Inside A Cold Spark Machine [CryoFX® Inside A Cold Spark Fountain]
Inside A Cold Spark Machine
What’s up guys, welcome to CryoFX YouTube channel and our how-to video series. This one is a video that’s not really how to, but it’s called inside a cold spark machine or inside a cold sparkler machine. Whatever you want to call it, we’re going inside the machine, and we’re going to show you exactly how this thing works and the different parts that are inside it. So, this is a cold spark machine, this is the outside and the same exact machine is over to my right, your left.
Internal Components of a Cold Spark Machine
That is this machine, and it’s taken apart as you can see. What we’ve done is already take the screws off. We’ve taken the outer cold spark machine case off, as you see here. We’ll set this aside and I want to dive in and show you exactly how this thing works. You have the front panel here. You have the electronics that are over here, and all these wires actually go to something. Now, these wires are taken apart for other videos otherwise, they would normally be zip tied up and a little bit nicer.
As you can see, the back side of your power cons here, your DMX, your DMX board which is right here then you have your PCB or your logic board or your computer board whatever you want to call that. You have some other items up here that control the heating element, that control the fans and the only one that is not plugged in which goes right here is the other fan. This is because I’ve taken that apart and for the purpose of this video and of course some of the other items.
The Switch and Fuse
Your on and off switch is right there, and what else? Then you got your fuse. Your fuse right here, so those are the basic items that are inside, at least on the circuit board. Without getting too detailed, I could go in farther, but it would probably bore you on this video. So, we’ll do another one on that later, now looking at the cold spark machine itself. You have one side here which you have this belt drive behind this plate which I can move this up and down.
Normally, you cannot do that, but for the purpose of this video, these four screws are loosened up so that I can move the motor, the drive motor up and down. In addition, the drive motor moves this band which turns this wheel and this wheel ultimately turns the heating element. Now this wheel’s made out of aluminum and because aluminum dissipates heat you want the heat to stay inside the heating element and not heat up this band for obvious reasons.
The Cooling Mechanism
You also have a fan right here which blows on this band and which blows on this as well to cool it down. This is because this entire rod right in the center where my finger is all the way through is what’s surrounded by the heating element. What you see here is just the one side of this, if you kind of come around to the other side here, we’ll be able to take a look at the features and the internal parts from the top down.
The Granule Funnel
So let’s go, this is where you put the granules, which is similar to this over here. So, you dump the granules in here as you can see, this slopes down there is a corkscrew underneath. That’s right here, you cannot see it. It’s driven by this motor. This motor drives that corkscrew forward and into this funnel. This funnel is open on top, it’s a little great or type of screen if you will, to allow nothing else to get in but to allow air in. This is because the granules funnel down into this funnel, they go into this piece right here.
The Heating Element
Now this piece itself is not the heating element. It’s surrounded by some insulation and the heating element is inside. The heating element is also a corkscrew that screws the granules forward through the heating element and into this piece, which is the vertical blower. So, you can kind of see that there, if you come around to this side, basically this blower. There’s a fan right here. My finger’s probably in the way like it’s normally. Now that blower blows up, and it will blow straight out now.
What ends up happening is the heating element here pushes these granules into this vertical pipe when they’re red-hot and glowing, and it pushes them upwards by the blower. Then they literally come right out of the cold spark machine and that’s what you see. So to recap this again granules go in here, they funnel down, corkscrew screws them this way back into another funnel, that’s back here if you want to come at least right here and take a look.
The Funnel
Here is the funnel right there, that funnel. Now that funnel itself puts them down into this heating element. The heating element is inside here. We have another video where we actually open the heating element up and show you what is inside. We’re not going to do that here because I do have to disassemble this just a little bit further to be able to do that. So other than that you can see the motor down here. I apologize, this motor is for the fan.
Now, this fan itself is the same fan that’s down here, just this fan is bigger for obvious reasons. The motor itself, let me flip this machine around, so you could see it is back here. So, the motor is right here and that is what drives the entire cold spark machine. Here’s from the back kind of playing a little bit of merry-go-round with this thing but again, here’s your funnel, drops the granules into the cold spark machine.
The Temperature Regulation Mechanism
The machine has a corkscrew inside that screws them over to this direction, and then the blower blows them up here. Now let me flip this back around to show you something important. This wire right here is the heating element, this is the heating element. This piece that’s sticking out right here, these two white wires are the temperature check.
Now, these go back into the cold spark machine and what these do is regulate the temperature of the heating element. This is because if this thing stays on, it’ll just keep heating and keep heating and keep heating. And you don’t want it to do that because if it keeps heating, it’s going to melt something. It’s going to start a fire, it will burn down, and that’s why the logic board and everything with the controls is already pre-programmed into the cold spark machine.
Unfortunately, you can’t change that. Some of us would, but don’t try this at home. So anyways, that’s how a cold spark machine works in general. Inside a coal spark machine, a lot of people want to know how it looks inside and how it functions. Well, that’s it now, there are other similar videos too. We’ll go ahead and put some links in the description on how to change the heating element in a cold spark machine, how to clean the spark machine properly. Anyways, that’s it.
Maintaining the Cold Spark Machine
I always like going for good care and good maintenance. As you can see, these spark machines get pretty dirty, there’s a lot of dust inside. Obviously, if you wipe that, it comes off. This is the fan that is disconnected. Typically, while we’re on this video, if I were to put this back on, this wire should never go over the top of this heating element. This wire should go underneath the machine as such and come out just like all these other wires.
You want to keep everything away from the top of this machine. This is because this gets very hot, and you will get burned.
Safety Measures for Using the Cold Spark Machine
Just as a safety disclaimer, when you’re inside these machines, of course always unplug the machine before you open it. It sounds rudimentary, but trust me the most common things are overlooked. It’s just like when you talk about operating a gun, make sure it’s unloaded. Well, make sure that this is unplugged. Having this thing plugged in is a recipe for disaster. This is because your finger touches a certain area of this, and you will get electrocuted.
You do have transformers in here, you do have things that will electrocute you. Not to mention, wait for this to cool down. If you already have this plugged in, you already have this working, don’t dive right into it and start messing with it. This is because this thing will be hot. It may not look like it, but if you touch this, you will get burned. Obviously, this one’s not hot because I’m touching it. Thus, just make sure that, again, safety disclaimer and safety disclosure here. Other than that, this is inside a spark machine.
Conclusion
Regardless of how the cold spark machine look on the inside, they all function the same. This particular model is an iSpark FX or a pro gear. I believe it’s one of those pro effects or pro x. I don’t know. Anyways, regardless, they’re all the same inside. They may look a little different, they all have those same general components. Some of them, instead of being belt-driven with the belt here, they may be chain-driven.
Regardless of what it is, they all function the same. This is CryoFX, check our other videos out down below on how to clean a cold spark machine and everything else. Again this video is inside a cold spark machine because we just took you inside. Check our other videos on cold spark machine out. I’m Chris and until next time. Check our other videos out and check our other videos out. See you.