IW blower 4 - 3d printing test

This is the first attempt to play some music using this new ion wind blower. Yes, I did not try switching it on before pressing record. Well, I have set up the amplifier, though, it required some tweaks.

So I got some sound. But sparking is a big problem. The blower works very well at DC. But as soon as I start modulating the current with music, sparks appear. Disappointed =(

I'll try to figure out, what's going wrong. I suspect the sparking may be provoked by discharges around insulation of high-voltage wires that go to the amplifier.

Probably a boring video. Just playing with it by varying voltage. Don't even have a voltmeter set up.

The LED behind the blower is connected in series with the blower, to serve as a simple current sensor. Also there is a 200k resistor in series, to make sparks less loud and annoying. Though, this causes arcs instead of sparks. This may cause damage by melting plastic, but so far so good.

The blower is quite noiseless. You should be able to notice clock ticking if you set the volume high.

It didn't melt the plastic, great. But I was curious to know, how much does it actually heat up. So I took my thermal imager, fired the blower up, and... NOTHING! I barely can see the corona wires on the thermal imager. What tha?! How can that be possible?

I can't say I'm disappointed. In fact, it is much better than I could imagine! COLD PLASMA =)))

model design went through two iterations already. First one was printed, fails noted, design modified and changed parts reprinted.

The problems were:

* mating system between basket and backplate was not working (too weak, and wasn't fitting, so I broke it attempting to put them together)

* rib on the frame was too small. If I put the mesh in between, the ribs won't cover the basket.

See that ring of plastic that detached off the basket? FAIL.