Lighting enthusiast here :) your mercury lamp sketch is quite good apart from the part of the resistor burning out, AFAIK the resistor is just a fairly normal carbon resistor what your probably thinking of are safety lamps which will either have 1 of 2 types of mechanisms to extinguish the arc if the outer bulb is broken, theres the 1st type which uses a SMALL tungsten filament in series with the main arc tube (this Is NOT a self ballast mercury lamp) which will burn out if the bulb is broken, disconnecting the arc tube the second type uses a spring loaded mechanism as part of its frame so if the bulb breaks it all springs apart disconnecting everything it is worth noting even without those features a mercury lamp will burn out eventually if run in air, due to the arc tube seals oxidising (its also worth mentioning the arc tube is made of Quartz to withstand the high temperature and pressure of the arc, rather then explicitly for UVC transmission, that just happens to be a nice bonus feature :) )
@@DijonFromage In case it wasn't obvious small caps are unlikely to cause any significant amount of capacitive shock. However even small caps can mess up signally through organs which is why you never want a current through you. Thats why its better (although still not really advisable) to discharge through your finger rather than say touching one side of the cap with one hand and the other through the circuit board through your other hand.
Thank you for the explanation of the street lamp bulbs. I have similar bulbs but as a blacklight lamp for disco applications (with the dark violet transparent coating on the outside instead of the white phophor). And I allways wondered why there was a very dim glowing tungsten filament on the outside of the inner mercury tube - I allways thought that it was for pre-heating the lamp. But it makes sense what you say - if someone smashed the outer bulb, the filament would burn up (like when you smash an oldschool incandescent lamp) and the ignition would not work anymore.
That's different. It is actually using the tungsten filament as the ballast. That type of lamp is not normally very efficient at producing UV. A compact fluorescent UV lamp will be much brighter.
I remember using several of those 160 watt self-ballasted blacklight bulbs in a school play back in the 1980s. They were temperamental things and got very hot. There was also a 125 watt version which didn't have the internal filament and used an external ballast. As you say, CFL bulbs are more efficient, cheaper, run cooler and are far more reliable.
' "Dumet" is a portmanteau of "dual" and "metal," because it is a heterogeneous alloy, usually fabricated in the form of a wire with an alloy core and a copper cladding.' - Wikipedia. So, no, it isn't a French word, though it looks like one.
It's not in my Petit Robert, I'm guessing the french term might be bimét, a shortening of bimétallique. Or maybe they adopted the English term. But anyway, I'm off on my ducycle with my dunoculars to do some oiseaux watching. ..
I have one exactly like this but probably different branding. I was rather intrigued by the electrode assembly and would love to make a circuit to drive these little tubes "properly" i.e. with warm-start either switch or (preferably) SRS. The "blue" reference is indeed a misnomer as these are a close match to the "daylight" lamps I have in most of the house. These are around 6500°K to my eyes with a bit of a blue tint from the visible mercury discharge. I'll have to investigate these little tubes as they might be suitable as bodge-in replacements for mini LCD TVs. Better IMHO than putting in an LED PCB panel, at least in the sense of the modification being more "in-keeping" with the design >EDIT< Added a bit.
Nice to see something that's not using LED's for once. I used to think LED's were brilliant. Not I'm starting to get annoyed with them. Pretty cool way of igniting the fluorescent tube though, very similar to the old HM lamps, with the auxiluary electrode.
My recollection is that traditional fluorescent lamps do not pass much UVC, because their envelopes are made of traditional soda-lime glass. Germicidal lamps generally use fused quartz or some other glass that readily passes UVC.
You can actually fix the numbers on the HOPI meter by removing the cable and using a sharpie, draw the numbers you want to see on the front of the LED displays. Upside of this, it will also still work when there's a power cut. You're welcome!
This takes me back. I remember Taking to bits a very cheap butterfly style night light when I was little from a $2 shop and it had the same tube! That was about 2000/2001. Wouldn't have expected them to be still made:)
He's like my junior high geometry teacher. "You know, that angle is about the same as the cellar doors on my parents' old house. When I was 10, someone had left them open, so when I snuck into my Dad's car, and accidentally put it in reverse, it went careening down the steps, making a God awful racket, all the way into the basement. ..." We made it our mission to get him telling stories every class.
Would be interesting to revisit mercury vapour and sodium lamps. Always thought that both were robust technology and it's a shame they seem to be being replaced with led floodlights and streetlights that appear useless at the slight hint of fog or mist.
That's the cutest little glow tube I have ever seen. Then again I haven't seen a lot of glow tubes. Please don't hesitate with the digressions. Like condiments - not needed but does make it more tasty.
To fix the flickering display, change the shutter speed of the camera. Usually setting it to as long speed as possible fixes flickering since it will integrate the light over a longer time for each frame. But setting it to a strange multiple of the mains frequency can cause flickering in the room lights.
Loved the part about the mercury vapor lamps. I work at a school and a couple years ago I got elected to go to the top of the stadium lights and change all the metal halide bulbs (which seem to be almost the same as mercury vapor). They're 1500 watts each and they're absolutely huge and I was fascinated by their construction. Looked way different inside than an ordinary incandescent bulb. Now I know how they work!
The metal halide lamps have a different igniting system. They usually have a module inline that adds a series of high voltage spikes to the current limited supply to strike the lamp.
If Dave Jones had opened the thing, he'd have gone directly for the nipple action of the tube! Seriously though, what manufacturing company still makes these tubes now that we no longer have tiny backlit thin film 4:3 LCD handheld TV receivers! Maybe Timeguard found a billion of them in a warehouse someplace in China?
At work, I replaced some of those mercury vapor bulbs on the outside lights. I saw those interesting resistors inside the envelope and had to break the bulbs open to extract the resistors. Turns out it's 68K. I kept the resistors, I need to test it to see if the resistor is still working or if it's open circuit now.
Since you can basically backlight a room with 2.5W LED light power, i think they may have recycled these tubes. Making money of old stock. is there any datecode on the device/pcb or the tubes? Or did they just never stop making them identically since 1960 ? Seeing the pcb beeing fixed manually shows that the work-time must be hellofalot cheaper than better pcbs. Of course recycle or getting really cheap somehow gets the same, if all the manufacturers of fluorescent lamps have massive overproduction/large stocks which nobody wants anymore. Judging by the size i could see two or 4 of these beeing used in old emergency exit signs, or to light single stairs / escape routes from the side... edit: why does it say "to be used in vertical position only" ?? edit2: does it say 2009 as a year on the pcb ?? LEDs wherenot that cheap/good 10years ago, so a lost fight for the old tech ??
Hello Clive I was watching one of your videos and you mentioned Cadona the Scots Italian fair ground family in the late fifty’s early sixties he brought is fair to Redcar and liked it so much he decided to stay.The fair was on some waist ground about twenty yards from the beach. He eventually made a compound with concrete posts and slotted slabs .hi next move was to get rid of the mobile generators and fit then in a brick building. He approached the firm I had just started serving my time for to come and put some services the compound from the generator bullying which we carried out over the winter. We installed over the winter two inch conduit and 19/064 single cables round the compound with outlets to the various rides and stalls. The conduit had to be cut and threaded by hand bu we had the use of the firms van to pull the cables in , It was hard going in those days. Mr Cadona wasn’t happy about the see air taking its toll on all the equipment after a coupaling of years he had a large building constructed the same size as the compound And we got the job of transferring the existing Insulaition into the new building . He eventually sold out to a Mr Lovett . I hope this havant board you . Regards Dave. The firm that I served my time with was JACK EATONS which I eventually owned but that another story.
