plasma plate installs

[clickhea]

how are you guys mounting your plasma plates?

iam looking at the 6" ones they have some huge square pack behind it.

[Fordman]

Here's how I did mine.

Take a router and recess a hole the diameter of the plasma plate. The cut a hole big enough for the square part to pass through and to plug it in. Take some clear epoxy (fancy word for glue) and glue the back side of the plate to the recessed area. It will look flush & clean and no one will know how you did it.

I hope this helps! 

Fordman

 

[unclet]

Go to this link and click on the "Photos" link on the bottom:

http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/DadsJukebox/DadsJukeboxMain.html


If you look at picture 26 and 27 you should understand how I mounted used two pieces of wood to insert the plasma plate on the side of my cabinet.  If you then look at picture 50 you can see how I mounted it in place.  i did this to all 3 of my plasma plates and they are firmly attached.

PS:  I do not like gluing anything in case things break and need replacing.

[Fordman]

Glue is just one option, you could use velcro or mount them the way UncleT did. I see that UncleT has also used a router and recessed the plates for a flush finish.


Just 2 ways to do it. I'm sure there are others! 

Fordman

[unclet]

No router .... just used a jigsaw to cut out a circle .... but it is the same idea.   

[clickhea]

thanks alot guys


uncle thats exactly the idea i had in mind, thank you

[clickhea]

hey uncle, if you dont mind me asking.. where did you end up buying yours?

iam having some issues finding your model

[unclet]

I got all 3 blue Lumin disks from Ebay.   I waited forever and finally found good deals.  It seems blue is the hot color so it is hard to find good deals when I was looking.  Eventually I got lucky, although I had to buy them all individually.   

I know the store "Spencer Gifts" at the mall carries the 6" Lumin Disks for $19.99
I looked at their online site and cannot find them though.  Perhaps they only sell them in the mall or perhaps they no longer sell them at all   

[clickhea]

thanks for your help uncle

[Barry Barcrest]

I mounted mine with sticky pads LOL. I have since dropped them in the final build as one died and they seemed to tempremnetal.

[panama1974]

  What is the cost of this dish in United States? I believe in my country that is very difficult to achieve.

[saint]

hey uncle, if you dont mind me asking.. where did you end up buying yours?

iam having some issues finding your model

Thinkgeek.com
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/362c/

[unclet]

Does thinkgeek charge a shipping cost as well?  If so, then it is getting quite expensive for a 6" plasma plate.   Of course this is my opinion.

[Barry Barcrest]

Does thinkgeek charge a shipping cost as well?  If so, then it is getting quite expensive for a 6" plasma plate.   Of course this is my opinion.

Damn shipping to the UK is more than the cost of the item  Ebay does seem to hold the best deals on these.

[hobsonschoice]

I am also concerned about the size of the big box at the back of these,
anybody know the actual depth of it? (6inch model)

Just ordered this one from ebay, will let you know how it is,
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=330331602691

Iam not sure i like the way the gauze is so apparent in these photos, anyway i shall see when it arrives if i will go ahead and use it,

The other option i am considering is the speaqualiser but need some feedback from others on that first.

http://www.computergear.com/computergear-speaqualiser-frame.html

[unclet]

By memory I think the depth of the box on the back is about 3/4"

[hobsonschoice]

wow is that all?
Well i can live with that, I plan to splice into the 12v dc supply and rig up a couple of coloured PC casing fans of the same supply.

[Fordman]

The plasma plates are AC! So you cant wire them off the PC power Supply!

Just thought I bring that up!

Fordman

[unclet]

I have a main power strip which is turned on all the time which comes out of my jukebox cabinet and gets plugged into the wall.   I have other secondary power strips in my cabinet which plug into this main power strip.  These secondary power strips are all split to switches (ie: buttons) I installed so I can turn on/off the power to them.  I then plug in my plasma plates, etc... to these secondary power strips which can then be controlled by the switches on the outside of my cabinet.   

