Sooner or later, every electronics enthusiast will want to play with high voltage. Most likely they'll end up improvising something using parts from a microwave oven or the flyback of an old CRT, and honestly, getting sparks isn't the hardest part. In fact, we've already seen cases where they 'charge' phones with a million volts, but this time it's about 100,000 volts applied to a perfboard. If it weren't so dangerous, the light pattern would be beautiful to have as decoration...
When you think of high voltage, one of the first things that comes to mind is the high-voltage transmission line network. In the past, the wonderful madmen of Kreosan demonstrated how to charge a phone using those lines, but we also explored their layout up close with drones, and the risk associated with their maintenance during the installation of separators. The other alternative is to go the Tesla coil route. Building one is among the most attractive and demanding DIY projects, however, there is the possibility of acquiring coils as kits for an average of 100 euros. Now, what we're sharing here today is not a high-voltage line, nor a Tesla coil, but it has the risk, it has the sparks, and it has the visual appeal.
A power supply, a rectifier, a couple of MOSFETs, two ignition coils, and 100,000 volts to play with. Of course, the coils won't last long under such pressure... but just long enough to create beautiful light patterns using a perfboard as a 'bridge', a simple PCB used in prototyping. As expected, electricity tries to follow the path of least resistance, and not a diagonal, which makes the patterns even more random. Playing the video at 960 frames per second, the definition and clarity between one pattern and another increases.
I imagine there are different ways to make the whole device friendlier to physical integrity and general health of the user, but unless Drake Anthony (also known as styropyro) wishes to make a second part, this should serve as a reference. To close, the same recommendation as always: Be very careful if you try to reproduce the device, the idea is to have fun and learn, not to end up in the hospital (or worse, six feet under).
