Jump to content
Electronics-Lab.com Community

Hero999

Members
  • Posts

    2,433
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Posts posted by Hero999


  1. The photo on the ballast shows two CFL bulbs with 4-wires each. But your OLD CFL bulbs have only 2-wires each.

    The ballast starts the bulb by heating its filament at each end. Your OLD bulbs do not have filaments, they are started with an OLD starter thingy that creates a high voltage spike.

    Oh yes they do have filaments. They use a switch startler, like old fluorescent lamps do but it's built into the the fitting. The high voltage pulse is produced by the inductive ballast.

    DO NOT overload a ballast with too many bulbs because then it will get hot and burn out or catch on fire.

    Why not buy modern inexpensive CFL light bulbs that have a small electronic ballast attached to the base?

    There's no danger of that happening. If you try to connect two lamps in parallel, the one with the lowest ionising voltage will start, leaving the other one off. It won't work but won't kill the ballast either.


    i don't think you read through the listing page description:

    Lamp Configurations

           (2/1)  CFQ/M13W/G24q
           (2/1)  CFQ/M13/GX24q
           (2/1)  CFS16W/GR10q (2D)
           (2/1)  CFS10W/GR10q (2D) 4-pin lamp
           (2/1)  CFT9W/2G7
           (2)     CFT7W/2G7


    - it lists CFT9W and 2G7 together. google'd it and found CFT9W are  2-pins, while 2G7 are 4 pins. maybe it can accommodate (2/2) same types or two CFT9W and one 2G7 (2/1), so it has a total of 8 wires??

    No, it doesn't work like that. I suggest you read up on how fluorescent lamps work first.

    http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/flamp.htm#fb
    http://home.howstuffworks.com/fluorescent-lamp1.htm

  2. Those cheap old lamps sound too cheap to be any good.

    Yes, you need a four pin lamp for a four pin ballast but a 9W ballast won't drive a 36W tube.

    Why not buy a UV CFL with the ballast built-in?
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/UV-BLACKLIGHT-BULB-compact-fluorescent-cfl-PARTY-blacklite-15w-screw-in-base-NEW-/310436043164?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&hash=item48476e199c
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/25w-UV-Black-Light-Bulb-Compack-Fluorescent-Light-25W-Bulb-E26-Standard-North-/141254573924?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&hash=item20e36dbf64
    http://www.amazon.com/Fluorescent-Standard-American-Household-Ultraviolet/dp/B0097C8H5C/ref=pd_cp_hi_2
    http://www.amazon.com/Satco-S7277-Spiral-Color-Blacklight/dp/B003U674VO/ref=pd_cp_hi_3

  3. No, an arc can form when the relay is not switching, if there isn't enough clearance between the contacts. The breakdown voltage in air is typically 1kV/1mm, so for 2kV the gap between the contacts needs to be at least 2mm. A high voltage relay may be filled with a gas or vacuum which has superior dielectric properties to air so a smaller gap can be used.

    Can't you just invert the logic signals for controlling the relays?

  4. The current rating is not a problem. It's better to go higher than lower. Using a power relay to switch low current signals is only a problem at very low voltages.

    The problem with using a lower voltage relay is the contacts can arc over and what's worse it it could be unpredictable.The relay may seem fine most of the time but it could suddenly arc over due to ambient ionising radiation.

  5. 1) If the mains neutral wasn't connected to earth, it could float at any voltage. Suppose someone connected a 10kV autrotransformer to the mains and the seondary became shorted to earth? The mains would then float at 10kV above earth, causing fire as the insulation isn't rated to that voltage.

    2) Became metal doesn't burn like most insulators do.

    3) It depends on what you're doing.

  6. I don't know much about programmable logic.

    All I know is PLDs tend to operate from a lower voltage than 12V so you need a regulator such as the LM78L05 for the logic. You'll also need level shifting and buffering on the output to boost the logic levels to 12V. The logic inputs can be connected to the 12V inputs using potential dividers to lower the voltage.

    An IC such as the CD40109 or CD4504 can be used to translate the 5V output to 12V.
    http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cd4504b-ep.pdf
    http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/schs099b/schs099b.pdf

×
  • Create New...