WASP 250 RF-excited plasma lamp teardown 

I actually like the fact that they chose to use WAGO connectors on this as it makes it much faster to repair or service in the field. In any sort of theater equipment, fast serviceability is an important selling point. These connectors don't really add any measurable amount of resistance at the power levels we are talking and they tend to hold very secure with stranded or tinned wire. You can pull solid wire out of them but you really have to want it.

Those wago terminals are actually a lot better than they look at first. A lot faster then screw terminals, they don't damage the wire at all and the grip is extremely good. Those are called the wago 222, and there is a new version with a little bigger levers called wago 221. I gave away all my screw connectors after I found these.

Very nice! Search for "sulfur plasma lamp" for a similar (same?) technology.

That reflector is a high quality electroformed nickel typically used with xenon short-arc lamps for its precision and resistance to UV radiation. The "AQ" refers to the reflective coating - vacuum deposited aluminium with protective quartz overcoat. This gives higher reflectivity in the visible range over the more standard electrodeposited rhodium but at the cost of lower durability.

that same RF excited process was used in certain projection tv's throughout their time. very interesting technology.

There's a slight pwm-type noise just under 16kHz when you have the camera near the back of the operating light (~3:30 mark). Was that audible or was it the camera picking up the EMI? I wonder if those filter screens kill the EMI. Maybe you need to run with those in place to meet FCC requirements. If you get a chance in the next vid it would be funny to see if it will work as a an ISM jammer and/or see if it will pick up on an FM radio. (Would also be cool to see if you can compare the spectrum output of these lights vs. LEDs if there's a convenient way to do it.) Neat teardown, looks like a pretty robust bit of kit. Thanks to the Hive folks for sending it to you!

the gasket is made of Graphite, it is good for HF and heat transfer i use it to heat couple wave guides for high power etc.

Great teardown. I was wondering about these lights.

very interesting light lighttechnology. thanks for the teardown

The mesh discs are called "Scrims" and are a way of attenuating the light output.

Neat, I have some of the luxim prototype units. They run off 12v which makes them pretty portable.

What a nice piece of kit.

I used to own 2 television sets that used this technology, they were built by Panasonic under their "Lifi" range to highlight "Luxim Lifi" plasma discharge lamps. They offered a 5 year lamp warranty, and the units they built were unreliable for one reason or another (Never got more than one year out of the lamps). I believe the problem was with their RF feedback circuitry. The lamps were not a user serviceable part and it was like talking to a brick wall when dealing with the service department of my big box store who needed to have their hands held dealing with Panasonic since it was not a standard part and I had an extended warranty through the store, but that is another story. Interesting thing, I took one of the lamps apart years later, there is a "Radioactive Materials" sticker on the inside of the lifi 4000 case indicating Krypton-85, which I assume is in the capsule of the discharge pill, and I am guessing your unit is the same way. The light quality from those things is awesome though when they work. The unit I had was a module with everything needed including the lamp built into a very well machined aluminum case.

Those wago push-in connection blocks have an orange latch on them to firmly lock the wires in place.

Great! In the 70cm ham band. Thanks Hive!

Great vid! The RF part should be using ceramic substrate for lower loss and better heat conductivity. It would be fun to place the lamp in our meeting room and disable all those laser pointers working at the same band.

Now that I'm thinking about it perhaps those metal screens are for RF shielding... Just a thought... Another thought is that it's too bad those aren't DMX controllable...

can you determine if the quartz lamp outputs any UV light and if so what it's spectrum would be? I'm wondering if this lamp setup might be a substitute for mercury or xenon arc lamps that are used for their UV output. mercury and xenon lamps used for microscopy have relatively short lifespans, sometimes only a few hundred hours. they also require a minimum runtime and a minimum cool down time lest they explode. I'm wondering if this lamp design has those same limitations.

I had no idea projects could back each other, that's really cool, also, the lamp is freaking awesome.

according to the website it's those wire meshes that were in the bag that are supposed to block the em.

Interesting that there was less RF voodoo than usual. I guess for an application where you don't need precision modulation you don't need to do much to the signal. Very cool technology, thanks for the teardown!

Awesome piece of tech, I wonder however why they didn't help adjust he color change by adjusting some forced air cooling

+tesla500 16:52 That chip is likely not an RF generator. I'm pretty sure it is an LM25007MM (datasheet says the marking is SLYB, and it's in a VSSOP package). It's a buck voltage regulator. That's why you see the decent sized inductor next to it! :D My guess is that the RF generator might be that SOT23-5 device that you see near the center of the unit, in the area of the TO-89 package device. I also noticed the coil-whine type noise as well. Is that coming from the lamp or the power supply? Very annoying, at least for me, with my relatively sensitive ears. (my headphones are at a comfortable level too)

What is the problem with that much power being radiated? It will jam the 436mhz frequency for other devices that are using it?

The connector is an Amphenol SP-4-FN. Typically used as a speaker connector for PA systems (called "speakon", originally made by Neutrik)

Regarding the non-FCC compliance, have you made sure the 433 MHz RF driver is earthed as well as the Luxim resonator, the RF cox and so ?

