Lava Lite Colour Changing Lamp

[James Cotton]

Hello everyone, me again, with more questions, never any solutions! Today I received a Lava Lite Colour Changing Lamp, bought off Ebay. Works by LEDs and what I think is a heating coil / element. There were no instructions as such, just basic details. It has a button on the front which I can press to change the lamps effects. I can either have colour changing, single colour or colour changing strobe, I think. Unfortunately it appears that it will only colour change 3 of the colours in a sequence, and not all the colours it could / can make. But I suppose my question regards the strobing feature, does anyone know of any easy way to make the strobe slower, its pretty fast to be honest, disco material! I've looked online and cannot find this lamp anywhere, so I'm guessing it's a prototype.

Many thanks

James

[VOXul]

Been drinkin' those lamps Lala?!

[James Cotton]

If someone can / could help me, I'm more than happy to take more photos to put up, it's just they all come up bigger than 5MB when I take them.

Cheers

[James Cotton]

Hey Erin, looks like Lava to me, although it isn't doing a great deal. I'm quite ignorant, but I would guess it isn't getting warm enough

Cheers

Erin said:

Wait, so is there lava in the lamp or is it just a plastic mold that looks like lava? It's odd - the eBay link doesn't really say much about the lamp, or show pictures except for the one generic one. 

[VOXul]

Does the coil get hot enough to glow at all or change to an anodized/visually heat marked state? I am wondering if maybe there are some spots on the coil that are not making contact to the vessel OR the coil is touching the vessel when it shouldn't be.  The low flow might lead to temps being too high if the coil is on the globe when it shouldn't be. It could also mean too cold if the coil isn't making contact with the globe when it should be. 

Does the globe feel warm to the touch, similar to one of your standard lavas that are flowing properly?

As for authenticity, what does the cap on that globe look like? There should be either a red and white sticker on it or an actual Lava Lite branded cap that is stamped with a date/color code, if it did come from them.

James Cotton said:

If someone can / could help me, I'm more than happy to take more photos to put up, it's just they all come up bigger than 5MB when I take them.

Cheers

[VOXul]

HA!

lalalava said:

maaaaaaaybeeee....

VOXul (Nick) said:

Been drinkin' those lamps Lala?!

[James Cotton]

Oh dude, I've only spoken to you for the first time tonight, and already I love you. But I have no idea what you are on about.!!!

The lamp is up on top of some furniture, so not easy to check coz it's too high. Both the silver base and cap are almost (almost) too hot to touch. The glass bit is the same temp as my other lava lite lamps, ie very hot. When I was looking earlier, before I switched on, I saw a coil in the glass lamp, same as my other lava lite lamps. I haven't looked at the base tonight, but when I looked earlier, it looked like a ring of LEDs with a heating coil above it, touching the bottom of the bottle

Cheers

VOXul (Nick) said:

Does the coil get hot enough to glow at all or change to an anodized/visually heat marked state? I am wondering if maybe there are some spots on the coil that are not making contact to the vessel OR the coil is touching the vessel when it shouldn't be.  The low flow might lead to temps being too high if the coil is on the globe when it shouldn't be. It could also mean too cold if the coil isn't making contact with the globe when it should be. 

Does the globe feel warm to the touch, similar to one of your standard lavas that are flowing properly?

As for authenticity, what does the cap on that globe look like? There should be either a red and white sticker on it or an actual Lava Lite branded cap that is stamped with a date/color code, if it did come from them.

James Cotton said:

If someone can / could help me, I'm more than happy to take more photos to put up, it's just they all come up bigger than 5MB when I take them.

Cheers

[VOXul]

Sorry to seem scattered, haha, having not seen one of these I am unsure whether the heating coil in the base needs to make contact with the globe or if it should be just below it. 

I guess one method to find out if the wax is junk is to climb up there and try running the globe on one of your standard bases if it is of the same size. If it flows nice over a light bulb then there could be a heat problem with that coil in the base.

Fellow gooheads chime in if this is a bad idea, I have never tried a globe swap from a heat coil lamp to a light bulb lamp, I assume they are both the same Pyrex since they would essentially need to hit the same high temps to flow.