Clive, I have a question about conventional 4 FT, 40 W fluorescent tubes... We have hundreds if not a thousand of these things lighting our warehouses at work (they are in the process of being retrofitted with LED tubes). Anyway, when some of these these fluorescent tubes die, the entire tube glows red/pink *the entire length.* If mercury vapor emits UVC, and the phosphor coating inside the tube converts the UVC to white, what is happening inside the tube at this point to make the entire tube (not just the ends) glow red/pink?
That is the soul escaping. (Jokes aside, I always assumed it was the introduction of atmospheric gas into the tube, which would have a different plasma. It's a good question.)
That became common when they started putting in very small doses of mercury. Sometimes the mercury gets absorbed into the phosphors and there is none left free in the tube to emit the UV light for the phosphors. So the low level pink colour is just the carrier gas on its own. Usually argon with maybe a touch of neon to make it run warmer.
One of the two main progressive failure modes, depletion of the mercury by adsorption into phosphor and tube components, with newer lamps generally using a smaller charge of mercury. Common in tubes where running time is the major factor. Depletion of electrode emission mix is the other one, more common if start cycles dominate - an electronic one-hit starter helps to reduce it. If neither of those reaches critical, degradation of the phosphor reduces light output, but tends not to have a failure point
I think the matter with the Hopi meter is the electrical grid pulsing at 50Hz while the shutter speed on the sensor in most phones work on a 30/60/120 fps range. Most stand alone cameras have an option for adjusting the fps though.
There were a few Enterprise model builders that used something like that for the number boards in their models calling it Raytheon lighting to mimic the reflected lighting on the identification numbers. I found it just as easy to just thin the pladtic in that area and not paint it with light blocker allowing internal lighting to shine though illuminating the numbers. Why anyone wanted to use florescent is beyond me.
JMC Electromet are the world's biggest manufacturers of Dumet wire. It's made of an Iron core, shrouded in an Oxygen-free Copper sheath, annealed, and sometimes sold as oxidised and can also be Nickel plated. Thanks for an interesting insight, Clive. Might just buy one for the novelty value, despite the awful power factor. It's possible that the epoxy filler in that capacitor had not finished hardening before it was used in the lamp, and that some of it poured out before it finally set. Therefore, it's possible that someone skimped on the catalyst in the mix. Might even have been made on-site, as and when they were needed. JIT manufacture being pushed to the limit!
I know, right? It's like, his voice is so calm that you want to fall asleep at night, listening to his videos. But, you can't, because they're too darned interesting. Hah. Maybe if you pick your favorite video, and play it every night. I wish I'd had a video of him reading Goodnight Moon, when my kids were little. They're grown up now, but maybe it won't be too long till I can watch these videos with grandkids. Never too early to start teaching them about electronics. "Now, Little Byt, we never use our fingers to check if a capacitor is holding a charge, like the nice man does."
Reminicent of the days when electronics were hobbled together with discrete components and stuffed into a box. Miniaturization was not a primary consideration. It made diagnostics and repair much friendlier.
Self-ballasted Mercury Vapour lamps are very interesting. I got a few years ago as surplus from a council (they were a cheap way of upgrading tungsten street lights) and they all still work, two outside the house and two in the loft.
@Rick Delair Totally. I have to say the self-ballasted ones are slightly more useful to me as they give off useable light straight away whilst they're warming up, but if I had the option at the time I would've gone for normal mercury vapour lamps with separate ballasts.
Something about the presentation/packaging and bodged repair(?), not to mention where it was purchased from, suggests that the example of that particular product you have there has very little to do with the genuine ‘Timeguard’ (Smiths Industries?) range. Either that, or it’s been returned faulty and was resold after bodging.
Ive still got a few old mercury street lights and they dont tend to create a greenish white light but more of a high intensity white light although over time as the phosphor degrades, the green arc tube can be seen more creating that greenish white light. The old style of mercury street light were 'open bowl' with a holophane glass ring around the bulb to direct the light or something like that but obviously a few rocks and a bit of anti social behaviour ment that those early mbf street lights didn't last very long.
Love old street lights in a romantic kinda way. Ahh! Yer ma shouting yer name oot it the streets coz you promised you'd be before they came on😂 awe the 80s childhood. I too digressed ❤
@@tankandrouge7259 remember Doug funny. Nickelodeon right. The show name was Doug something. Get Rivers for so long. Also hello Lamppost what's you knowing I've come to see your flowers growing. And also if you did break a bulb with. A stone and that that bulb goes out. Hello darkness my old friend I've come to talk with you again Sound of Silence. Simon and Garfunkel both these two previous songs I was quoting.
I love the way you discharged the capacitors. It would have been even funnier if you had used your tongue. Thanks for mentioning dumet wire. I looked it up. Very interesting.
I tried the Big Clive discharge method on a strobe light cap once, you only do it once, when I was young and was involuntarily relocated across the room. Happy days.
Ouchies I vaporized the tip of a screwdriver once By acibent but I can't remember what type of device it was and we're in a circuit or whatever but packed a heck of a punch I don't know how much current with it but I'm sure it was over hundreds of amps and not sure what voltage the camp was because it was so long ago I don't even know what time it was but whenever I know it has a ginormous capacitors and I had attempted to discharge but I didn't rise for a discharge from there was an open connection and that was a problem that was vexing media fine white wasn't working. Soap with no words always go from one side to the other and don't rely on any other wiring I learned my lesson.
The ac will get half wave rectified but apart from that I don't know the impact on the circuitry. Perhaps that pcb is used in another similar product or it's just an error.
Those end connections would make more sense if the resistors were feeding the two filaments-just transpose the center connection with one of the sides. That gives nearly full voltage across each filament/resistor pair to start with. Then, once the tube ignites, most of the voltage is across the capacitive dropper and the filaments stop passing much current. The two resistor/pairs in parallel with the main tube are effectively shorted out once the main tube ignites.
I saw a shutter defeating adapter at the store and there was at least 46 dead people lying beside it, and it hadn't even been removed from the package yet.
Few a few people have mentioned are already but yeah agreed and he should do that I don't know why he has no clue about it big Quan Bryant please it helps on anything with flickering that you takingapart. Off-topic but I was salvaging a electric blanket controller to remove the wiring so that I can use it to build a switch box to control multiple lights and you see words are plug for import and control 6 lamps. With toggles built into another project box with the original cables that were salvaged from the 2 control boxes for the electric blanket. I live in the United States. But the thing that got me curious which I cannot figure out is that in the true electric blanket controllers which are connected together around the control dial underneath it on the inside of the box is copper foil connected to the apparently hot side of the 120 volt AC not sure if it's hot or neutral but it appeared to be the hot side it is not connected to anything else I'll see you at first it may be connected to one of microcontrollers as a capacitive sensing type of clutch switch or something similar does anyone have any ideas what this could be for??? Any ideas or suggestions would appreciate a reply.
sometimes, it's impossible to get the frame rate to synchronize perfectly. A more practical solution would be to slow the shutter speed, so several flashes of the glow tube, as well as the LED read-out on the meter. Keep in mind, the meter and glow tube don't flicker at the same rate. Reducing the frame rate, and increasing shutter duration would solve the problem.
