Hello folks!

I recently got inspired by a video of photoninduction on youtube (https://youtu.be/U4n5vmpFtXw?t=799) where he shows a SOX lamp in upright position, glowing neon red (not pink!) and making a waving motion. Now obviously I instantly went online to find me a SOX light. So now I have two 135W SOX lamps (1 is broken I think) and a 3KV 30mA neon transformer. I however run into the issue that first the SOX lamps light up pink, and not red, using the neon transformer. Does anyone know if I just have an older/newer type? Or why is that? Because after doing some research I can find videos with pink but also red ones. Second issue is the wavy effect and how to get it, I have no clue. I tried the neon transformer with with a 100 pF capacitor in parallel to limit the current more, and I manage to get the tube glowing with sortof standing waves which move a bit, like a dotted line. I am not much into AC stuff, but I have a bit of experience with tinkering with DC and LED lights, but the older technologies are a bit new to me, so all input is appreciated.

Kind regards,

Frank

Yeah, Photon does do some interesting things   
He did tell me once how he did that, but I can't remember offhand. Certainly in normal use, SOX lamps start getting redder as they approach EOL (end of life) so it may be that the lamp used was getting old, I don't know 
Personally, I just like lighting them up normally, they're wonderful to watch as they warm up 

Woah, that looks crazy.
 

Yeah, Photon does do some interesting things   
He did tell me once how he did that, but I can't remember offhand. Certainly in normal use, SOX lamps start getting redder as they approach EOL (end of life) so it may be that the lamp used was getting old, I don't know 
Personally, I just like lighting them up normally, they're wonderful to watch as they warm up 

Ah so my assumption of different versions was perhaps wrong, it ages to red. Thank you. Yeah lighting it up fully is also something I would love to do but damn I was not prepared for the insane prices of the electronics to do so. I was thinking I could maybe try to improvise a way of lighting it up, just to try it once. But I have no idea how. Thought maybe using half a transformer as an inductor might work, but I don't want to just guess and try since that will probably break a lamp which would be a shame.

Well with you being in Europe, you should be able to find the ballast to light one reasonably cheaply. There was one on UK eBay but it seems to have sold, but you should be able to find something.

I'm just gonna make some assumptions off personal observations, but it appears Photon is using some kind of High-Frequency flyback driver to run the lamps and achieve that swirling effect. The way those arcs are shaped and how they shift around are characteristic of a high frequency power supply, much like how a plasma ball operates. Arcs only "fly around" like that at high frequency, and this can be proven by running a plasma ball on 50/60Hz. It just won't work. In addition, he probably has some kind of frequency tuning adjustment to achieve the optimal result.

As far as how he got it to stay bright red? That's just a characteristic of EOL SOX lamps. (Lower gas pressure). They make wonderful mood lights! I have two EOL bright red 180w lamps I might do this with. They look beautiful on an NST, and since it is low frequency, they striate instead of swirl.

Like I said, he told me how he did it once, but it was a couple of years ago and I don't remember.