On Apr 13, 4:13*pm, Martin Brown
wrote:
On 13/04/2012 09:43, Andrew Gabriel wrote:



In ,
* *Martin *writes:

Sorry to mislead that was from memory. The dead units are sat in the
garage. It is on checking it is a single choke driving two 18" 15W tubes
in series each with their own starter. The choke is marked Yongxin Dy-30
220-240 50Hz 2x15W 18" tubes and they are absolute crap.

Two flykillers failed about a month after their warrantee ran out in
exactly the same way - the choke is now open circuit. The HT zapper
still works fine but the flies don't visit without the blue light lure..

Twin tube 18W/24" single ballast is one of the most commonly used
commercially, and starters used in these will be easily available
from any electrical wholesaler, or a good retail lighting store.
These are normally rated for 4-22W, but using starters as you go
lower down that power range becomes more wearing on the tubes,
and you will get short tube life, particularly if switched on/off
frequently. You might want to consider completely removing the
starters and ballast and replace with electronic control gear
suitable for those tubes.

I am unsure how the full electronic ballasts would work with a pair of
tubes in series like this - fluoro lighting gear really isn't my thing.
I just identify the dead part and try to replace like with like.

It is intrinsic that they will be switched on and off once per day.

You just need a 30w iron lump ballast for that. I would also go the
electronic route, take 2x CFL 15w ballasts, use one to run each lamp.
Glue tiny heatsinks onto the trannies in the ballasts and they should
last a very long time.


Meanwhile, you could replace the tubes with a piece of raw chicken,
and you'll probably find the zapper is 10 times more effective than
it used to be...

I don't think the village hall committee would like that solution.
I confess I am half tempted to try a pair of 3W blue LEDs instead.

I found a small bare halogen capsule lamp worked well to attract
flies.


NT