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 I had something simuler in augustan but it melted I was in Rome for a weakly but the thing was given trubbell so I switched out the thingapart but lost the little bit that was supposing to hold the other side up and my mate Danny had to rush off with his pants steeming that had 110v in Arkansas during the holocene cos it got a bit nippy (no disrespect to the fellas from Tokio Ruse) and she had a discharge but it wasn't murquory anyway Quan Bryant came round with his meter strobing but I cuuudent help it by the streatlites and cold Kathy was not help so I finished Finnegans Wake so the riverrun pas eve and Adams to swerve of bay . you got me thinking bout dis and data if the flicker could be sorted their wood bee a bet tar viz you all eggs pier science. Ta.
That's fine, digressions are part of your videos. I'm sure most of your viewers are accustomed to it. So what if the street light's bulb is broken while it's on? Wouldn't it just be unable to start, but still stay on as long as it runs (so probably until the next morning)? Well I guess shining UVC light onto people for one night is better than shining UVC light onto people every night and there's definitely a certain beauty in simple solutions like these. But, I would except it to be similarly easy to find a solution that would cause the light to go out completely when the glass breaks. Not that I think a super fast reaction time is necessary in this case. Was just curious about whether they do it this way for simplicity reasons or what?
Bigclive, if you are worried about digressing because your explain how the street light work, I learned a lot tho. So your digression is cool. I don't know about other folks aleast I learn something interesting.
Believe it or not, but yesterday I burned my multimeter fuse, because I had left my measuring wires to amperage plugs! After watching all the videos where Big Clive warns about that.... :D
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 There is no comment above mine so I don't know what it says. Plus, it makes no difference what it says. Also "Aron" there is no point of putting a thumbs down on a comment because it doesn't show up you dick.
I question that 100 Ohm series resistance. At 240 volts, that would allow spikes up to 2.4 amps when the tube "arcs over". a 1,000 Ohm resistor seems more appropriate, for the low current glow discharge tube.(.24 amps) It might be worth it to put the Ohm meter across that resistor, because sometimes it's difficult to tell brown from red on the 3rd color band, or, if it's a 1% resistor, it's difficult to tell red from orange.
The resistor on my broken 125w MB/U lamp never burnt out, the bare arc tube still runs to this day after 6 months of being exposed, albeit rather unreliably due to it being a very high hour lamp. I was running it in a 70w SON Philips StreetFighter with the SON ignitor disconnected.
@@michaelladue5655 don't worry, now that it's started playing up I don't think I'll use it, and I didn't run it for long or look at it anyway, but I'm glad you commented that and glad Clive mentioned it in the video as it's useful to know just in case
Arlen Moulton That said, if you wear eyeglasses with polycarbonate lenses then your eyes will be protected from most of the UV (save for what gets in from the sides, very little UV can pass through polycarbonate - no special anti-UV coatings required). All of my eyeglasses are polycarbonate these days (much lighter weight lenses) and the added UV protection provided by polycarbonate is very desirable - and I always ensure I’m wearing my eyeglasses when working on projects where a lot of UV exposure is likely. The same would be true of sunglasses with polycarbonate lenses for those who do not ordinarily wear eyeglasses. That said, while your eyes are then protected it is important to keep in mind that your skin is not, so you still want to limit total UV exposure (or wear long sleeves and use gloves if there will be a lot of exposure). But always be especially mindful of protection with anything emitting UV-C wavelengths as it is especially harmful to eyes and skin - they use it for water and surface sterilization for good reason!
Arlen Moulton That certainly makes things far safer from a human/animal perspective, but you would still want to replace a broken bulb - two layers of protection from UV-C exposure is always much more preferable than just one as UV-C can do a lot of damage to anything living or organic. However, UV-C can also create ozone (by splitting oxygen and/or water vapor) that may accelerate corrosion and oxidation damage (with the bowl in place you would be trapping a lot of ozone within the fixture where it may potentially degrade other fixture components or electrical). Normally the glass outer bulb alone would have absorbed much of the most harmful UV wavelengths (even without the phosphor coating), but the quartz glass used for the inner bulb is transparent to all UV wavelengths - normal glass, by comparison, mostly passes the longer and less harmful UV-A wavelengths whereas polycarbonate is opaque even at UV-A wavelengths. That UV blocking characteristic of normal glass is why quartz halogen bulbs will always have either a clear glass or polycarbonate cover to block the UV (as well as to keep anything from contacting the very hot bulb) since halogen bulbs emit much more UV than typical incandescent bulbs due to their higher filament temperature. And just to clear up any possible confusion others may have about plastics and UV, while polycarbonate is highly opaque to all UV wavelengths (the cutoff point for polycarbonate is ~400nm, and this cutoff is sharp, whereas UV-A begins at 400nm and shorter) it is important to note that acrylic, also commonly used in lenses and globes, is largely translucent (around 92%) at all but the shortest UV-C wavelengths unless specially treated to block UV - so it matters which type of plastic is being used. At UV wavelengths polycarbonate actually looks “black” since so little light is passed.
Why are these still on the market? LED is so much cheaper to produce and much more efficient. Wonder if they need to get rid of tons of old stock fluorescent tubes?
You must get some Wizard Level 50 mercury vapor bulbs over there - back in the day I smashed the only one I managed to get my hand on on purpose, to erase EPROMS with the UV, and it definitely had no resistor (or any problem just trucking right on)... although it did have the mother of all chokes in series...
timeguard was a brand of Smiths Industries before they 'spun it off'. Very high quality in its day, my dad's timeguard outdoor PIR is 20 years old and still perfect, though they were uk made at that time
@@bigclivedotcom Thank you very much for your invention! Consider yourself invited to a sparkly alcoholic potion and a Subway sandwich of choice! (I have no idea when and how to make good on that invitation, but I hope the notion counts.)
ahh yes. Gymnasium lights :), never was under one when nobody knew it was broken but seen people with a heck of a sunburn after figuring that out.. think I was 15 or so when that first happened :) Those are protected by a cage usually but sometimes that don't help and not sure if those are different from street lights.
haven't seen one of the above since one from Lights of American CFL nightlight. Missed it ever since .. lasted forever. it just wouldn't give up, outlasted some of the LEDs which rotted out.. wonder what a tesla coil (small one? ) would do to this :O one of the few cool DIY kits out there
Interesting about the three electrode ended fluorescent lamp here. Never seen one like that, nor would I ever have considered igniting a tube with an aux electrode like the MV lamps. Still, I guess producing the tubes like this gives the manufacturer's a bit more freedom as to how they're ignited. One issue I can think of in this application is using the capacitive dropper might allow pulses of current to pass when the AC changes polarity, potentially darkening the ends of the tube quickly. If I were designing this unit, I'd probably still use the capacitive dropper, but then rectify the AC to DC, and smooth with a larger capacitor for a shimmer free operation. I'd certainly take advantage of the aux electrodes for ignition, as they've done here. Shame about the cold blue color temperature of the tube. I still use the old fashioned 7w incandescent type for lighting the room at night, and it's warm glow can't be beat. I can't imagine having a blue or cold white LED as a night light. It would be too eye piercing.
The problem with DC is that one electrode would do all the work. Some of the fluorescent hand lamps worked like that and used to grill the tube at one end.
Oxidizing resistors that act as fuses in an atmosphere, and metal alloys for wires with the thermal expansion of glass. Lot's of new stuff learned! Yeah, I miss those fluorescent night lights. They had a horizontal form factor in the America though. Back in 1999, my brother and I actually used them instead of light bulbs to save on electricity in rooms we didn't go into often to save on electricity back in our old, grandmother's house. The tubes were like three inches long back then, but shrunk down to about an inch a little later. They were really neat. Those didn't last long as LEDs quickly replaced them. We have no such use for them these days so I wouldn't buy them just for the nostalgia factor. Damn! Where did they time go? I graduated from high school back in 1998, and now I'm forty years old. Ugh... And, I'm STILL a virgin. People shouldn't just let time pass and get a into a relationship where they screw you over big time. Wait, what?!
bigclivedotcom ah ok, that shows my knowledge to be close to nil on capacitors I just thought instead of someone painting the goo it could have melted somehow.
