Rabbit Systems support/repair of Eye of the Storm ionized gas globe
Paul Atwell
Hello,
I have an Eye of the Storm, ionized glass globe, that has a blown flyback
transformer. The globe was manufactured by Rabbit Systems of (I believe)
California. This company used to make gadgets for TVs, VCRs, home stereos,
and their realted IR remotes. Attempts to find this company have failed.
Does anyone know where Rabbit Systems is now, or what happened to them?
Or, does anyone know a good supplier of flyback transformers?
Any news would be greatly appreciated!! Thank You! ---Paul
Paul Grohe
In the newsgroup sci.electronics.repair.
paul...@delphi.com (Paul Atwell) from
Paxson Communications thoughtfully posted:
> Hello,
> I have an Eye of the Storm, ionized glass globe, that has a blown flyback
> transformer. The globe was manufactured by Rabbit Systems of (I believe)
> California. This company used to make gadgets for TVs, VCRs, home stereos,
> and their realted IR remotes. Attempts to find this company have failed.
>
> Does anyone know where Rabbit Systems is now, or what happened to them?
> Or, does anyone know a good supplier of flyback transformers?
Paul, (great name! :^)
Radio Shack had similar trendy little devices under their name a little while
back. They did sell Rabbit products.
RS# 42-3035 "Illuma-Storm" (from 1992 catalog)
Square base, 14" high, built in microphone, two slider pots on the lower right
hand corner, and a power button on the bottom right.
Sound like it?
If so, give RS a call and see if they have the replacement HV transformer (be
sure to specify the HV transformer!).
http://support.tandy.com/quick.html
Good Luck!
Cheers,
Paul Grohe
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Sam Goldwasser
> I have an Eye of the Storm, ionized glass globe, that has a blown flyback
> transformer. The globe was manufactured by Rabbit Systems of (I believe)
> California. This company used to make gadgets for TVs, VCRs, home stereos,
> and their realted IR remotes. Attempts to find this company have failed.
If you cannot locate Rabbit, post the numbers on the flyback - there is
a very slight chance that it is a relatively standard model.
BTW, how do you know the flyback is bad?
An alternative is to rebuild the power supply using readily available
components. The following book has plans for similar devices:
"Build your own working FIBEROPTIC INFRARED AND LASER SPACE-AGE
PROJECTS" By Robert E. Iannini $17.95. Published 1987 by TAB books. ISBN 0-8306-2724-3.
Your library may have a copy.
See the "Various Schematics and Diagrams" for some HV generator designs at:
http://www.paranoia.com/~filipg/HTML/REPAIR/ (in the USA)
mirrored at this URL in Italy:
http://ftp.cised.unina.it/pub/electronics/REPAIR/ (better for Non-USA)
--- sam (s...@stdavids.picker.com)
> Does anyone know where Rabbit Systems is now, or what happened to them?
> Or, does anyone know a good supplier of flyback transformers?
> Any news would be greatly appreciated!! Thank You! ---Paul
David Willard
In article <540k84$m...@news2.delphi.com>, paul...@delphi.com
says...
>
>Hello,
>I have an Eye of the Storm, ionized glass globe, that has a
blown flyback
>transformer. The globe was manufactured by Rabbit Systems of (I
believe)
>California. This company used to make gadgets for TVs, VCRs,
home stereos,
>and their realted IR remotes. Attempts to find this company
have failed.
>
to them?
>Or, does anyone know a good supplier of flyback transformers?
>
>Any news would be greatly appreciated!! Thank You! ---Paul
>
Basically, you can scavenge a flyback from just about any old
television or monitor and drive it with a pair of 2n3055 NPNs at
12V. Just wire your own primaries/feedbacks on the exposed iron
core. Add a voltage tripler for even brighter effects. I've done
this for 4K-30KV output. Check the article about the Eye of the
Storm kit in Radio Electronics magazine (circa 4/1990?). It was
a cover article. The overcomplicated ciruit they used had a
2N3904 an a 2N3906 transistors driving a simple flyback, but
supports brightness, density and sound activation.
In Robert Ianninni's book, "Build Your own Laser, Phaser,
Ion-ray gun." There is a simple solid-state tesla coil that can
drive a plasma globe. For real men, just mount the thing near a
1KW Tesla coil and illuminate it as such.
In all seriousness though, working with HV of this type can
sting like a mother , and possibly stop your heart if you really
foul-up. Don't replace the flyback with something odd since it
probably won't match pin for pin, and the load might just draw
too much current.
The Radio Shack catalog # is 42-3035 for a replacement or
service manual. Don't be fooled that you can't get the service
manual directly from any Radio Shack. Just ask the salesperson
for part MS-42-3035 or SM-42-3035. 1-800-THE-SHACK for getting
parts/service manuals. My suggestion would be to replace the
entire guts.
