Cheap AliExpress ballast (with schematic)

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This fluorescent lighting ballast is a very good demonstration of a design that has gradually got so refined that it's cheap, but also usually very reliable.
The mid point tap from the two power supply capacitors may be a way to reduce the voltage to simplify the circuitry. It's odd to see one of these without a capacitor in series with the tube, but that might be because it's a better or cheaper way to implement a higher power ballast.
The case metalwork is thinner than normal. It's also notable that while there's plasticised card under the PCB as insulation, there's none between the ends of the capacitors and the metal enclosure. The capacitor cans aren't usually electrically connected, but it's generally a good idea to treat the bare metal end as live.
It would have been good to test this with a tube, but I don't have one here.
It's kinda pleasing to see that the main differences between a compact fluorescent lamp and a full size fitting are basically just the scale of the circuitry.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.co...
This also keeps the channel independent of RU-vid's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
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1 окт 2024

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Комментарии : 381

@jreding132 Год назад

Clive: I know we are behind the times here in the USA, but hospitals use a ton of fluorescent lamps mostly in offices, hallways and stairwells, especially if the area hasn't been remodeled or updated in many years. Most fixtures use compact fluorecscents and rarely LED, but that is slowly changing to LED "strip" lamps and some four foot drop in retrofit LED lamps that don't require the ballast being removed, as a side note about 20 years ago a hospital I worked in did a "retrofit" of the fluorescent fixtures from a T-12 lamp to T-8 lamp and removing the old magnetic ballasts (many of them were of the potted type some with PCB's.) to an electronic ballast. The new electronic ballast were capable of dual input voltages (120 or 277 volt). Imagine how many fixtures could be run on one 277 volt, 20 amp circuit! Oh, and the operating theatres were notorious for six lamp-four foot fluorescent lamps, Because the operating rooms almost never were remodeled unless being changed to a different configuration for new equipment or procedures, the operating rooms are large source of revenue for a hospital and to shut a room down and do the infection control/dust mitigation was kind of big money. -John

@krustyb9068 Год назад

Wiring a newly built hospital in the us four years ago and general contractor chose the cheaper option for lighting. All fluorescent fixtures in a brand new hospital just blew my mind

@scottthomas3792 Год назад

I was electrical maintenance in the '90s at a hospital...we were slowly replacing the older magnetic ballasts with electronic ones ( as magnetic ones failed, they were replaced with newer electronic ones) The old magnetic ones would have " earwax" running out of them sometimes when they failed. We didn't shut the power off when replacing ballasts! Really couldn't. I always installed a AG-3 fuse and holder in line to make it easier for the next guy... You're right...they didn't want to shut down the OR for anything. I had to replace a 24volt, 35 amp transformer that powered the surgical lights...took a few hours ( difficult location), I got chewed out because some estimate said it only took 45 minutes...I believe this hospital had around 3000 florescent fixtures ..

@Bleats_Sinodai Год назад

Same here in Brazil. We still have some surgery lights that use incandescent bulbs, as an example of how they sometimes prefer to not updated to new tech if it's working.

@davidkane4300 Год назад

@@Bleats_Sinodai a lot of dentists still use incandescent/halogen lights because they have the reflectors that reflect most visible light, but pass infrared so heat goes the opposite direction of the light output (much like some 50W MR/GU halogen lights).

@masteryoda394 Год назад

There are a lot of fluorescent lights in many old buildings all over Europe too. My office even has a fluorescent light that is so old the tubes for it aren't sold anymore.

@maw9406 Год назад

fluorescent lights and gas discharge tube devices in general are incredible. sort of sad, but also understandable seeing them slowly being phased out. it’s a bit silly. theoretically a perfect fluorescent light could last more than the lifetime of a human being and much longer in ideal conditions. but of course we live in the real world, so achieving a perfect light or perfect conditions is impossible, but still, they we’re able to last long without it just being a stroke of luck. with proper setup they were reliable and durable. but then came CFLs. oh boy. we wanted the luxury of using our good ol’ edison sockets and having all the benefits of the reliability and durability of big fluorescent tubes. turns out sticking a high voltage ballast into the space of a golf ball with extremely limited airflow isn’t as easy as it sounds (well it doesn’t even sound easy, but you know what i mean). so they broke. the more they broke the more people expected them to break, and the more people expected them to break the more manufacturers turned to making cheap, but replaceable bulbs rather than making then a bit expensive, but long lasting. all of this sounds waaay too familiar. LEDs anyone? i didn’t expect to write an essay, but here we are lol. don’t get me wrong, i love leds, but i think we have become way too lenient when it comes to things breaking. and the more lenient we become, the more things will inevitably break

@Nono-hk3is Год назад

Well said.

@frogz Год назад

My favorite has discharge lamps all use metal salts and a very hot arc, 1000 watts of limited band orange light is so lovely, reminds me of sweet home Chicago, you can always find your bearings just by looking up at the clouds and finding the orange glow, sadly the glow isn't as orange anymore because of the trend for LEDs replacing them, i still want a low pressure sodium lamp.... Never got my hands on 1

@plainedgedsaw1694 Год назад

@@frogz I'm young enough to only recall seeing low pressure sodiums in my early childhood, but i kinda miss them everytime i see picture of them lighting up a street in pure yellow cancelling all other colors.