Have you ever taken a florescent light fixture apart and done a circuit diagram for a unit with two or four lamps. Also include explaining the different end connectors (conductors referred to as toumbstones that can be connected to each other or not). I've found that the replacement ballasts being sold have a terrible suggested circuit diagram that often conflicts with the original ballast. Thanks.
You are correct. But over and above that, the wiring diagrams on new electronic ballasts are still confusing when one tries to replace a failing ballast. The colour and number of the wires are not consistent at all. Furthermore, the sockets (toumbstones) used are un-differentciated. So buying and installing a replacement ballast is a bit of a challenge. In my case I found a four bulb failing ballast installed in a two bulb light yet it had worked for many years. The internet is also not very helpful explaining the "how" and "why" in the way wiring should be understood to work. Your channel could help... a lot. Thanks for your reply. ;-)
I think you can se a 0.22uf capacitor as a ballast for lights up to about 400w,why they don't come with them internally I don't know... Flickering display is fine, depends how camera records video and how the video is rendered, progressive or interlaced, try interlaced it might not show so strongly, or, could you add a capacitor to the start/end of the display, or would that interfere with operation
I wonder if that goup in the cap is to seal up audible noise. I had a PC PSU that had a cap that would become audibly noisy when the computer it was in went into particular power states. Took awhile to track it down but when I did I added a little bit of soft epoxy at the base of the cap and it remained quiet until the day it died.
Got something interesting for you : a mcb that is switchable between 100 and 70A. From an old celco( which was speced at 500/phase. Will leave it at the gate for tattoo... Or feeder 11
it ain't a resistive diode? Also, they're using constant heat (or arc wire) to illuminate the tube? the wee little neons I saw in (emergency light backups signs back in the 90's) were a little cold bulb so it stays on many hours compared to an incandescent light, also it was easier to see in a dark room :) apparently were expensive made by Philips or Sylvia. :)
Thank you Mr. Clive for the knowledge you share and the entertaining way you do it. Just a thought, you should give away your note pads or at least some pages out of them when they are full. I'd hang a Clive schematic on my way anyday.
Change the cameras shutter speed so the hopi meter wont flash (If your using automatic mode, you should change the desk light brightness in a way that makes the flashing stop)
I think that is the first fluorescent tube nightlight I've ever seen, all the ones I've used or seen in person have been tungsten or LED, so this one seems quite unusual... :)
Wow, that's so simple inside. I'm surprised that this striking method isn't more common compared to other more complex ballast types. Is it still limited by the length of the tube to still be able to fully light by this method, thus meaning it can only work on relatively short tubes like that one?
2:43 You know, there will come a time when he'll do that to a disposable camera (or anything else with massive amount of discharge) and he'll become terrified of doing that again. Cuz that shit hurts a lot!
Lighting enthusiast here :)
your mercury lamp sketch is quite good apart from the part of the resistor burning out, AFAIK the resistor is just a fairly normal carbon resistor
what your probably thinking of are safety lamps which will either have 1 of 2 types of mechanisms to extinguish the arc if the outer bulb is broken,
theres the 1st type which uses a SMALL tungsten filament in series with the main arc tube (this Is NOT a self ballast mercury lamp) which will burn out if the bulb is broken, disconnecting the arc tube
the second type uses a spring loaded mechanism as part of its frame so if the bulb breaks it all springs apart disconnecting everything
it is worth noting even without those features a mercury lamp will burn out eventually if run in air, due to the arc tube seals oxidising
(its also worth mentioning the arc tube is made of Quartz to withstand the high temperature and pressure of the arc, rather then explicitly for UVC transmission, that just happens to be a nice bonus feature :) )
I'll never get tired of the "Clive Cap Discharge Tester(tm)".
It could truly be called a 'digital' tester, because Mr Clive uses his digits.
Scientific Test #1: Poke it and see if it bites.
@@DijonFromage In case it wasn't obvious small caps are unlikely to cause any significant amount of capacitive shock. However even small caps can mess up signally through organs which is why you never want a current through you. Thats why its better (although still not really advisable) to discharge through your finger rather than say touching one side of the cap with one hand and the other through the circuit board through your other hand.
@@Furiends I know. Humor.
@@McNair1952 and that's why I was going to say when I first saw the first part of this comment agreed.
Thank you for the explanation of the street lamp bulbs. I have similar bulbs but as a blacklight lamp for disco applications (with the dark violet transparent coating on the outside instead of the white phophor). And I allways wondered why there was a very dim glowing tungsten filament on the outside of the inner mercury tube - I allways thought that it was for pre-heating the lamp. But it makes sense what you say - if someone smashed the outer bulb, the filament would burn up (like when you smash an oldschool incandescent lamp) and the ignition would not work anymore.
That's different. It is actually using the tungsten filament as the ballast. That type of lamp is not normally very efficient at producing UV. A compact fluorescent UV lamp will be much brighter.
I remember using several of those 160 watt self-ballasted blacklight bulbs in a school play back in the 1980s. They were temperamental things and got very hot. There was also a 125 watt version which didn't have the internal filament and used an external ballast. As you say, CFL bulbs are more efficient, cheaper, run cooler and are far more reliable.
' "Dumet" is a portmanteau of "dual" and "metal," because it is a heterogeneous alloy, usually fabricated in the form of a wire with an alloy core and a copper cladding.' - Wikipedia. So, no, it isn't a French word, though it looks like one.
It's not in my Petit Robert, I'm guessing the french term might be bimét, a shortening of bimétallique. Or maybe they adopted the English term. But anyway, I'm off on my ducycle with my dunoculars to do some oiseaux watching. ..
@@raykent3211 French Wikipedia gives "Bilame" as the equivalent of "bimetallic strip".
@zh84 I agree, I'm fairly sure it's du-met not du-may
Wow, I missed these night light so much, I used to have a lot of these with different colors as a child
I have one exactly like this but probably different branding. I was rather intrigued by the electrode assembly and would love to make a circuit to drive these little tubes "properly" i.e. with warm-start either switch or (preferably) SRS.
The "blue" reference is indeed a misnomer as these are a close match to the "daylight" lamps I have in most of the house. These are around 6500°K to my eyes with a bit of a blue tint from the visible mercury discharge.
I'll have to investigate these little tubes as they might be suitable as bodge-in replacements for mini LCD TVs. Better IMHO than putting in an LED PCB panel, at least in the sense of the modification being more "in-keeping" with the design
>EDIT<
Added a bit.
Nice to see something that's not using LED's for once.
I used to think LED's were brilliant. Not I'm starting to get annoyed with them.
Pretty cool way of igniting the fluorescent tube though, very similar to the old HM lamps, with the auxiluary electrode.
A ghoulish blue-white shimmering haze reflecting off the otherwise dark walls - so relaxing!
My recollection is that traditional fluorescent lamps do not pass much UVC, because their envelopes are made of traditional soda-lime glass. Germicidal lamps generally use fused quartz or some other glass that readily passes UVC.
That, and the phosphor coating absorbs UV, to convert it to visible light.
You can actually fix the numbers on the HOPI meter by removing the cable and using a sharpie, draw the numbers you want to see on the front of the LED displays. Upside of this, it will also still work when there's a power cut. You're welcome!
