube on an older tv but only milliamps of current so it's not lethal. If you accidently get popped by a picture tube discharging I guess its like being hit by the difibulator in the ER

You didn't show the connections on the top head which the copper pipes are located. Btw thanks for sharing this 😊

Where did you get that copper-less perf-board?

Sir Jay I say your all videos . I love your all videos 😮😇😇

Where is the electrical ground wire connected in the multiplier? Please help me.

This is awesome! I must build this! 🤘🏻😃