That base may need to be taken down from it's display spot so you can tinker with it easily.  Turn it on, watch the coil in it to see if it glows, observe if there are any dead spots in the glow (if it glows). I would think that if the coil is getting hot, it is working fine, the question would be is it hot enough or too hot. 

If you have an infrared thermometer I would point it at similar spots on a standard lamp and then check that temp compared to your coil lamp. Check globe temps, cone temps maybe even bulb to coil temps.

James Cotton said:

Oh dude, I've only spoken to you for the first time tonight, and already I love you. But I have no idea what you are on about.!!!

The lamp is up on top of some furniture, so not easy to check coz it's too high. Both the silver base and cap are almost (almost) too hot to touch. The glass bit is the same temp as my other lava lite lamps, ie very hot. When I was looking earlier, before I switched on, I saw a coil in the glass lamp, same as my other lava lite lamps. I haven't looked at the base tonight, but when I looked earlier, it looked like a ring of LEDs with a heating coil above it, touching the bottom of the bottle

Cheers

VOXul (Nick) said:

Does the coil get hot enough to glow at all or change to an anodized/visually heat marked state? I am wondering if maybe there are some spots on the coil that are not making contact to the vessel OR the coil is touching the vessel when it shouldn't be.  The low flow might lead to temps being too high if the coil is on the globe when it shouldn't be. It could also mean too cold if the coil isn't making contact with the globe when it should be. 

Does the globe feel warm to the touch, similar to one of your standard lavas that are flowing properly?

As for authenticity, what does the cap on that globe look like? There should be either a red and white sticker on it or an actual Lava Lite branded cap that is stamped with a date/color code, if it did come from them.

James Cotton said:

If someone can / could help me, I'm more than happy to take more photos to put up, it's just they all come up bigger than 5MB when I take them.

Cheers

[James Cotton]

VOXul (Nick) said:

Sorry to seem scattered, haha, having not seen one of these I am unsure whether the heating coil in the base needs to make contact with the globe or if it should be just below it. 

I guess one method to find out if the wax is junk is to climb up there and try running the globe on one of your standard bases if it is of the same size. If it flows nice over a light bulb then there could be a heat problem with that coil in the base.

OK, am doing this now, have just swapped them. The 'wax' in the lamp we are all talking about isn't doing much, so no change there. The 'wax' in the 'normal' lamp is going mental on top off the LEDs, quite funny really, coz its trying to change colour, but the water / wax is so dense you can't really tell

[James Cotton]

VOXul (Nick) said:

Fellow gooheads chime in if this is a bad idea, I have never tried a globe swap from a heat coil lamp to a light bulb lamp, I assume they are both the same Pyrex since they would essentially need to hit the same high temps to flow.

Oh well, done it now!

[James Cotton]

VOXul (Nick) said:

That base may need to be taken down from it's display spot so you can tinker with it easily.  Turn it on, watch the coil in it to see if it glows, observe if there are any dead spots in the glow (if it glows). I would think that if the coil is getting hot, it is working fine, the question would be is it hot enough or too hot. 

Yep, I can do that. I'm on night shifts the next 2 nights, I'm a nurse,so no internet access. Then on Saturday I will be getting drunk, so it will probably be Sunday before I get back to the board

Cheers

[James Cotton]

VOXul (Nick) said:

If you have an infrared thermometer I would point it at similar spots on a standard lamp and then check that temp compared to your coil lamp. Check globe temps, cone temps maybe even bulb to coil temps.

Ha ha ha ha ha.you are mental

 

Cheers

[VOXul]

EY!!! One of those thermometers could quickly reveal a heat issue!!!  hahaha! 

You said you were a nurse, don't they have some laying around to check temps on fancy CT scans or something?

James Cotton said:

VOXul (Nick) said:

If you have an infrared thermometer I would point it at similar spots on a standard lamp and then check that temp compared to your coil lamp. Check globe temps, cone temps maybe even bulb to coil temps.

Ha ha ha ha ha.you are mental

 

Cheers