Thought you might like to see my latest creation!

lbstyling

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I'm behind you.
hi,
ok, not your average speaker ill grant you, but i had a lot of spare time on my hands lately so i built this-

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc308/lbstyling/carscooter078.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc308/lbstyling/carscooter076.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc308/lbstyling/carscooter075.jpg

its actually quite simple - i attached a driver at one end and a passive radiator at the other. the tube is pumped with gas and this gas escapes through the (very!) fine holes along the top.
when you play music/ a signal through the speaker, and light the gas- the flames play the music (the tube resonates at the frequency- like a flute in reverse)
showing you the waveform.
The maths is a little more complicated than that - but you get the idea.
plays a good output at 10hz!!!!!

-just thought i would mention- this was done in the lab- so a good safe environment. -I couldnt suggest anyone try this at home unless you realy know what your doing.

gas and unstable pressure arn't friends with carpet.
 
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I can see the matching centre being a complete bastard to site beneath a screen. Any plans for a dipole surround?

Getting serious; How does a 10Hz wave fit in the tube?

Russell
 
I can see the matching centre being a complete bastard to site beneath a screen. Any plans for a dipole surround?

Getting serious; How does a 10Hz wave fit in the tube?

Russell

you would want to check the 'fire retardant' ticket twice for sure.

- a sound wave doesnt need to be produced by a object physically the size of the wave- if it did, sub drivers would be 10m wide.
have a look into baffle step compensation (bsc) if your interested in how this works.

10hz is 10 cycles of in and out per second- so thats all the presure does- pumping a flame in and out at this 'speed'- looks like strobe lighting when you do it.:zonked:
 
I am NOT letting my 7 year old boy see those photos he has enough ideas....

Really cool :smashin:
 
you would want to check the 'fire retardant' ticket twice for sure.

- a sound wave doesnt need to be produced by a object physically the size of the wave- if it did, sub drivers would be 10m wide.
have a look into baffle step compensation (bsc) if your interested in how this works.

10hz is 10 cycles of in and out per second- so thats all the presure does- pumping a flame in and out at this 'speed'- looks like strobe lighting when you do it.:zonked:

I understand bsc well enough - I'm trying to clarify if you are talking about the visual or acoustic sense when saying it plays at 10Hz. Visually, I'm sure it looks mental, but acoustically, I'm wondering exactly how it shifts enough air to provide anything more than a visual clue that 10Hz is playing.

The other thought I had was that this could be to the stereo boys what a Buttkicker is to the HC boys - ie, largely irrelevant, but damn good fun and it would be interesting to watch whilst listening to church organ.:)

Russell
 
I understand bsc well enough - I'm trying to clarify if you are talking about the visual or acoustic sense when saying it plays at 10Hz. Visually, I'm sure it looks mental, but acoustically, I'm wondering exactly how it shifts enough air to provide anything more than a visual clue that 10Hz is playing.


Russell

Glad you like it!

I havent put it through a actual measured sweep test, but you can visualy see its outputting a signal when playing a 10hz sine wave- but what i hear may well be a 2nd or 3rd harmonic of the input (ie 20 or 30 hz)
what you actualy hear when playing is the pipe resonating- so i cant see why 10hz isnt plausable either.-obviously the spl is way down at this point due to the nature of frequency/spl/power like any speaker.

I wish i took a video as watching it cycle through frequencies shows a mesmerising pattern change.

I havent tried it yet but i could use different gasses to get different colour flames too.- not sure on the changes needed related to molicule density etc - ill look into that one.:smashin:

Im sure a true analogue flame spectrum analiser is possible too.
 
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Kudos mate, that's ingenious! Well done!

You should post this in the General Chat, they'll love it in there!
 
My first thought was jesus whats he on, followed a few seconds later by actually thats quite cool (and dangerous:D) what does it sound like?

hmm- well its not hi fi thats for sure. The driver in it isnt very high quality- so i cant say what is possible, but it can play music properly- as well as your average bush all in one hifi unit at any rate.- you wouldnt go this route for critical listening anyway though.

1st attempt at running it I discovered a leak in the membrane that caught on the flame and gave me a couple of flashes- but its fairly safe as long as the tube is purged of air before you light it.
worst thing i can think of would be if there was a hole at the bottom and a gas thats lighter than air (helium) was used instead- that could go bang.:D
 
Any intension's of doing this with acetylene :devil:.
 
I'm sure I've seen one of these on the telly. Was it yours? If not, was it the inspiration? Big respect either way.:smashin:
 
Though I'm not sure what you would search for, I'm sure of seen several videos on YouTube demonstrating these devices.

Here is an example -

YouTube - Flaming Tube 2009 HD

Over on the right side of the page you will see links to many other 'flame tube' videos. It is really pretty interesting to see.

It is called a Ruben's Tube.

Steve/bluewizard
 
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