How to create armor with electrical shock effect?

[Venture73]

I am trying to make a piece of armor that I can use as a simple 'flag' by equipping to a robot. Once equipped the electrical effect would arc across the robot's body periodically.

 

I have deconstructed JingWei's sword, created my own shader effect that mirrors the JingWei sword effect. Then I created a Base Effect that uses the shader. Then I created an Object Effect that used the Base Effect. I associated the Object Effect with my armor piece, but it does nothing. Is there some way using a script that I can turn this effect on or off? I am really stumped as to how I should proceed next.

 

The reason why I'm doing this is I would like to create a script where my robot companion malfunctions from time to time, and this script would cause the electric arcing effect that I want, to visually show you that the robot has malfunctioned.

 

If anyone can help me out here I would greatly appreciate it. My best guess is that the effect I'm trying to use requires a 'hit' to make it effect the 'target'. If this is the case, is there anyway to write a script that would either simply apply the effect to the container object, so I could have the item in the robot's inventory and use a script to trigger the object from time to time?

 

Thanks again for any help I can get!

 

-Venture73