This takes me back.
I remember Taking to bits a very cheap butterfly style night light when I was little from a $2 shop and it had the same tube! That was about 2000/2001. Wouldn't have expected them to be still made:)
I love when you "digress"... that's where the best information is found!
He's like my junior high geometry teacher. "You know, that angle is about the same as the cellar doors on my parents' old house. When I was 10, someone had left them open, so when I snuck into my Dad's car, and accidentally put it in reverse, it went careening down the steps, making a God awful racket, all the way into the basement. ..."
We made it our mission to get him telling stories every class.
Your explanation of mercury vapor lamps helped me understand why the flicker and blink when they are first turned on! That was very interesting.
Would be interesting to revisit mercury vapour and sodium lamps. Always thought that both were robust technology and it's a shame they seem to be being replaced with led floodlights and streetlights that appear useless at the slight hint of fog or mist.
That's the cutest little glow tube I have ever seen. Then again I haven't seen a lot of glow tubes.
Please don't hesitate with the digressions. Like condiments - not needed but does make it more tasty.
"Once it gets into the swing, you'll get quite a strong discharge."
That's what she said.
A nightlight that's blueish white? What kind of horrible person thought that's a good idea?
An idiot.
@Rick Delair do you have any proof of that UV leakage and sleep cycle interference? I'm very curious.
@Rick Delair Sleep cycle disruption wasn't even on my mind for the most part, I really just dislike cold light colors with a burning passion lol.
@Rick Delair Sounds like bullshit. Florescent lamps emit more UV than LED lamps
To fix the flickering display, change the shutter speed of the camera. Usually setting it to as long speed as possible fixes flickering since it will integrate the light over a longer time for each frame. But setting it to a strange multiple of the mains frequency can cause flickering in the room lights.
He mentioned it a few times in comments... he is using smrtphone as a camera so he doesn't have the option to change required settings.
You can force the iPad/phone camera to choose a slower shutter speed by reducing the brightness of the lighting in the room.
A good DSLR like the Canon 70 D would work great here. Since it isn't the newest, shiniest model out there it isn't terribly expensive either.
@@AnthonyGoodley Clive mentioned e few time he does not like using cameras for multiple reasons.
The flickeryness it where the subliminal messages are hidden.
Loved the part about the mercury vapor lamps. I work at a school and a couple years ago I got elected to go to the top of the stadium lights and change all the metal halide bulbs (which seem to be almost the same as mercury vapor). They're 1500 watts each and they're absolutely huge and I was fascinated by their construction. Looked way different inside than an ordinary incandescent bulb. Now I know how they work!
The metal halide lamps have a different igniting system. They usually have a module inline that adds a series of high voltage spikes to the current limited supply to strike the lamp.
"but we're not going to find out because i'm going to takeittobits" - HAHAHAHA
If Dave Jones had opened the thing, he'd have gone directly for the nipple action of the tube! Seriously though, what manufacturing company still makes these tubes now that we no longer have tiny backlit thin film 4:3 LCD handheld TV receivers! Maybe Timeguard found a billion of them in a warehouse someplace in China?
Whilst saying "in like Flynn" and "winner, winner, chicken dinner".
At work, I replaced some of those mercury vapor bulbs on the outside lights. I saw those interesting resistors inside the envelope and had to break the bulbs open to extract the resistors. Turns out it's 68K. I kept the resistors, I need to test it to see if the resistor is still working or if it's open circuit now.
This is all so fascinating, You make everything so clear! I love your knowledge in electronics, thank you Clive I really do appreciate your videos!
Ditto.
Since you can basically backlight a room with 2.5W LED light power, i think they may have recycled these tubes.
Making money of old stock.
is there any datecode on the device/pcb or the tubes?
Or did they just never stop making them identically since 1960 ?
Seeing the pcb beeing fixed manually shows that the work-time must be hellofalot cheaper than better pcbs.
Of course recycle or getting really cheap somehow gets the same,
if all the manufacturers of fluorescent lamps have massive overproduction/large stocks which nobody wants anymore.
Judging by the size i could see two or 4 of these beeing used in old emergency exit signs, or to light single stairs / escape routes from the side...
edit: why does it say "to be used in vertical position only" ??
edit2: does it say 2009 as a year on the pcb ?? LEDs wherenot that cheap/good 10years ago, so a lost fight for the old tech ??
It does say 2009
"there's only one way to find out"
I thought he's gonna break it :D and breath in the mercury vapour while doing that.
I was thinking the very same thing :)
I was so tempted to break it, but wanted to keep it intact.
Cody's probably going to try this now to see how deep his voice gets when breathing pure mercury.
@@gcewing I'm pretty sure Cody's at least 4% mercury by now, if not more...
Hello Clive I was watching one of your videos and you mentioned Cadona the Scots Italian fair ground family in the late fifty’s early sixties he brought is fair to Redcar and liked it so much he decided to stay.The fair was on some waist ground about twenty yards from the beach. He eventually made a compound with concrete posts and slotted slabs .hi next move was to get rid of the mobile generators and fit then in a brick building. He approached the firm I had just started serving my time for to come and put some services the compound from the generator bullying which we carried out over the winter. We installed over the winter two inch conduit and 19/064 single cables round the compound with outlets to the various rides and stalls. The conduit had to be cut and threaded by hand bu we had the use of the firms van to pull the cables in ,
It was hard going in those days. Mr Cadona wasn’t happy about the see air taking its toll on all the equipment after a coupaling of years he had a large building constructed the same size as the compound And we got the job of transferring the existing Insulaition into the new building .
He eventually sold out to a Mr Lovett . I hope this havant board you . Regards Dave. The firm that I served my time with was JACK EATONS which
I eventually owned but that another story.
Can you post 7:00 about 20 years ago. This is the best explanation of mercury vapor lights I have ever seen, and now we're changing to all LED.
The 68nF capacitor it's for "feel alive" when you touch the plug just after removing the light from the mains.
Clive, I have a question about conventional 4 FT, 40 W fluorescent tubes...
We have hundreds if not a thousand of these things lighting our warehouses at work (they are in the process of being retrofitted with LED tubes).
Anyway, when some of these these fluorescent tubes die, the entire tube glows red/pink *the entire length.*
If mercury vapor emits UVC, and the phosphor coating inside the tube converts the UVC to white, what is happening inside the tube at this point to make the entire tube (not just the ends) glow red/pink?
That is the soul escaping. (Jokes aside, I always assumed it was the introduction of atmospheric gas into the tube, which would have a different plasma. It's a good question.)
That became common when they started putting in very small doses of mercury. Sometimes the mercury gets absorbed into the phosphors and there is none left free in the tube to emit the UV light for the phosphors. So the low level pink colour is just the carrier gas on its own. Usually argon with maybe a touch of neon to make it run warmer.
Amazing... so they evolve into a neon tube... incredible!!!
One of the two main progressive failure modes, depletion of the mercury by adsorption into phosphor and tube components, with newer lamps generally using a smaller charge of mercury. Common in tubes where running time is the major factor.
Depletion of electrode emission mix is the other one, more common if start cycles dominate - an electronic one-hit starter helps to reduce it.
If neither of those reaches critical, degradation of the phosphor reduces light output, but tends not to have a failure point
@@bigclivedotcom why do they use the pink bulbs near the doors on busses, are they special...
Those inner tubes from the street lamps are great for putting the finishing touches on a knife edge after sharpening.
