On Tue, 20 Oct 2015 08:17:35 -0700, ggherold wrote:

On Tuesday, October 20, 2015 at 10:41:16 AM UTC-4, Tom Miller wrote:
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On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 10:04:36 PM UTC-4, Tom Miller wrote:
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On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 2:45:30 PM UTC-4,
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On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 12:53:45 PM UTC-4, Tom Miller
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On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 9:52:07 AM UTC-4,
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Hi all, I found this thing.. see pictures

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sxd1cq8qbdyali4/
AAA6O9NqKQPvbX4QLzNAK-Vaa?dl=0
In the back of a drawer at my house. The previous owner was
a pack rat,
who also worked for the phone company.
It looks like some high voltage flashlight.
What sort of voltage do I apply to the leads?

Thanks,
George H.

As per Boris - yes, it could be a timing light - but definitely
a stop-action device of some sort. I expect that there were
other parts associated with it - strobe-type timing lights have
an induction trigger device, usually, as one example. + &
-attached to the battery, and the inductor clamped to #1
cylinder spark-plug wire.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But there is no trigger electrode. It might be Neon. Can you
hit it with some high voltage, maybe from a lawn mower spark
plug? See what the discharge spectrum looks like.

Hmm OK, I could try that.

I'm a little leery of mixing electronics with my lawn mower.
Way back when, a motor wouldn't start, and I convinced myself it
was a spark problem. I couldn't see a spark after all. I wanted
to see how much voltage I was getting so I hooked up my DMM
(though a series resistor), Pulled the cord to turn over the
engine, and promptly blew up my DMM. :^(

George H.

Tom, Sorry I chickened out and didn't put it across any of my
working motors. (The last thing I want is to blow out the spark
drive... I'm not really sure, what I'm saying. Is it ok to put a
dead short across my briggs and stratton?

George H.


Doesn't the spark plug do just that when it fires?
Yeah, I didn't say my fear was rational.
I had a bunch of old engines, I think most were "re-cycled" this past
summer.
Hmm, OK I'll hook it up to my old tractor.
(Ferguson to-20) If I blow out the coil it's easy to put in a new
one.


What damages magneto ignition systems is open circuit, wire off plug
events.
Then the coil arcs internally.


Don't you have any kind of transformer that could make a HV spark
with say a 9 volt battery? A filament transformer maybe?

9V battery and transformer? (how does that work?)

I've got a 120-24 (6A) tranny, how much voltage would you guess I'll
need?
I could run that backwards from a Variac.

George H.



Just take clip leads to the highest voltage winding (primary?) to the
tube.
Then use the battery to "flash" the lowest voltage winding. Think about
how the points work in an ignition circuit.

No, do not use a variac.

All you want is to get a discharge through the tube and see what color
is produced. Red says it might be Neon, blueish white may be Xenon,
other will be who knows.

Thanks Tom, I got nothing with my big transformer.
(I don't have enough current to get any significant voltage across the
low voltage windings. It could also be that the tube is dead.
I'll try with my tractor at home tonight.

George H.

Be a lot simpler to just to use one half of the tranny and use the back
EMF from interrupting the circuit instead. Breaking the current through
the longest winding should give enough of a spike to see if the lamp
flashes.