[XCSSA] Plasma fractal...

[X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio]

On Friday 05 June 2009, X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio wrote:
> The whole right side was formed in 10-15 minutes...
>
> It starts out as a tiny line branching out and then starts "fractaling".
> The stem is growing the longer the branching is continuing.
> If the branching stops, spray some water next to the nail and another
> branch will come out in that direction...

Cools stuff Fredrik.. I created some patterns like this on accident" as a kid 
when playing with my neon sign and furnace "francformers" (I think they were 
called).

My question to you.. since this is high freq (30kHz-ish?), was the direction 
of the pattern always back to the transformer?  In other words.. when you 
created the pattern.. was the HV board in the general direction of the burn 
marks?  Just curious.  If so.. then the water wasn't so much as a grounding 
plane as much as it was just a conductive path back to the reference ground 
of the board (or any near by ground planes), I would think.

Yeah.. it's funny to see how after a leg of the burn mark is set.. how the 
arcs preferentially follow those burn marks since they are now more 
conductive than the non burned board.  This is why I'm surprised that you 
didn't end up with just one or two hard burn marks.  I guess the water 
helps "spread" the pattern a bit more initially eh?

Have you tried a medium saline solution yet?  I bet that would get you higher 
resolution patterns.  Sounds fun man. :)

Tweeks