I remember seeing these in the past. They're a night light that uses a little fluorescent tube as the lightsource. The current limiting is very simple, but the method of initially starting the tube is quite unusual, and very reminiscent of a traditional mercury lamp.
This product appears to be discontinued now, but might still be available online. It's intended for 220-240V use.
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This product appears to be discontinued now, but might still be available online. It's intended for 220-240V use.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
I used to have a fluorescent night light which worked very much the same way but it was 120V. It was very effective.
Those inner tubes from the street lamps are great for putting the finishing touches on a knife edge after sharpening.
i think stared into uv light as a child, i didn't realize that inner tube of lamp is just uv in streetlight. why was it still starting, no idea but it looked so bluish
interesting story about street lamps
Did you try the light at 110V? Maybe it's bluer at a lower voltage.
Nice to see something that's not using LED's for once.
I used to think LED's were brilliant. Not I'm starting to get annoyed with them.
Pretty cool way of igniting the fluorescent tube though, very similar to the old HM lamps, with the auxiluary electrode.
Your explanation of mercury vapor lamps helped me understand why the flicker and blink when they are first turned on! That was very interesting.
The design is pretty SciFi
eh eh eh eh eh! Well, it's discharged now!
I have one exactly like this but probably different branding. I was rather intrigued by the electrode assembly and would love to make a circuit to drive these little tubes "properly" i.e. with warm-start either switch or (preferably) SRS.
The "blue" reference is indeed a misnomer as these are a close match to the "daylight" lamps I have in most of the house. These are around 6500°K to my eyes with a bit of a blue tint from the visible mercury discharge.
I'll have to investigate these little tubes as they might be suitable as bodge-in replacements for mini LCD TVs. Better IMHO than putting in an LED PCB panel, at least in the sense of the modification being more "in-keeping" with the design
>EDIT<
Added a bit.
Get a deathdapter when you don't want a fake ground pin breaking in a socket
What kind of tube is this? Is it fluorescent? Why isn’t there a starter module like a standard fluorescent? I believe there’s more in those modules then in this circuit.
Earth pin? We call it a ground. I like that moniker.