Turn One of Those Silly Plasma Globes Into a Flappy Bird Controller
Most people know plasma globes as dorm room décor. But it turns out they have another use as Flappy Bird controllers.
Those plasma globe lamp things traditionally have just two purposes: to act as educational toys that, I guess, show kids that electricity exists, and to act as futuristic props in the background of cheesy, low-budget sci-fi movies. Despite being little more than a novelty today, the electrical principles involved are actually pretty interesting. When Nikola Tesla invented the device, he patented it as a “single terminal lamp.” But most people since the ‘80s just know them as dorm room décor. As it turns out, however, a plasma globe lamp has another use as a Flappy Bird controller.
A plasma globe is a fairly simple device with a high-voltage electrode at its center that is driven by an alternating current. The glass sphere is filled with neon or other noble gases that help carry electricity from the electrode to the grounded surface of the glass sphere. The electric arcs create plasma filaments, which is what looks interesting. When you touch the glass sphere, you’re providing a better path to ground, which attracts some of the plasma filaments to the points you are touching. At the same time, that also increases the current draw. By measuring the current, you can detect when the plasma globe has been touched.
This guide takes advantage of that to turn the plasma globe into a button that is suitable for controlling simple games like Flappy Bird. In this case, a Pitaya Go IoT development board is used with a custom board that sits in line with the plasma globe’s power supply. Whenever the current draw jumps, that indicates that the globe is being touched. The Pitaya Go can then connect to a computer as a USB or Bluetooth Low Energy keyboard. From there, it’s a simple matter of deciding what you want that button press to do — like make a Flappy Bird clone flap its digital wings.