Funny that you complain about Wago terminal blocks - I'm guessing you haven't worked with them much. They are extremely reliable and quite expensive, and they do the job exceptionally well.

Can you check the RF emissions on the one you didn't take apart, since you were talking about how it passed RFI certification?

The linked Luxim pdf details pretty specific burn orientation whereas their site FAQ says orientation doesn't matter - I wonder which is correct...

I have one of these lights, and the temperature is skewing a lot blue (I'm getting 11000k on the 5600k setting). Do you know if there is something I might be able to adjust on the unit to fix this by any chance?

I really want to know what the transmitter element looks like. I guess you can't smash that ceramic apart huh.

I hope to see this lamp on youre set

while it does make the construction feel a little garage factoryish those wago terminals are incredibly robust. they have video of a torture test where the entire wiring melts around the terminal but it still holds.

hi are you going to test the rf output of the lamp you didn't take apart to compare

the stuff around the lamp module is most likely thermal paste and graphite heat conducting tape. This is used to transfer the heat to the heatsink. So a tight fit is necessary :-)

Tesla, did you do a RF test of the final unit to see the radiated emissions?

very nice, thank you

how efficient is this compared to LEDs? the heat sinking looks pretty minimal.

Can anyone explain the annotation at 19:25? He says it is 70dBuV/m at 30m which is the same as 100dBuV/m at 3m. But I thought the power followed the inverse square law, and so moving 10 times closer to the source would yield 100 times more power, which is only a 20 decibel increase instead of the 40 he shows. I appreciate if anyone can point out the flaw in my reasoning.

Exciting.

Actually, those wire connectors are Wago levernuts. I agree that something more permanent would be best for production, but those are much better than a wire nut or crummy electrical tape splice.

I was wondering what the advantages of an RF excited lamp are over a conventional arc lamp or metal halide.

that looks like a lead gasket or graphite . a regular thermal compound would not fair well in an rf system , its probly used as a heat paste to give good thermal conductivity , doubt its an rf shield but hey im speculating too my friend, love your work

Did you compare the RF output with your stock light?

Did you test the RF output of the other light to see it it is any less noisy?

Is the "coil whine" type of sound as noticable in person as it was in the video while you had the lamp on? (For example- when you adjusted it down at 5:57 it really seemed to screech) SUPER interesting lamp, though if the coil whine is as noticable as in the video, it would drive me "up the wall".

What would happen if you hooked that up to an1/4 wave antenna? Could you just take an antenna that is the perfect length for that frequency and make it transmit? Or would a little tiny difference in SWR just cause it to blow up in 1 second? Would be cool to turn it on for 1 second and see how far away you could pick it up.

It seems these companies disappear, links are dead, any ideas why and whether some other companies follow the product?

powerCon is the name of the power connector. probably the powerCon True1 model.

That awfully high pitched noise though... (around 3:00)

Those are not push-in connectors btw, those are the lever type. And hey if they are good enough for wiring in a house, it's good enough for a 200W lamp

how can i get the sample? can you sell it to me ?

While this technology may have had a market niche many years ago I'm not sure it still does? What can it do that LEDs can't without the massive RF issues? High power RF is problematic for multiple reasons.

Why use such expensive connectors?

Those look to be Neutrik connectors. Perhaps speakON or powerON series?

enjoyed vid. awesome light and narration. are u an electronical engineer by chance?

i still am surprised by how many American residents head void if removed stickers. they dont apply in the US, im not sure about Canada though.

What is rf?

Better than LED?

Seems like when you ran the one you didn't take all the way apart it was making noise on your camera.

The concentrated light from these is awsome for microscope use, the laser driven lights are better though. 😁😎❤

Cool tech, but when LEDs start pushing 150lm/W why bother? High CRI probably. Other lamps had its capsule rotate, that was kinda cool.

why didn't you put the antena on your osciliscope next to the one that passed certification and see what the difference is between that one and the one you took apart ?

I'd be concerned about being in situ with that amount of RF power. Very impressive, though. I love seeing the insides of RF gear.

looks like good old lead tape used an rf block.

The theatre connector is a Neutrik PowerCon connector, similar in design to their Speakon audio connector but keyed differently to avoid accidental cross wiring of power and speaker outputs!

0:55 the cable connector is called "Speakon" www.google.com/search?q=speakon+connectors

also what is RF

Why is there the fake CE icon the RF generator altough it looks alright?

is that a record number 5 on your bench? I like your taste

Those are called powercon connectors

I guess that color control is a pretty literal color temperature control adjusting the black-body radiation.

did he said RF porn?

13:29 It's tapered.

40Lm/W

Just wondering - doesn't these companies that send you stuff for review and teardown are not quite disappointed about you pointing out their engineering flaws AND potentially giving away their trade secrets for engineering?

Just like a DVD player, In 6 years it will be worth 50 bucks.

11:36 - Hopefully there is no beryllium oxide in that lamp!

Thermal paste

> EMI > IP67 rating please keep in mind that not every viewer is aware of all those abbreviations. i had to look that up and it would definitely be worthwhile spending 2 seconds to briefly mention what those mean in the video.