The Neon on a B9 Robot is very distinctive.
As in Mr. Kinoshita’s other Robot: B9’s older brother Robby, a large neon array lights up synchronized with the
Robots voice.
There really is no substitute for neon
lighting. The exact color and look has not truly been duplicated with other technologies. But neon does have its drawbacks.
Most obviously its made of breakable glass. Neon also needs high voltage (and associated electronics) to light up. And last
but not least in these “Green” times neon has a small amount of toxic mercury in it.Fortunately there are substitutes.
One such a neon substitute is Luxaura.
Luxaura is a lighting system developed by Bridgestone a few years ago. It uses specialized optically tailored plastic rods
and LED’s to make a reasonable facsimile of neon. Luxaura is used in automotive applications, general lighting as well
as a substitute for neon glass tubes in neon signs.
Luxaura does have one minor disadvantage when used in a B9 Robot: one side
of the plastic tube has a white reflector molded in. This may be noticeable depending on the orientation. On the other hand
Luxaura has two critical advantages over neon: It is practically indestructible and the LED’s use low voltage power.
Each rod has a small
LED array on one end. It is also possible to use LED’s at each end for greater brightness and even use a different color
LED, perhaps for a latter project.
It was fairly simple
to make a frame to hold these plastic rods in the torso. One difference here is that I decided to not have the top small neon
loops. Instead there is an extra rod or two continuing right up to the top of the torso opening. IMHO this looks much better,
a much more finished look. We can only speculate on why the original TV show B9 neon was made with these top two loops. Perhaps
it was a mistake, a design oversight. Perhaps there was a problem with a neon tube being too close to Mr Mays body, fear of
electrical shock maybe.
It is also possible
to control when each rod lights up, sort of an animation. A circuit can be used to have the lowest bar light up first followed
sequentially a few milliseconds latter by the bars above it. Other effects are possible, top down, ends to the middle, middle
to the ends.
As shown there are
14 rods of varying lengths. Rods are 10mm dia and are spaced with 5 mm gaps between each rod. These Luxaura rods come in 6ft
lengths, 3 lengths were needed with a good amount left over after cutting.
It is recommended
that a wet saw, such as used to cut ceramic tile, is used to cut Luxaura rods. This is what I did but I also did some experiments
with hack saw cuts. In general the saw cut rods did not produce as much light so its probably not a good idea. If you do not
have a wet saw you may be able to get the people at your local Mega Home Improvement store to make the cuts for a slight fee.
They normally do this for people doing tile projects.
Depending on how
many bars and LED’s you decide to use there can be a cost advantage over conventional neon. And there is also replacement
costs to consider: the Luxaura rods will break infinitely less frequently then glass neon tubes.
I did run into two
minor problems with Luxura. The first was one of supply. It almost seems that few distributors carry it and the mfg itself
(Bridgestone) seems to not be actively pushing this product. If anyone is interested I got the Luxura rods and LED's from
AgiLight (they call them Z-led rods). Very quick service!
The other problem
may be related. Years ago with I first came across Luxura I ordered an evaluation kit. This kit had a length of rod and LED.
But the rod had a wide angle reflector.
The rods I eventually
ordered to use in the B9 from AGI light were the narrow angle type. The people at AgiLight tell me that they do not have and
never carried this wide angle reflector rod. I think I would have preferred the wide angle reflector rods if I had been able
to get them however the narrow angle seems to work fine.
