 |
|
| Home Repair (alt.home.repair) For all homeowners and DIYers with many experienced tradesmen. Solve your toughest home fix-it problems. |
|
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#19
Posted to alt.home.repair
|
|||
|
|||
Where is my problem with this flourescent lamp?
In article , Peter wrote:
On 4/24/2010 9:10 PM, The Daring Dufas wrote: wrote: On Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:57:29 -0400, Peter wrote: SNIP to here to edit for space I was able to pull off the rotating shade, unscrew the bulb socket, pull it out about 2", and observe a 1" glass bulb that looks almost like a neon bulb with an opaque mercury-like metallic coating on the inside of the glass bulb. There are 2 wires coming out of the base of this little bulb, 1 connected to the black, and the other to the white power wires that enter the base of the socket. Perhaps this is the hard-wired starter? There are no markings on it at all. I reattached the bulb, plugged in the fixture, and turn it on while observing the little glass bulb. Nothing at all; no glow, no sparks, no "tink" "tink" "tink". What do I replace it with? Try an NE2 bulb? That's what used to be in the old starters. ERRRRRRR! Wrong! I would suggest you find an old florescent starter and take it apart, carefully break the glass off the silvered bulb and you will find a heat activated bi-metal switch. A little searching of The Interweb will help you learn how it works. TDD Follow up: I cannibalized an unused FS-2 starter I found in my "junk box" and wired in it's glow bulb in place of the defective glow bulb I clipped out. To my surprise anddisappointment, when I replaced the CFL bulb, plugged in the fixture and turned it on, the fixture and the glow bulb both continuously flickered. I waited about 5-10 seconds to see if it would stabilze; it didn't. I turned off the fixture, waited about 10 seconds, tried again with the same result. I then added the capacitor from the FS-2 in parallel with the glow bulb (as it was wired within the FS-2). Same behavior. Should I assume that the glow bulb from the FS-2 is mismatched to this circuit (although the CLF is 18W and the FS-2 is rated for 14, 15, and 20W bulbs), or that something else is wrong in the circuit? Should I buy a starter with a higher rating and try again with that? This is a bit of a surprise to me. I have a fair amount of experience with homebrewing and hacking of preheat fluorescent lamp fixtures, and the behavior suggests to me that the starter is re-glowing too easily from the voltage needed to fire the lamp. This may be from the ballast skimping on current - that can make starting crankier, and then the fixture can get fussier about starters. You may be able to fix this by using a different FS-2 or FS-2 variant starter, preferably one rated to start 22 watt lamps (along with lower wattages). Also, proper grounding may make a difference. Did you remove any during your troubleshooting and repair attempt? Winding a few turns of bare wire around the bulb, over the filaments, has some chance of making the bulb easier to fire. This has to do with capacitive coupling through the glass, so that a very small amount of current does not have to go through the full length of the bulb. That may make the gas in the bulb "break down" more easily. There is even a remote chance that reversing the leads of the starter will make things better. If ionization in the bulb occurs more easily on one half-cycle of AC than the other due to polarity of the electrode on the "hot side", then reversing the leads of the starter may make a difference. I have seen starters having a polarity when used with DC. Also try reversing the plug, to reverse hot and neutral, if the plug blades are the same width. (I forget already whether or not you said the plug blades were equal width or not.) And check for hot-neutral reverse at your outlet - that does affect a few cranky fluorescent fixtures. -- - Don Klipstein ) |
| Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Forum | |||
| flourescent lamp fixture | Home Repair | |||
| Flourescent light problem | Home Repair | |||
| flourescent light problem | Home Repair | |||
| Flourescent lamp wasting power - Why? | Home Repair | |||
| Flourescent Lamp switch Question. | Electronics Repair | |||
Threaded Mode