I think the matter with the Hopi meter is the electrical grid pulsing at 50Hz while the shutter speed on the sensor in most phones work on a 30/60/120 fps range. Most stand alone cameras have an option for adjusting the fps though.
There were a few Enterprise model builders that used something like that for the number boards in their models calling it Raytheon lighting to mimic the reflected lighting on the identification numbers. I found it just as easy to just thin the pladtic in that area and not paint it with light blocker allowing internal lighting to shine though illuminating the numbers. Why anyone wanted to use florescent is beyond me.
JMC Electromet are the world's biggest manufacturers of Dumet wire. It's made of an Iron core, shrouded in an Oxygen-free Copper sheath, annealed, and sometimes sold as oxidised and can also be Nickel plated. Thanks for an interesting insight, Clive. Might just buy one for the novelty value, despite the awful power factor. It's possible that the epoxy filler in that capacitor had not finished hardening before it was used in the lamp, and that some of it poured out before it finally set. Therefore, it's possible that someone skimped on the catalyst in the mix. Might even have been made on-site, as and when they were needed. JIT manufacture being pushed to the limit!
Looks like a good tube shape to use 7 of them for a numeric segment display.
You have been on my recommended for so long, and i have been watching them now and then. I realized I miss your voice, so here have a sub
I know, right? It's like, his voice is so calm that you want to fall asleep at night, listening to his videos. But, you can't, because they're too darned interesting.
Hah. Maybe if you pick your favorite video, and play it every night.
I wish I'd had a video of him reading Goodnight Moon, when my kids were little. They're grown up now, but maybe it won't be too long till I can watch these videos with grandkids. Never too early to start teaching them about electronics. "Now, Little Byt, we never use our fingers to check if a capacitor is holding a charge, like the nice man does."
Reminicent of the days when electronics were hobbled together with discrete components and stuffed into a box. Miniaturization was not a primary consideration. It made diagnostics and repair much friendlier.
interesting to see the manufacturing 👍
I like your digressions. Keep up the good work.
Self-ballasted Mercury Vapour lamps are very interesting. I got a few years ago as surplus from a council (they were a cheap way of upgrading tungsten street lights) and they all still work, two outside the house and two in the loft.
@Rick Delair Totally. I have to say the self-ballasted ones are slightly more useful to me as they give off useable light straight away whilst they're warming up, but if I had the option at the time I would've gone for normal mercury vapour lamps with separate ballasts.
Something about the presentation/packaging and bodged repair(?), not to mention where it was purchased from, suggests that the example of that particular product you have there has very little to do with the genuine ‘Timeguard’ (Smiths Industries?) range. Either that, or it’s been returned faulty and was resold after bodging.
1/3 of Clives own Flux Capacitor....
I was just going to say something like that. Agreed.
I used to have a fluorescent night light which worked very much the same way but it was 120V. It was very effective.
Ive still got a few old mercury street lights and they dont tend to create a greenish white light but more of a high intensity white light although over time as the phosphor degrades, the green arc tube can be seen more creating that greenish white light.
The old style of mercury street light were 'open bowl' with a holophane glass ring around the bulb to direct the light or something like that but obviously a few rocks and a bit of anti social behaviour ment that those early mbf street lights didn't last very long.
Love old street lights in a romantic kinda way. Ahh! Yer ma shouting yer name oot it the streets coz you promised you'd be before they came on😂 awe the 80s childhood.
I too digressed ❤
awe, the 60's childhood. The neighbors would pass your name around the block until it got to you. Sometimes with a warning about being switched.
I prefer drummin on them. Maybe do some bangin on a trash can. But that little voive keeps callin me callin me.
@@tankandrouge7259 remember Doug funny. Nickelodeon right. The show name was Doug something. Get Rivers for so long. Also hello Lamppost what's you knowing I've come to see your flowers growing.
And also if you did break a bulb with. A stone and that that bulb goes out.
Hello darkness my old friend I've come to talk with you again Sound of Silence.
Simon and Garfunkel both these two previous songs I was quoting.
Worked the same in southern California in the 1960s
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Take it to bits!” -Big Clive (probably)
I love the way you discharged the capacitors. It would have been even funnier if you had used your tongue.
Thanks for mentioning dumet wire. I looked it up. Very interesting.
The mercury blended lamps have a tungsten filament in as a ballast, quite useful as no external magnetics are required.
You might like the CCFL's in older TN panel LCD's.
I tried the Big Clive discharge method on a strobe light cap once, you only do it once, when I was young and was involuntarily relocated across the room. Happy days.
Ouchies I vaporized the tip of a screwdriver once By acibent but I can't remember what type of device it was and we're in a circuit or whatever but packed a heck of a punch I don't know how much current with it but I'm sure it was over hundreds of amps and not sure what voltage the camp was because it was so long ago I don't even know what time it was but whenever I know it has a ginormous capacitors and I had attempted to discharge but I didn't rise for a discharge from there was an open connection and that was a problem that was vexing media fine white wasn't working. Soap with no words always go from one side to the other and don't rely on any other wiring I learned my lesson.
Strobe light capacitors are about 10 times the capacity. They really pack a punch. Don't ever try it with a camera flash capacitor: OUCH!!!
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 well said Aaron
What would be the effect of replacing the 100 ohm resistor with a diode be, the PCB suggests?
The ac will get half wave rectified but apart from that I don't know the impact on the circuitry. Perhaps that pcb is used in another similar product or it's just an error.
Speaking of diodes did your mercury vapor lamps act as a diode and Cami randisi as long as you have the polarity correct if. They don't work
@@Yrouel86 ever heard of a Mercury Arc rectifier or rectagon. Or tungar bulb or tube.
Those end connections would make more sense if the resistors were feeding the two filaments-just transpose the center connection with one of the sides.
That gives nearly full voltage across each filament/resistor pair to start with. Then, once the tube ignites, most of the voltage is across the capacitive dropper and the filaments stop passing much current. The two resistor/pairs in parallel with the main tube are effectively shorted out once the main tube ignites.
Imagine the horror if the shutter earth pin broke off in the socket. I imagine the pile of dead people forming in front of your socket.
I saw a shutter defeating adapter at the store and there was at least 46 dead people lying beside it, and it hadn't even been removed from the package yet.
Your hopi flicker can be fixed by changing the recording app's framerate.
Few a few people have mentioned are already but yeah agreed and he should do that I don't know why he has no clue about it big Quan Bryant please it helps on anything with flickering that you takingapart.
Off-topic but I was salvaging a electric blanket controller to remove the wiring so that I can use it to build a switch box to control multiple lights and you see words are plug for import and control 6 lamps.
With toggles built into another project box with the original cables that were salvaged from the 2 control boxes for the electric blanket. I live in the United States.
But the thing that got me curious which I cannot figure out is that in the true electric blanket controllers which are connected together around the control dial underneath it on the inside of the box is copper foil connected to the apparently hot side of the 120 volt AC not sure if it's hot or neutral but it appeared to be the hot side it is not connected to anything else I'll see you at first it may be connected to one of microcontrollers as a capacitive sensing type of clutch switch or something similar does anyone have any ideas what this could be for??? Any ideas or suggestions would appreciate a reply.
sometimes, it's impossible to get the frame rate to synchronize perfectly. A more practical solution would be to slow the shutter speed, so several flashes of the glow tube, as well as the LED read-out on the meter. Keep in mind, the meter and glow tube don't flicker at the same rate. Reducing the frame rate, and increasing shutter duration would solve the problem.