@drasco61084 Год назад

We shouldn't feel bad about writing more online. Your comment is maybe one page in a novel. Social media has made people lazy. We're having interesting discussions here. The fact that it fills up a small smart phone screen or a comment box on a computer deceives the mind, it really isn't very much to read at all.

@liam3284 Год назад

My grandfather had some CFLs that lasted over 20 years in daily use. Rapid start bulbs with the outer glass envelope.

@povilasstaniulis9484 Год назад

Thanks for the video. Not that long ago, flourescent tubes were used for lighting in pretty much every school and office building in my part of the world. Nowadays, they have mostly switched to LED panels. What I hate about modern LED lamps is that they are often deliberately built not to last long (especially the cheaper ones). Manufacturers tend to overdrive the LEDs a lot to squeeze more light out of a smaller number of diodes causing them to die early. And often the death of a single LED package kills the entire light because they are wired in series.

@IrtyGo560 Год назад

Florescent lamps are still popular in Sudan.

@taurolyon Год назад

Very well explained! I know these don't have much application anymore, but I would love to see a side-by-side comparison to the "more expensive" style you mentioned, and perhaps compare both to the vintage "buzzy" ballasts with the starter.

@chuckles1808 Год назад

Starts a video complaining about the government, this is why I'm subbed. Love the content

@robshorts Год назад

I'm going to continue to use fluorescent lighting in my home and have stocked up on fluorescent tubes and other spares. As a toddler in the 70s they fascinated me, the way a tube could light so brightly and evenly. Was always also fascinated by the different start up behaviours. In 1978, only a few weeks after starting school, long thin boxes with purple text were delivered to the school which contained 8ft Thorn pop packs. These were to replace tungsten lighting. Still remember as the winter months took hold how well these lights lit the room, they had what was at the time cutting edge lighting technology in the form of 100w Krypton tubes.

@jonesrichardmr Год назад

Just don't get/stay too close to them, I used to use em as a UV source for curing UV solder mask, etc. The sun was also good, but well, this being Ireland, its rarer than dinosaur farts 😀 Now I use a dedicated UV source, but you get the idea.

@TheRokkis Год назад

That circuit boards look like it was made in the 80's. Nothing wrong with that, much more pleasant to work with than the modern SMD ones when fixing stuff. But definitely didn't expect to see that.

@simonhopkins3867 Год назад

Single sided through hole easy to trace board. This really is a blast from the past :-)

@mojofilter96 Год назад

Ballast from the past

@tactileslut Год назад

The visual symmetry makes it nice to at and easier to screen after production for component stuffing errors, if that were still a thing.

@wafikiri_ Год назад

I used to design and hand paint my own single-sided PCB's in the '70's. Not beautiful but they worked fine. Now things are much easier, cheaper and nicer.

@rayceeya8659 Год назад

Fun side effect of the LED movement. On our production floor at work, we are all LED, but we use solar powered calculators. They are literally starving for energy. I've actually switched to doing a lot of my numbers by hand because by the time I track down one of our poor starving calculators I could have done it with pen and paper. Or I just do it in my head.

@iz8dwf Год назад

the full wave rectifier is actually constructed with series capacitors to allow easy conversion to 115V input, just populate the "BX" position with a jumper and it will become a doubler-rectifier. That's also the reason for the center tap going to the lamp.

@eDoc2020 Год назад

That was my first guess as well but stupidly that's not the case. From what I can see on the board photos both ends of "BX" are actually connected together.

@joshmyer9 Год назад

@@eDoc2020 Yeah, but its a very easy and reasonably safe trace to cut to separate them. (I thought that position might be for a ferrite bead, so I paused the video there and spent a second staring at it. It looked like it was designed to be cut, but I couldn't figure out why you'd want to do that. This is a much better explanation for that footprint. I feel slightly dumb for not recognizing what you guys did.)

@dragonrider4253 Год назад

I have seen abandoned buildings still powered here on RU-vid. Many of those are the old magnetic ballasts, and they sem to last forever. There was one place that was decayed so much that things were falling out of the ceiling. Most of the hallway lighting was still working 20 years after the place closed to the public for the final time. This place was built in the thirties if I remember right. The newer electronic ones (mostly) seem pretty good too. There was another video I saw of a small abandoned strip mall that was still powered. A small general store (Think Dollar General, but it wasn't that.) had power still and a few lights were still on, but flickering. There was a TRUE reach in display fridge that was still working fully, Keeping temperature, sounded good and one of the fluorescent tubes was stil happily spewing photons. There were several coolers like this, and none of the other ones were working, but still had power as the electronic thermostat still worked. One of the HVAC fans was working also. This place was also abandoned for about 20 years at the time the video went up. I can't find it now, otherwise I'd link it here. I guess it got deleted by one of the platform's snaps. I found it in my bookmarks and I can confirm. That video doesn't exist anymore, the link is dead. Edited because YT erased half my comment for some reason.

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

I wonder if people realise that a building like that will use a lot of ambient power when they turn the main switch on.

@PaulSteMarie Год назад

That center tap is producing a virtual ground. The schematic is easier to understand if you write in 0 v at the center tap, then you've got a plus and minus 170V rail coming out of the bridge rectifier. The end of the tube connected to the midpoint is getting ±170V going to the ground at the other end. I think you may have the door on the wrong end of the feedback xfmr primary, but xfmr dots make my head hurt.

@petehiggins33 Год назад

I think the dots are fine. When current flows into the dot on the primary the secondary current has to flow out of the dot to balance it. Or if you prefer to think of voltage, when a positive voltage is applied to the dot on the primary then all the other dots will go positive.

@bigjd2k Год назад

I still run fluorescent because I like it! On magnetic chokes too. The extra warmth helps heat the house most of the year anyway. That ballast doesn’t have any tube end-of-life shutdown, so be prepared for cracked glass and melting lampholders if a tube fails and the ballast keeps driving it!

@plainedgedsaw1694 Год назад

Never seen this happen, i only seen them failing to start.

@dancoulson6579 Год назад

Shame to see that fluorescent are going away too. I always liked them. Much more reliable than most of the LED fittings available now. Some shops have half of their lights flickering because they're such poor quality. I'm not saying a fluorescent never had this problem. But at least you could replace the tube, or even the starter if it was of the older variety.

@werner.x Год назад

This is partly true - but i got the impression, the led designs are getting more reliable, at least the ones sold in stores like, Aldi, Lidl, Action. Not so sure with ebay. They're still overdriven and may degrade fast with light emission, that's hard to judge, especially in comparison to the also degrading fluorosent light output. But with current prices for electricity, at least here in Germany, i simply don't want to light shop or home with a bunch of fluorescents eating up 65 watt each any more, when i can achieve a sufficient somewhat comparable lighting for around 20 watt for the same area. Electricity bill adds up so quickly day after day these days, if it isn't just the living room lamp you pay for. So i throw the glassware out voluntarely to do my wallet a favor. Next story are replacement costs and overall costs over livespan if i wish to have the workdpace lightened instead of cosy. A fluorescent tube was never really cheap - so most of us used the tube, until it was hardly lighting at all - but the dim sucker still was consuming the same current like it was bright - for years, maybe decades to come. That wasn't exactly funny either. And these days fluorescent tubes are even more expensive, tendency still raising, whilst the retrofit led replacement at aldi or lidl costs a fraction of the flourescent for the same lamp trending downward. And it get's even cheaper per lumen per square meter workspace, when i switch to E27 fixtures, as long as i buy daylight versions of these bulbs.

@kitecattestecke2303 Год назад

@@werner.x then go to Hornbach and check FL-tube price.. They are wattage reduced since some years and the light itself is

@werner.x Год назад

@@kitecattestecke2303 Thanks. I'll check that offer. My current workshop has to be lit all day half a year and the other half year half a day half the lights on sunny days. But that's quite common. That's, why lighting costs are adding up - doesn't matter as long as the customer pays for expenses, but now it's just hobby and eats my own money.

@emu071981 Год назад

I know they are not quite the same but the oldest of my LED lights here are passing on 13 years old by now and are still working fine despite pretty much 24/7 operation (a high/low LED bulb from Aldi way back in the day). I have only had to replace one of the LED lights which was around 8 years old at the time because the light output was way too low for the room.

@LaserFur Год назад

The upper pair of resistors are needed during start up. this biases the output high so that the lower transistor can draw enough current to drive the 3 winding transformer.

@realShadowKat Год назад

Also a LOT of cookie cutter development homes built (in the midwest US at least) before LEDs were popular use the dual 4 foot fluorescent lamps in the kitchen (I think known as the cloud puff design?). Since it's easy to pop in a tube every few years, they probably hardly get replaced unless there's a renovation. Not looking to reno, I just replaced mine on its own with the LED version.

@Farm_fab Год назад

Clive, have you worked with 12v fluorescent light ballasts for 40 w? They are typically used in caravans and food trucks.

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

They're often based on Royer type oscillators with auxiliary windings for heating the cathodes.

@craignehring Год назад

Cool explanation, going down the rabbit hole of ballast's past, the magnetic ones are really really amazing. Quite a dedication to the advancement of these lamps. There had been a suggestion to have a separate high frequency generator in office buildings to power these lamps that would operate with increased lumen per watt

@hectorpascal Год назад

Can you imagine the amount of radio frequency interference an HF generator would cause, with the wiring and fixtures creating a giant distributed antenna system?! Any alternative impedance matched coaxial wiring system would make it financially unviable.

@tubastuff Год назад

Here in the US, electronic ballasts are pretty simple things--many times even simpler than the unit described. Very often, the tube heaters are not used at all--both sides of the tube heater are tied together and only a single wire goes to each end of the tube. I've got a pile of old General Electric Industrial 32/40 watt 120V ballasts that date back to the late 80s and they work just this way. The nice thing about electronic ballasts is that they're very light when compared to the old iron-core ones--a benefit when you're retrofitting ceiling-mounted fixtures.

@liam3284 Год назад

Instant start is very bad for hot cathode tubes, get that purple glow and blackening of the ends.

@brettd5884 Год назад

"What's that line from between the two 10uF capacitors doing (connects directly to the tube)?" A change in perspective makes that line the "0V" reference, and the far sides of those capacitors +170V and -170V. The two transistors form a push-pull output driving the inductors to the tube. The RC circuit driving the diac for start-up, and the diode preventing the diac from firing makes sense to me. I'm not so certain of the 2 R's and 1nF cap....

@ohaya1 Год назад

The way you explained how the current flows and what happens in the circuit was very helpful. I'm only a novice hobbyist and content like this is gold! There were a couple of things that stood out (at my level of knowledge): what happens when the capacitor fills up and the presence of a low pass? filter there which I did not pick up on my own untill you said it. A very enjoyable video!

@robinsattahip2376 Год назад

I'm surprised you didn't say it first, there's no fuse, that would have cost an extra few pennies. (What's the British word for 1/100 of a Pound?) There's not even a thin spot in the traces where the voltage meets the board to act as a fuse.

@JC-jv5xw Год назад

er -it's a Penny

@ronniepirtlejr2606 Год назад

Good morning Big Clive. I just thought I would remind you of a catchy tune to start your day out today! Bana Nà Mah ........... Do do ..da ..-do-do.. Mah Nà Mah Nà" Have a good day Big Clive!🙂👍

@Subgunman Год назад

Interesting! When I moved to the EU some years ago I brought with me a few of the 4 foot twin tube fixtures. I also had purchased a bunch of GE solid state multi volt ballasts. As I installed these fixtures into utility rooms I replaced the 120 volt ballasts with the multi volt units. Work fine! As for tubes I lucked out buying 2cases of tubes from a liquidator who was selling out a store that had closed. $10 each case. After 16 years have only started to use tubes from second case. I also picked up on a used surplus military comms container that is equipped with 4 foot fixtures. 86 vintage so they are all T12 tubes with magnetic ballasts as well as a filter choke on the AC input. This type of container is used for military comms so any electrical noise must be kept to a minimum. Thought about a retrofit with led tubes but they are way too noisy for HF communications ( yes I am an amature radio operator ) . Does anyone know of a source for 4 foot LED tubes that run on either 12 or 24 volts DC?

@werner.x Год назад

I feel with you, used listening to shortwave radio throughout 70s and 80s. No fun anymore. I would use 12v 50 cm led strips, they come clear or milky in daylight color or yellowish with little clamps for mounting. I was pleased with the white ones for workspace lighting. There's no pulse involved as far as i can remember. But didn't try with SW.

@TheEmbeddedHobbyist Год назад

I prefer a 6 foot rube and the old bimetallic starters and a big choke, which I still have in the garage. It just brings back memories of the good old days as i stand there in the dark after switching the lights on, listening to the genital tick tick of the starter. Plus the little pink flash of light from the end of the plastic starter can. You just don’t get this with LED’s where is the fun of not knowing when it light. 🙂

@lvcifer-cloverfield Год назад

is this what you mean with not being up at sociable hours? There's a certain type of electrical engineer and/or technician that would love to work 9 to 5, but pm to am. I wonder what that's about...

@therealjammit Год назад

For me it's easier to understand the circuit if I think of the tap on the series filter capacitors as ground and the output is +170 and -170 volts. One end of the tube is connected to my ground and the other end swaps between +170 and -170. The 4.7 nf capacitor does double duty as a filament warmer and a series limiting impedance.

@airmann90 Год назад

That's how I looked at it too. Either or though really. But yeah easier to visualize in my head

@fromgermany271 Год назад

The circuit is an (power) oscillator, which lifts the 50Hz to 30kHz, which reduces the ballast inductor from a iron block to a 5gramm ferrite.

@davidkane4300 Год назад

Not saying they were identical to these, but these cheap Chinese ballasts caused so many fires in Afghanistan. When I got to Herat, I had to implement some basic electrical safety standards and specified all ballasts must meet CE standards at a minimum... So they found some of these dodgy ones with CE labels of varying authenticity (which isn't uncommon as I've seen even name brand devices with improperly formatted CE logos). Our better contractors at least got Turkish made ballasts.

@mernokimuvek Год назад

As a nerd obsessed with plasma I will never replace fluorescent or other discharge lamps with LED. It will never give the same feeling.

@anonymouskultist Год назад

_"That was sarcasm"_ , Oh no Clive, that was borderline passive aggressive snark. I approve!

@keithcarpenter5254 Год назад

Elegant, efficient, design. Clever, without going too cheap.

@AMDRADEONRUBY Год назад

Nice a ballast video ! I really like fluorescent lights and love them when they start to flash before dying. But sounds dangerous this ballast and cheap

@curtishoffmann6956 Год назад

Hmm. A ballast that's not even good for weighing down ships.

@StaticCamperVan Год назад

Do you have a video explaining what Power Factor is? I realize this is probably basic knowledge for most of your viewers and as such not a topic you would want to cover.

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

It's the relationship between the voltage and current waveforms. Ideally they would be perfectly in sync, but with electronic loads with rectifiers and smoothing capacitors all the current is drawn at the peak of the sinewave as it tops the capacitor back up.

@StaticCamperVan Год назад

@@bigclivedotcom Thanks Clive. Much appreciated

@craxd1 Год назад

I still have a swing-arm type florescent lamp by my bed to read by, and the two 16" tubes in it have been going now for several years. I purchased two more tubes/bulbs, not long back, and stored them away, and I might buy a ballast, as well, because the lamp, to me, is much better than LED.

@AndyFletcherX31 Год назад

The board would benefit from a fusible resistor on the input.

@thewatchworks1372 Год назад

(To preface, I posted this comment on the day you made this video public, and it somehow ended up in the comment section of some random RU-vid short (found out when I got a very confused sounding reply from someone), so I guess RU-vid is broken, this out of the way)-Very cool to see how these electronic ballasts work. Also ironic that you uploaded this because I actually just converted one of my fluorescent fixtures from electronic to magnetic preheat ballast haha. Electronic ones are good and all, but they are really rough on the tubes, the old preheat ballasting systems were much more gentler when it comes to starting up the lamp, pretty important with my fixture since all my tubes are vintage, in fact I have a Sylvania tube that dates back to 1952! (this one actually happens to be an F8T5 type tube that I found in a vintage manual preheat desk lamp, which explains why the tube is still old and still works!) I’ve also always liked the Blinky startups 😉

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

I've noticed some oddities in the comments for a while. Usually referring to a completely different video.

@sixstringedthing Год назад

"I'd like to demonstrate this but I do not have a 40 watt tube..." Where's Andy @Photonicinduction when you need him eh? Good to see a not-totally-awful three pound product on the channel for a change!

@eDoc2020 Год назад

I was thinking wtf do you mean by three-pound? This is much lighter than that. Then I realized you meant the currency GBP.

@wafikiri_ Год назад

"Quite irrelevant, because . . . . Who uses fluorescent tubes these days?" Well, some months ago, I was reverse-engineering a four-little-fluorescent-tubes bulb circuit (more complex but also more compact than this in the video) and one part of the push-pull circuit made no sense to me, it seemed to be reversely fed. Your explanations have been very relevant for me to understand how it worked! Thanks a lot!

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

Was it in a nail polish curing unit? They use the same circuit, but four inductors, one per tube.

@wafikiri_ Год назад

@@bigclivedotcom No, it was just a light bulb. I've just retrieved it from a drawer and realised it's just two, not four, but U-shaped, tubes, inter-communicated via a short (4 mm.-long) transversal tube. Branded IKEA, model no. 2P211. Specs: 220-240V, 96 mA, 50-60Hz, 11W, 600 lumen. Made in China.

@wafikiri_ Год назад

A light lamp, not bulb, of course.

@moeinsp2027 Год назад

Much respect for my fav engineer BigC🙏 im learned many things from this channel and now I can easily analyse any circuit schematics ❤️

@marcse7en Год назад

"Big C" makes him sound like a Cancer! 👎🤣

@moeinsp2027 Год назад

@Marc Se7en yeah bro i wrote it like that because i was afraid of making a mistake in the spelling :D

@brianyoung9014 Год назад

Clive, thanks for the Saturday streams.

@challochjunction692 Год назад

Have a tridonic ballast which has failed, both transistors(3DD4244D) blown, carbonising around mains input fuses, neutral fuse open circuit. Do you think i would be able to just replace transistors or maybe another component has caused this?

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

It's possible that the diodes at the input have been damaged too. It may be easier to get a new ballast.

@quandiy5164 Год назад

I like how the pcb is laid out like the schematic is. I guess eliminating balancing resistors in the input electros has two reasons. 1 as mentioned is cost cutting. Another is that any dc bias on a flouro tube affects lifetime so removing the resistors essentially makes the caps block dc of the driving waveform.

@spiritofthetime Год назад

Our workshops and offices have a mix of fluorescent tube and LED lighting, the stock room has plenty of spare tubes left and we keep replacing until UV/heat damage makes the fitting or diffuser too brittle to carry on before replacing with LEDs. They do the job and as you point out often last a long time which is worth a lot in high roofed/inaccessible work areas.

@12villages Год назад

These electronic ballasts were good. When tubes stopped working on the old coil wound ballasts, I simply moved them over to these electronic ballasts and they tubes started working again. Increased their life by 10%. My current 22w led tubelight has been running since three years. The old tubes barely ran over 12 months.

@aaronatwood9298 Год назад

When I did the refit in my shop to remove ballast and install Led tubes, I carefully looked for ones with good reviews and hopefully aluminum backing for heat sinking. I installed my Hypericon tubes 6 years ago and the only failure was because one of the tombstones broke. Other than that they have been great.

@MesutAtmaca Год назад

best electronic full aliexpress

@masterblaster9123 Год назад

Hey friend are you right or left handed Im a lefty. People say it contributes to my intelligence

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

Right handed.

@Mark1024MAK Год назад

My employer appears to have a policy (or the contractors that do the work) to replace fluorescent fittings with LED equivalent fittings on failure only. Unless in customer and public areas, where they fit the dim/bright sensor LED fittings. These change to full brightness when they detect movement, then after a while go back to their dim mode. Occasionally (such as in stairways) they use LED fittings that also have movement sensors (radar type, as they can detect through walls) that switch the LEDs off completely if no movement has been detected for a while.

@MyProjectBoxChannel Год назад

I used to do maintenance for bp oil's head office in Canary wharf. It was mostly fluorescent fittings with with "digital" ballasts(with Dali dimming function). The ballast circuitry was a lot more complex, With a ton of suppression and filter circuitry. The failed ballasts provided me with a constant stream of components to salvage from them. Class XY capacitors for example. My colleagues thought I was crazy for stripping down old florescent ballasts😂😂🤔.

@nutsnproud6932 Год назад

Clive I use fluorescent tubes. 40W in the kitchen is over 10 years old. Replacement tube is 5€. Genuine Philips 10W LED light in sitting room on ES holder lasted 1 year cost 8€.

@maw9406 Год назад

same here. 8 years and it’s still going strong

@Knaeckebrotsaege Год назад

my workshop light is a dual T8 58W neutral white flourescent tube setup, upgraded from conventional ballasts to Osram "quicktronic professional" electronic ones probably 15 years ago and wired such that I can just turn on one of the two tubes. The tubes were used when i upgraded the ballasts and have lasted till 2017 when they both stopped firing in short succession (a week?) to each other. I replaced both with new 58W tubes... for a whopping 3eur a piece. Meanwhile I've had to replace countless more expensive LED lamps (GU10, E14, E27) after as little as 4 months due to various failure modes (usually catastrophic, visibly burnt chips etc). My oldest, non-modified LED lamps that are still working fine are just about approaching *half* of what the original used flourescent tubes managed, and ironically those LED lamps were cheapo ones (3W ISY from mediamarkt)

Год назад

same here. 20 years with fast electronic starter and it’s still going

@SeanBZA Год назад

Will work with the 3foot lamp, as that is basically a constant current driver, so will simply run the tube at roughly the right current, just like it does with the 4 foot tube.

@TradieTrev Год назад

Electronic ballasts compared to iron core types with a starter just don't last as long IMHO. How you explain the circuit I'd imagine the transistor bypass on the starter circuit always dies.

@cool386vintagetechnology6 Год назад

"Who uses fluorescent tubes these days?", you ask. They're alive and well in my place operating with simple resistor and choke ballasts (no RFI and don't blow up with a spike on the mains), along with incandescent light bulbs. Sufficient tubes and bulbs have been hoarded to see me out.

@TehMG Год назад

As usual... complete lack of interference filtering. All AM/shortwave radios in the vicinity go BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!

@snakezdewiggle6084 Год назад

Hmm, very, em, illuminating ! Sorry, couldn't help myself. Thanks Clive. ;)

@TheFirstGhirn Год назад

Being less than young, I remember the horrors of the nasty tar filled transformers in the original fluorescent fixtures that often ended their life with a burn and smoke. The testing company I worked for was in the basement of an old bank building with questionable air movement, having one of these things go off was a Chernobyl quality event. A smell that you can taste... ah the memories.

@spehropefhany Год назад

Nice explanation. Looks like if you installed a jumper at Bx it would allow operation from 120VAC - voltage doubler- (or blow it to h-e-double-hockey-sticks on 240)..

@Dino-1958 10 месяцев назад

Electronic ballasts are okay but I miss the prinker prinker sound caused by the glow starter when they switch on the tubes, maybe the lights last a little longer but I've pulled out tubes over 20+yrs old from offices using conventional choke ballasts. Conventional fluorescent tubes may use a bit more electricity but they tend to dim a bit after first use then find a plato of light output until near the end of their life. LED replacements might use less electricity but like all LED lamps continuously dim throughout their life normally getting to an unusable level far quicker that conventional tubes. 💐♥️🧀😎🐈‍⬛😼🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦💐

@christ2290 Год назад

That's a 100% Chinesium balast there. But, I mean, it's elegantly simple I suppose. Not much feedback or safety though.

@smncowardyahoo Год назад

Actually I've tried lots of cheap led lights to light planted aquarium and they fail quickly. Within weeks.....

@robinbrowne5419 Год назад

At the robot repair shop Mother Robot asks "What's wrong with Grandpa? Look at his eyes. They're glowing red." "Hmm.." says the technician, prising the back of Grandpa's head open with his spudger. "Let's have a quick look in here..... Ah yes.. Now I see.. The heater relay of his balast module is stuck on." \|/ @:-) 8o] ( :- ] /|\

@jamhough22 Год назад

Very interesting circuit, a lot happening. I however am glad fluorescent lights are dying out, i don’t like the harshness of light or the flickering.

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

With electronic ballasts they don't flicker.

@jdlech Год назад

"running of the country" Kinda like "running of the bulls" With kinda the same effect.

@fromgermany271 Год назад

For a long time the UK government was gracious with VAT for parts bought in China and sold to other EU countries. Around 2015 there was a statement from Brussels that a few billions of this VAT for these transit products are still to be collected by the UK. Not doing it was in fact a subsidy (non-legal one). Now that they never benefit by having businesses with big eBay margins anymore, the people who made the cross in the wrong box find out by experience.

@rafaf777 Год назад

i bought one some months ago out of curiosity and it’s definitely not 40W, more like 15/20

@Damien.D Год назад

Old ballast for fluorescent tubes lasted decades. On the other side, I have a bunch of these electrochinese things that have failed. Have replaced them with LED tubes (that fails fast too). The few of these electronic ballasts that still works burns (literally cooks) tubes in less than a year. Screw all of that "sustainable" crap. I've scored a lot of vintage industrial fluorescent fixtures (the long tube flavor) in a dumpster, and I will put them in good use replacing the modern ones... (also old starters makes the random flickering lightshow when turned on, especially satisfying when there are many turned on at once)

@Marshmish Год назад

Hmmmm, Yes well I still use them in the loft, sheds and garage! Oh and Pantry........most people not having a pantry there days? Hmmmm.

@alexkuzm11 8 месяцев назад

Thank you very much for this, I couldn't understand how the feedback transformer works when I tried to fix a broken lamp. (There are a UV lamps out there that still use those). That power supply was on the kind of a a circular custom-shaped board that would fit into the base of the lamp. It had a similar design with a couple more transistors and diodes here and there.

@Veso266 Год назад

Not realy a light problem but more of the direction we are going to Flurescent fixtures usualy only the tube needs to be replaced, and you dont need to be trained for that, and they last longer LEDs nowadays fail quicker and also the fixture needs to be replaced, because an average joe does know how to repair the swichmode supply in there that probably failed (leds themselfs usualy dont fail) Why do you need to trow the whole fixture away, why cant you just replace the led stripe inside I mean, flurescent tubes were replacable, why dont they make modern light more modular And also I dont understand this it wasts power mentality (it didnt waste it in the 80s, why does it do it now?) Also what the point of saving power on lights, if we drive electric cars and need iot devices for basic tasks that we could do by hand 40years ago We are saving nothing, just shifting power needs possibly wasting even more power (hard to mesure though) Also I can power a flurescent tube remotly just bting it to a broadcast tower or radar and see

@Starchface Год назад

Good video. An idea for a follow-up video would be to get some 40W tubes and make your measurements. Borrow tubes if possible. A detailed explanation of ballast theory and operation would be nice. I'm a little hazy on that and I can't be the only one. It may be true that fluorescent tubes do not find many applications in new installations, but there are countless old installations across the globe. These are usually production facilities and institutional settings of various sorts. When the lights go out, it's a problem to be immediately addressed so that the facility can proceed uninterrupted with normal operations. Maintenance staff will be dispatched to replace the tubes. When that doesn't work, an electrician will be called who will likely replace the ballast. With the lights back on, the problem is solved and no on one gives it another thought. Replacing and upgrading the lighting comes out of capital budgets and is often part of larger renovation projects. LEDs, if chosen appropriately, can reduce maintenance and energy costs significantly, but they're not cheap. It's an investment. Until that investment in time and money is made, there will remain a need and a market for fluorescent tubes and ballasts.

@mikigry9838 Год назад

This ballast is far from treating a fluorescent tube nicely That tiny capacitor doesn"t provide enough heating for electrodes. With these kind of ballasts tube starts instantly with purple flashing around the electrodes which decreases the life of said lamp. A PTC or a NC relay connected across this capacitor (to short it for a few seconds) is required to start the lamp in a nice way 2. There is a high chance this ballast will underdrive the lamp beyond a healthy threshold (shortening is"s life even further) 3. There is no EOL protection meaning that when the lamp goes EOL a battle - transistors vs electrodes begins

@Sigira0 Год назад

My flat in London has TWO fluorescent lights - a little square one in the bathroom and a “normal” 4 footer in the kitchen. Kitchen recently (2 weeks) needed a new starter…

@liam3284 Год назад

saturation limited oscilator, nice. I have rarely seen them in CFLs, sometimes in battery-powered lights.

@seymourpro6097 Год назад

It's a pity that this quality of electronics has arrived just after LED lamps and linear fittings replaced fluorescent lamps.

@BillySugger1965 Год назад

Best circuit. I wonder if that pink capacitor couples some mains-derived voltage ripple to the base circuits to help sync the oscillator frequency to a multiple of mains frequency.

@primech-128bit Год назад

I had similar die in an hour driving a 32W T5 tube. It's essentialy a glorified CFL ballast that is binned with a bulb._

@maxgood42 Год назад

I don't know but... I was thinking that becouse this is electonic style then the rating could be taken as being able to handle UP TO 40 watt's , and therefor maybe the 30 watt tube you have would be ok as the transitors would switch when they reach threshold anyway ??? Maybe ???

@christopherwilliamdodd236 Год назад

Almost identical to the circuit used for the old 12 Volt halogen lamp electronic transformers. Think of it as a half bridge and if you scope the output you will see trains of high frequency triggered by the diac at a much lower frequency. Not sure if it was intentional or happened by chance, but, due to the action of the toroidal feedback transformer, you need to give it a load before it starts to work. After that, it only supplies as much power as you pull from it, hence the misquoted power factor figures always given with these devices. Big problem is that as the tube ages, it pulls more current and the switching transistors tend to go off with a bang.

@kdrum90 Год назад

I find this and similar designs to be not very reliable. The problem is as the lamp age, the voltage across its leads increases naturally and at some point in time those MJE13003 transistors just blow up due to overvoltage.

@brianallen9810 Год назад

That does not look like any ballast I've ever seen. Looks incredibly flimsy and kind of dangerous. Good.

@imark7777777 Год назад

Was trying to diagnose somebody's ring light. It happens to be a ceiling fan that uses a fluorescent tube in a ring, I've only ever seen this once. They bought an LED retrofit which slightly doesn't fit the tabs that hold the bulb in. And in an attempt to figure out why it wasn't working I bypassed the ballast and blew the internal fuse. Apparently they never intended the unit to be direct wired. annoying because the ballast in the ceiling fan was bad after diagnosing with a known good glass bulb. And no not necessarily standard as in no standard light sockets it had a prepare pin snap in design. And ceiling fans are notorious for not having any extra space.

@electroniquepassion Год назад

thank you it's very interesting 👍👋

@JohnClulow Год назад

To reiterate previous comments: Great explanation! It is truly amazing how this design has evolved to become so cost effective. Probably exemplary of so much we've come to take for granted these days.

@larry785 Год назад

HEY!!!! That's the same package that the fireworks stand sells!!!

@Mark1024MAK Год назад

Many years ago, I pulled a temporary fluorescent fitting from a skip. It had been running from a 110V AC centre earthed supply (55V - earth - 55V) which is standard for building sites and temporary site lighting in the UK. On opening, I was surprised to find it used an autotransformer (to step the voltage up) in the same form factor as the magnetic ballast!

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

In the past, various trades used to make complete deathtrap contraptions from those for powering their 240V site radios from 110V. Usually just some wires and lots of insulation tape.

@phonotical Год назад

You can run a lower wattage tube kn a higher wattage ballast, or, at least I do... Couldn't you use a large wattage resistor?

@ultraproject2619 Год назад

I think your right the circuit appears to be a blocking oscillator, relying on the base drive transformer to set the frequency. The parallel resitors and cap might be there in case the tube or wiring goes open to stop it from oscillating at RF frequencies.

@mattmoreira210 Год назад

Oh god! Those electrolytics are going to blow up so fast. They're under so much stress.

@mikigry9838 Год назад

So theoretically speaking - by adding a second diac in series with existing one or replancing with two higher voltage zener diodes (to get rid of polarity problem) one would be able to delay star of the oscilations until filtering cap reaches a higher voltage ?

@EldaLuna Год назад

honestly i still prefer fluorescent tubes over the led tubes.. don't care what people say but they last way longer in general even with more modern ballasts in a sense... ive seen places replace theirs with those led tube replacements and not even a month and there was burnt out ones everywhere its unreal. i refuse to use those, in fact i still use T12's i got a stock pile of em here and i just love the way the light is given off them vs the T8's or T5's (which are also ok but just like the bigger tubes eheh)

@thereare4lights137 Год назад

I wouldn't mind seeing you do a video on one of the older "stupidly complicated" ballasts. 😉

@fatShowPony Год назад

Isn't the 1n cap just there for pre-heating the filaments? I can't see any other current path till the diac breaks over causing the lower npn to switch.

@CanizaM Год назад

I doubt this will last 70-80 years, unlike some preheat ballasts I have.

@owenjacob5542 Год назад

i put 2 plug & play 16w led lamp's replaces a 32w fl lamp the fl lamp's diyng in 3 months the led's r 6 months old and still going strong the ballast is still in play

@aurthorthing7403 Год назад

Fluorescent lights are making a comeback due to these awesome flowers they can grow. They work good in the vegetative stages.

@frogz Год назад

(shifty eyes) for yer tomatoes eh? Oh wait, they legalized it in half of the country now, shame homegrown is still illegal unless you have a permit in most places, overgrow the world!

@iamzid Год назад

i could be crazy, but it doesn't look like that green deal between the two smoothing capacitors connects to their output, the orange circuit. if you ask me it pretty clearly goes from the red circuit to the pink circuit.

@LariFariYoutube Год назад

hmm..by myself.. i prefer to have lots of fluorecent tubes in my workshop, because the LED lights cast too much shadow... And i am annoyed by these cheap electronic ballasts.. they tend to fail after a few month on a regular bases... I whisch i could find "good old" ballasts for my workshop lamps.. The heavy beasts with the "starter"... But i can not find them on the internet anymore^^

@davidg4288 Год назад

I googled "fluorescent light magnetic ballast" and found a few preheat style ballasts, of course if I tried to actually order one they be likely out of stock. They're not cheap either.