PS:  I also ran wires from the PC's power button to a button on the outside of my cabinet so I can turn on/off my PC without having to go into the cabinet.

[hobsonschoice]

Likewise,
I have a power stip within the Jukebox, so i shall plug the 12v adpter into it, I will be splicing the 12v out wire to feed both the plasma dish and two PC fans.
Would have been great if i could have got the fans to come on and off as in a pc, but as stated, this is a 12v dc supply and my jukebox is running on a laptop MoBo so only 5v available there. hence can't wire in to it.

[hobsonschoice]

Wish i could have hacked the on/off button on the laptop too,i have to settle for the standby switch which is easily hackable and extend that to the outer box.
The standby switch is the little knob that depresses when you close a laptop lid, the nice thing about them is they are pluged into the Mobo and you can chop of the connected micro and replace with your own.

I have that set up on my mame machine and it works a treat.

[hobsonschoice]

Right then,
6 inch Plasma plate arrived yesterday evening form hong kong so heres my experience.

Opening it up it seems like a nice solid sturdy piece of glass and the box on the back really is not as big as all the pictures lead you tro believe.

So plugged it all in and switched it on. There are three switch positions, ON/Sound/Off
The on postion gives you a continous dancing array as you would expect and reacts, somewhat to you finger touchs, nothing really impressive though.

I bought this to place in the front of a Jukebox so my interest is with the sound reactions.
Switched it to sound mode, Nada, wiggled switches, carefully sliding it to very possible postion whilst shouting at it for a reactuion,still nada,
Absolutely no response to sound at all.
OK, Looking at the back there are 4 screws in the plastic housing so i undid them to reveal small , rather, shoddily constructed circuit board. My intention was to check the solder points on the slide switch and also locate the built in Microphone.

The switch looked soldered ok, although not exactly seated level but the pins were solid.
Moving on to the tiny microphone. There are two pins that attach the Mic to the circuit board, One of these was detached from the base of the Mic, so in efect there was no mic.

Out with the trusy sldering iron and twenty mins later i have removed the Mic and using some telephone wire extended it out of the unit so that i can place it in a more appropriate and receptive place later.

One word of warning.!
THERE IS A CAPACITOR on the circuit board which is just waiting to discharge itself on you, so be careful as it zapped me good, wasn't expectng it and it made me laugh, but still, had a hefty discharge on it. Lol.
You've been warned.

The only other thing worth noting is that the HT lead that connects the glass dish to the circuitr board seems very fragile and i would expect moving it a dozen times or so would snap off and render the dish useless.

Anyway, once the unit was reassembled i switched it back onto sound mode and shouted
"YOU'RE NOT VERY WELL MADE ARE YOU" to which it flickered back in agreement.
hope this helps.

[Fordman]

I had one also that zapped the heck out of my 3 year old after I installed it into my jukebox.  I didnt bother messing with it, but was lucky to have a Spencer's Gifts at the mall and had taken it back. The Mgr of the store wanted to test it out, she plugged it in, and ZAP! She quickly gave me a new one off the shelf! 

Fordman

[Barry Barcrest]

The only other thing worth noting is that the HT lead that connects the glass dish to the circuitr board seems very fragile and i would expect moving it a dozen times or so would snap off and render the dish useless.

I had one die after using it twice. Give it a whack and it flickers. I assume it is the connection to the glass plate as everything else looks fine. I ended up not using them as they don't seem to reliable enough.

[hobsonschoice]

Reminds me of my youth when i was mending TV's, The ones with Valves and big capacitors.
Me and a work mate were always leaving charged capacitors around in booby traps trying to zap each other, even in cigarette boxes.(ones with gold foil coatings). We were scared tto death to touch anything most of the time, lol.
We'd get done by health and safety these days of course. (Sigh)

[clickhea]

i have both my plates running off the pc powersupply with no problems.