Eric Sears wrote:

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:30:36 -0500, John Fields
wrote:

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 11:14:59 GMT,
(Eric Sears) wrote:

John - many thanks for your post! I have a power supply with a neon
that is so dim I can hardly see it in daylight. I had assumed the neon
was faulty.

---
Your assumption was correct.

Thank you also John F for your correction! While it was good to be
alerted by the previous poster that I MAY have been barking up the
wrong tree, the actual solution is the pull the thing apart and FIND
OUT what's wrong!

It can't be too difficult to fix a circuit consisting of two
components (famous last words).
---

Changing the resistor will be much easier (provided I can
read its value). But I guess I could just experiment starting with
high values until it glows ok!

---
Unfortunately, by doing that you'll be needing to replace resistors
with higher and higher wattage units more and more often as the neon
lamp races, ever faster, to its final reward.

I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea to measure the current drawn by the
neon/resistor combination. What is typical? A few mA I suppose?
---



To Ted - sorry I am in NZ.

---
I can't imagine why, I've heard that NZ is paradise... :-)

I'll rephrase that! I'm NOT sorry I'm in NZ; I'm sorry you'er not here
too, where we could share both the wonderful
tramping/bushwalking/scenery, and I could also share some of my years
of accumulated electrical junk (er "used equipment") with you!!

Thanks for all the comments.

Eric Sears ZL2BMI


How are you going to maesure it? The neon has a minimum firing
volatge and only conducts for part of each half cycle.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida