Retro emergency light (with schematic and waveforms) 

I hope my humble gratitude will support this amazing effort you put on spreading knowledge. Thank you!

lol, i use to live in a apartment complex and one of these caught fire and the whole building had to be evacuated.

Thanks again for your entertaining and informative videos this month.

Definitely explore the drivers. I used to take those "emergency lighting" fixtures totally for granted, that they'd work if needed, it's a good job I didn't know how crap the circuitry was. Judging by the speed of your delivery, you sound a lot better DGW, good to hear. I hope you're feeling OK

An authentic "Robicon" capacitor! Never seen one of those before, but I have encountered "Rudoycon" and my favorite "Rulycon" (all copies of the Japanese brand Rubycon).

You should definitely make a long video about the fixtrues with electronic ballasts. I just keep hoarding them until I can buy them.

I just love your videos about fluorescents, you explained how the driver works and even turned the lamp into preheat at the end, incredible, if you know of more things to talk about on the subject I will be very happy if you do

By how fast you speak I’ve got the impression that you’ve fully recovered from the brainfog from the creature. 👍😁

Wow, great video I learned some new things. Thanks for all those numbers from real balast. And yes, they are going to bake if starter goes short. When I was working at some factory I go around time to time and replacing some. Many of them was brown and crispy.

Reminds me that most low voltage light drivers used to be awful to tubes. Instant start (no preheat) asymmetric wave form. Used to get more life out of the tubes by physically reversing them.

The "inverter" circuit is similar to a "Joule Thief" or "Ringing Choke" converter circuit. It is a Joule Thief with an isolated feedback winding and a series capacitor. There is a diode in antiparallel with the transistor's base in order to provide a return path for the negative pulses on the feedback winding. In order to light up a fluorescent tube, the circuit must first provide a high voltage pulse, then limit the current, and the Joule Thief / Ringing Choke naturally does that. Another option would be to use an electronic ballast circuit with a step up transformer, but that would add quite a lot of components. (base drive transformer, 2 transistors, 2 diodes, LC circuit) in addition to the step up transformer At some point I thought a series capacitor could help striking the tube in both polarities, , but this would not work given the very asymmetrical waveform. Also, no winding of a transformer can have a dc voltage on it.

Dobry Den :) Many thanks again for the detail and knowledge you provide :) Given their weird shape and texture, I have always wondered how a ballast is put together, what's inside. I assume they are just like a transformer, but different. Much love and thanks from the UK :)

Beautiful, I was learning something new about the meaning of the ballast markings.

10:28 Its because the circuit is similar to the ones in electric fly swatters, basically in feedback based oscillators, the voltage becomes so high without a load that it destroys itself, that’s probably why fly swatters have a capacitor in them.

Thanks. I loved that battery powered tube circuit.

Best oldskool electronics channel ever😁👍

Yes please explore the other battery backup driver cos we GET IT!

i Recently Picked up a Pocket Fluorescent Flashlight that runs on 2 AA Batteries, its an Osram Dulux Pocket. Never saw a Tube used as a Flashlight before, thats why i got this thing. it has a Very nice Light output but it Only lasts about 2 Hours.

Kind of surprised you don't have Electroboom moments with the way you like to connect mains 😃

Ever Ready used to market a battery powered fluorescent tube light for use in sheds etc.

Zdravím a posílám poděkování za tvorbu na tomto kanálu i na webových stránkách. I díky nim se mi před rokem a půl podařilo vystudovat VŠ s oborem zaměřeným na elektroniku a nyní tyto znalosti využívám ve svém zaměstnání (vývojář HW). Mimochodem mám doma podobné zařízení (asi i podobně staré), ale ten "předřadník" je tam poněkud sofistikovanější (byť také samokmitající) - zdá se, že má zapojené i žhavení... Pokud by byl zájem, můžu poslat.

Really not bad, thank you for sharing this! Seems like these things are not designed for frequent power failures, and are only for emergency use... these things absolutely destroy tubes, so LED variants would obviously be way way better. I was also thinking, is there a decent way of repurposing this thing, and you answered it nicely. I would have this as a regular 240V 8W tube fitting for normal operation, like any other standard light fitting.

Yes please explore more fluros and discuss the capacitor

Ahoj dlouho se na tebe už dívám a miluju tvoje video hodně mi pomohli při mých projektech a právě jsem zjistil že jsi z české republiky skvělá práce pokračuj dál😅

I will always prefer fluorescent and other discharge lamps over LEDs.

Even them camping tube lights had a terrible inverter. Now LED inverter are getting to a stage that failure rectification is costlier than the power saving!

A classic linear power supply, none of that SMPS rubbish! Nice simple circuitry. I like the single transistor being enough to disable the converter - you can even add a mode switch to allow the light to be on when on AC power. Nice Metra Blansko nixie DMM :)

I've seen those electrolytics in crappy alarm clocks lol. Robicon... Not ruby. Haha

Just leave it running for a couple of hours on proper AC. It will take care of the blackened ends a little if you're lucky.

Great video and yeah, the LED stuff I get it and may your salt forever flow freely...cheers.

13:52 I have that exact tridonic I took from a fly zapping machine, also the high voltage transformer

My school recently replaced their backup fluorescent fixtures with LEDs replacements, that have the same fixture but smaller and the outside needed to be repainted, even tho they couldve just swapped the boards. But they also come with a seperate battery boxes that blink all the time and are really annoying. In some rooms you cant even dimm them down all the way because the green LED is so bright. The LED alternates of flashing in green and orange, thankfully its not a blue LED.

Excellent ❤❤❤

It lights all the time!

Thanks!

I love when fluorescent lamp lights up wth normal balast and starter

Hello that video was very interesting please show us the electronic ballast flourescent you have. My workshop has 1 HF ballast lamp and 2 36 watt tubes on normal 50 cycle ballasts to light it.

Throw a Philips HF-Matchbox Blue 109 fluoro driver in there and just use it as a mains-powered light, give it some life, though maybe also get it a new, un-sputtered 80cri tube... :P

I never had to play with fluorescent lamps, and surely finding a good explanation is even much more difficult to decipher. Not bad at all covering things here. I got ccfl tubes that i would like to get them lighting for the fun of them, but i got the royer oscillator messing up, no way to make one without ferrite materials. Finding a good shape for hobby use isnt easy either. Toroidal ones are difficult to wind up because of the number of turns needed. If anyone here has a good reference online with the math behind ccfl tubes, I'd appreciate it.

Great video.

Wow! One of those ballast were made in a country that doesn't exist anymore! Could you imagine trying to explain how you were born in a country that doesn't exist...

This was a battery cooker too

Convert it to a 220v magnetic ballast

I think the third number in the temperature rating might be the maximum permissible ambient temperature around the ballast. On the one with just three numbers, the 50°C delta T plus the 80°C presumed ambient adds up to 130°C max operating temp. Edit: Doesn't make as much sense for the ones with multiple numbers with the capacitive ratings, tho.

Ah ... I always wondered how these things work and whether it's worth salvaging an old one...

i'm always anxious about people bending components like at 2:27, but to add to anxiety you also had windows device disconnect sound in the background to reinforce the whole thing

Simplest trick eith lead acid batteries: add water. This won't save the battery - when PbS has formed on the electrodes, you can only recycle them - but if the battery dried out quickly, it will at least draw currdnt and have a minimal cspacity.

make a video about your incandescents collection

I have a similar one.

How does the current waveform of the same tube look like with an inductive ballast? Does the tube become sort of a diode because the emissive layer was stripped at one end?

👍

Will you ever try making your own inverter to power a tube? Like 12/24V for 8W tube

3:20 Is dry. Open the cover and put inside deionized water.

8W T5 NEON 6V 6500K COOL

I would've put in a new batter and one of yours ir2153 based fluorescent tube drivers. But that's just me, I'm weird :)

Hello Why not using the housing to make emergengy light with some led and lithuim battery

do you have a soldering iron?

Ďakujem za toto video s popisom činnosti tohto zariadenia, ten menič je naozaj veľmi jednoduchý, viem že ty si navrhol oveľa lepší, ktorý máš na svojich stránkach, v článku s názvom "Modernizace přenosného zářivkového svítidla PŽS-01", v tom svietidle bol pôvodne menič na podobnom princípe ako tu vo videu uvedený a ty si tam vyrobil oveľa lepší. A ešte chcem napísať, že ja chápem prečo v tomto prípade prerábky tohto svietidla na sieťové napätie nechceš použiť svietivé diódy, preto lebo chceš využiť komponent, ktorý tam bol pôvodne - t.j. pôvodnú žiarivku, bez toho by to trochu postrádalo zmysel, lebo z pôvodného zariadenia by vlasne zostala len skrinka.

COOL OUI MERIE

That battery might be savable.

How would you make a 12v driver for fluorescent tube so the end does not get black? ?

The LED lamps in my house have me missing fluorescent ones.

VICTOR MONDAON OK

Now I am interested in how poor the quality is of a modern emergency light.

@diode gone wild are you bald I saw wave form as baldform 😂😂

Those electrolytic capacitors are "Robicon", which are fake Rubycon capacitors!

Your odysse account is still broken.

this one feels rushed , are you doin ok ?

LEDs do not work like bulbs, bulbs diffuse light better than LED, bulbs literally put out a different light. Technology Connections channel has several videos by now on this topic,

It's refreshing to see such a simple design. Some fo the Florescent EM lights were ridiculously complex! And very expensive. I had to convert a Zumtobel emergency light to led. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eT7ufxFWhJk.html

The poor design here shows how much 'plenty of business people' care about actual people.