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 I had something simuler in augustan but it melted I was in Rome for a weakly but the thing was given trubbell so I switched out the thingapart but lost the little bit that was supposing to hold the other side up and my mate Danny had to rush off with his pants steeming that had 110v in Arkansas during the holocene cos it got a bit nippy (no disrespect to the fellas from Tokio Ruse) and she had a discharge but it wasn't murquory anyway Quan Bryant came round with his meter strobing but I cuuudent help it by the streatlites and cold Kathy was not help so I finished Finnegans Wake so the riverrun pas eve and Adams to swerve of bay . you got me thinking bout dis and data if the flicker could be sorted their wood bee a bet tar viz you all eggs pier science. Ta.
That's fine, digressions are part of your videos. I'm sure most of your viewers are accustomed to it.
So what if the street light's bulb is broken while it's on? Wouldn't it just be unable to start, but still stay on as long as it runs (so probably until the next morning)? Well I guess shining UVC light onto people for one night is better than shining UVC light onto people every night and there's definitely a certain beauty in simple solutions like these. But, I would except it to be similarly easy to find a solution that would cause the light to go out completely when the glass breaks.
Not that I think a super fast reaction time is necessary in this case. Was just curious about whether they do it this way for simplicity reasons or what?
Bigclive, if you are worried about digressing because your explain how the street light work, I learned a lot tho. So your digression is cool. I don't know about other folks aleast I learn something interesting.
Believe it or not, but yesterday I burned my multimeter fuse, because I had left my measuring wires to amperage plugs! After watching all the videos where Big Clive warns about that.... :D
It's really easy to do. All it takes is a distraction.
The Sega Game Gear uses one of those lights for LCD backlight. Wrapped in a very nice reflector.
That's right I have CDs in back lights before I knew Restless like that but been so long ago I'd forgotten.
thank you for explaining the street lights. I did not know about that!
Fuckin lost it when he tested if the capacitors were discharged haha 2:42 "Eh eh eh eh eh... well they're discharged now" haha such a legend
I remember these! They used to sell them in Wilko back in around 2009. The tube is driven quite hard and it blackens up fast.
They did blacken quickly and weren't replaceable. Shits of things.
Yes im sure mine came from maplin and lasted a very short time .
Samuel Chamberlain it wouldn’t surprise me if Maplin sold them too
@@Xenon777_ why you got a thumbs-down is I think you missed the comment before yours.
@@aaronbrandenburg2441 There is no comment above mine so I don't know what it says. Plus, it makes no difference what it says. Also "Aron" there is no point of putting a thumbs down on a comment because it doesn't show up you dick.
I question that 100 Ohm series resistance. At 240 volts, that would allow spikes up to 2.4 amps when the tube "arcs over". a 1,000 Ohm resistor seems more appropriate, for the low current glow discharge tube.(.24 amps) It might be worth it to put the Ohm meter across that resistor, because sometimes it's difficult to tell brown from red on the 3rd color band, or, if it's a 1% resistor, it's difficult to tell red from orange.
The resistor on my broken 125w MB/U lamp never burnt out, the bare arc tube still runs to this day after 6 months of being exposed, albeit rather unreliably due to it being a very high hour lamp. I was running it in a 70w SON Philips StreetFighter with the SON ignitor disconnected.
Be careful you can get flash Burns to your eyes without that outer globe, I'm speaking from experience it is horrible.
@@michaelladue5655 don't worry, now that it's started playing up I don't think I'll use it, and I didn't run it for long or look at it anyway, but I'm glad you commented that and glad Clive mentioned it in the video as it's useful to know just in case
Arlen Moulton That said, if you wear eyeglasses with polycarbonate lenses then your eyes will be protected from most of the UV (save for what gets in from the sides, very little UV can pass through polycarbonate - no special anti-UV coatings required). All of my eyeglasses are polycarbonate these days (much lighter weight lenses) and the added UV protection provided by polycarbonate is very desirable - and I always ensure I’m wearing my eyeglasses when working on projects where a lot of UV exposure is likely. The same would be true of sunglasses with polycarbonate lenses for those who do not ordinarily wear eyeglasses. That said, while your eyes are then protected it is important to keep in mind that your skin is not, so you still want to limit total UV exposure (or wear long sleeves and use gloves if there will be a lot of exposure). But always be especially mindful of protection with anything emitting UV-C wavelengths as it is especially harmful to eyes and skin - they use it for water and surface sterilization for good reason!
@@ethanpoole3443 The street light has a polycarbonate bowl, would that work?
Arlen Moulton That certainly makes things far safer from a human/animal perspective, but you would still want to replace a broken bulb - two layers of protection from UV-C exposure is always much more preferable than just one as UV-C can do a lot of damage to anything living or organic. However, UV-C can also create ozone (by splitting oxygen and/or water vapor) that may accelerate corrosion and oxidation damage (with the bowl in place you would be trapping a lot of ozone within the fixture where it may potentially degrade other fixture components or electrical). Normally the glass outer bulb alone would have absorbed much of the most harmful UV wavelengths (even without the phosphor coating), but the quartz glass used for the inner bulb is transparent to all UV wavelengths - normal glass, by comparison, mostly passes the longer and less harmful UV-A wavelengths whereas polycarbonate is opaque even at UV-A wavelengths. That UV blocking characteristic of normal glass is why quartz halogen bulbs will always have either a clear glass or polycarbonate cover to block the UV (as well as to keep anything from contacting the very hot bulb) since halogen bulbs emit much more UV than typical incandescent bulbs due to their higher filament temperature.
And just to clear up any possible confusion others may have about plastics and UV, while polycarbonate is highly opaque to all UV wavelengths (the cutoff point for polycarbonate is ~400nm, and this cutoff is sharp, whereas UV-A begins at 400nm and shorter) it is important to note that acrylic, also commonly used in lenses and globes, is largely translucent (around 92%) at all but the shortest UV-C wavelengths unless specially treated to block UV - so it matters which type of plastic is being used. At UV wavelengths polycarbonate actually looks “black” since so little light is passed.
Seems anachronistic given that pretty much any low voltage lighting is better done with LEDs these days.
Why are these still on the market? LED is so much cheaper to produce and much more efficient. Wonder if they need to get rid of tons of old stock fluorescent tubes?
You must get some Wizard Level 50 mercury vapor bulbs over there - back in the day I smashed the only one I managed to get my hand on on purpose, to erase EPROMS with the UV, and it definitely had no resistor (or any problem just trucking right on)... although it did have the mother of all chokes in series...
Always Fascinating.
Whew, didn't think I would ever enjoy a video about a nightlight
timeguard was a brand of Smiths Industries before they 'spun it off'. Very high quality in its day, my dad's timeguard outdoor PIR is 20 years old and still perfect, though they were uk made at that time
Before they made potato crisps (chips for our friends from across the pond)
The electrodes you drew kind of remind me of the "gabriel electrode" on a jacobs ladder. Only there's two of them.
It's very similar to the Gabriel Electrode. (Which I invented and named.)
@@bigclivedotcom Thank you very much for your invention! Consider yourself invited to a sparkly alcoholic potion and a Subway sandwich of choice! (I have no idea when and how to make good on that invitation, but I hope the notion counts.)
Was the auxillary electrode in mercury tubes the inspiration for the Gabriel electrode in Jacobs ladders?
Good question give me Big Lots close should answer that. But possibly it wasn't but still good thinking. Good question.
ahh yes. Gymnasium lights :), never was under one when nobody knew it was broken but seen people with a heck of a sunburn after figuring that out.. think I was 15 or so when that first happened :) Those are protected by a cage usually but sometimes that don't help and not sure if those are different from street lights.
haven't seen one of the above since one from Lights of American CFL nightlight. Missed it ever since .. lasted forever. it just wouldn't give up, outlasted some of the LEDs which rotted out.. wonder what a tesla coil (small one? ) would do to this :O one of the few cool DIY kits out there
Interesting about the three electrode ended fluorescent lamp here. Never seen one like that, nor would I ever have considered igniting a tube with an aux electrode like the MV lamps.
Still, I guess producing the tubes like this gives the manufacturer's a bit more freedom as to how they're ignited.
One issue I can think of in this application is using the capacitive dropper might allow pulses of current to pass when the AC changes polarity, potentially darkening the ends of the tube quickly.
If I were designing this unit, I'd probably still use the capacitive dropper, but then rectify the AC to DC, and smooth with a larger capacitor for a shimmer free operation.
I'd certainly take advantage of the aux electrodes for ignition, as they've done here.
Shame about the cold blue color temperature of the tube.
I still use the old fashioned 7w incandescent type for lighting the room at night, and it's warm glow can't be beat.
I can't imagine having a blue or cold white LED as a night light. It would be too eye piercing.
The problem with DC is that one electrode would do all the work. Some of the fluorescent hand lamps worked like that and used to grill the tube at one end.
Sometime could you explain how a capacative dropper works in a bit of detail?
I ha to watch the video a few times to understand why on earth anyone would make such a weird item.
Oxidizing resistors that act as fuses in an atmosphere, and metal alloys for wires with the thermal expansion of glass. Lot's of new stuff learned! Yeah, I miss those fluorescent night lights. They had a horizontal form factor in the America though. Back in 1999, my brother and I actually used them instead of light bulbs to save on electricity in rooms we didn't go into often to save on electricity back in our old, grandmother's house. The tubes were like three inches long back then, but shrunk down to about an inch a little later. They were really neat. Those didn't last long as LEDs quickly replaced them. We have no such use for them these days so I wouldn't buy them just for the nostalgia factor. Damn! Where did they time go? I graduated from high school back in 1998, and now I'm forty years old. Ugh... And, I'm STILL a virgin. People shouldn't just let time pass and get a into a relationship where they screw you over big time. Wait, what?!
45 and still a virgin.
@@bigclivedotcom 45? I thought you were born in 1965?
@@robertgaines-tulsa Oops. 54 and still a virgin.
I wish I was as smart as Clive.
Dunno why, but every time you say "take it to bits" I add a bit of evil laughter in my mind.
Awesome Video!
Could that yellow capacitor get hot?
If so would it get hot enough to melt yellow goo onto the board.
No. It should stay stone-cold.
bigclivedotcom ah ok, that shows my knowledge to be close to nil on capacitors I just thought instead of someone painting the goo it could have melted somehow.
@@mavos1211 Nevertheless, it's always good to think and consider and ask critical questions, so keep it up!
Have you ever taken a florescent light fixture apart and done a circuit diagram for a unit with two or four lamps. Also include explaining the different end connectors (conductors referred to as toumbstones that can be connected to each other or not). I've found that the replacement ballasts being sold have a terrible suggested circuit diagram that often conflicts with the original ballast. Thanks.
The electronic ballasts are very different to the traditional ones. They often share common connections between tubes.
You are correct. But over and above that, the wiring diagrams on new electronic ballasts are still confusing when one tries to replace a failing ballast. The colour and number of the wires are not consistent at all. Furthermore, the sockets (toumbstones) used are un-differentciated. So buying and installing a replacement ballast is a bit of a challenge. In my case I found a four bulb failing ballast installed in a two bulb light yet it had worked for many years. The internet is also not very helpful explaining the "how" and "why" in the way wiring should be understood to work. Your channel could help... a lot.
Thanks for your reply. ;-)
The discharge lamps are available with internal igniter and external igniter. At least the sulfur discharge ones.
rimmersbryggeri I think you mean “Sodium” discharge.
@@elonmask50 Yeah thats what I meant
Thanks. Sulfur lights are the green house ones.
yup, you dont want your earth pin to break off in the socket...
I think you can se a 0.22uf capacitor as a ballast for lights up to about 400w,why they don't come with them internally I don't know...
Flickering display is fine, depends how camera records video and how the video is rendered, progressive or interlaced, try interlaced it might not show so strongly, or, could you add a capacitor to the start/end of the display, or would that interfere with operation
Wonder what it would be like if i left it on for a while, but we're not going to find out because im going to take it to bits 🤣 love it
I wonder if that goup in the cap is to seal up audible noise. I had a PC PSU that had a cap that would become audibly noisy when the computer it was in went into particular power states. Took awhile to track it down but when I did I added a little bit of soft epoxy at the base of the cap and it remained quiet until the day it died.
It was singing until the day the power supply died. Hahaha think of the song American Pie.
Got something interesting for you : a mcb that is switchable between 100 and 70A. From an old celco( which was speced at 500/phase.
Will leave it at the gate for tattoo... Or feeder 11
What no LEDs??? Are the lighting companies going backwards or did they find the tubes at the back of a storage room??⚡🤔
right clive mate my friend just sent me a link to your Poundland glue gun video and I am now slightly obsessed with your channel aha.
Would have to say that I have a few integral street light fixtures here Clive, MV, HPS and SOX
it ain't a resistive diode? Also, they're using constant heat (or arc wire) to illuminate the tube? the wee little neons I saw in (emergency light backups signs back in the 90's) were a little cold bulb so it stays on many hours compared to an incandescent light, also it was easier to see in a dark room :) apparently were expensive made by Philips or Sylvia. :)
If anyone has any information for a Lincoln when he sings on RUclips videos put it right here.
one can tell big clive has explained something Interesting! It takes hours to read all the commrnts! ! !
No doubt that's what I'm doing right now.
,@@aaronbrandenburg2441 good luck!
aaah.. a fresh bigclivedotcom asmr video :D
Bigclive is going to help me pass my electrician school
Would it work better (read: has less flicker) if you added 4 diodes to turn the ac into dc for the tube.
if you run this type of tube on dc it would burn out way faster
And the dropper circuit would malfunction, and you'd need a much more complex driver instead.
Thank you Mr. Clive for the knowledge you share and the entertaining way you do it. Just a thought, you should give away your note pads or at least some pages out of them when they are full. I'd hang a Clive schematic on my way anyday.
That would be an awesome idea did we as a giveaway if somebody send you something they get a notebook.
Change the cameras shutter speed so the hopi meter wont flash
(If your using automatic mode, you should change the desk light brightness in a way that makes the flashing stop)
I have a couple other nightlights that seem to work similar to this one. One has an on/off switch and the other has a light sensor.
I think that is the first fluorescent tube nightlight I've ever seen, all the ones I've used or seen in person have been tungsten or LED, so this one seems quite unusual... :)
Most I have seen in the UK have the little neon lamps like the ones on switches
Wow, that's so simple inside. I'm surprised that this striking method isn't more common compared to other more complex ballast types. Is it still limited by the length of the tube to still be able to fully light by this method, thus meaning it can only work on relatively short tubes like that one?
It's only really suited to simple mercury vapour lamps. Metal halide style lamps have to be struck with high voltage pulses.
2:43 You know, there will come a time when he'll do that to a disposable camera (or anything else with massive amount of discharge) and he'll become terrified of doing that again. Cuz that shit hurts a lot!
given how long he's worked with electrical gizmos I'm very confident in saying that he has had it happen at least thrice.