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Re: dying neons
From: Daryl P. Dacko[SMTP:mycrump-at-cris-dot-com]
Sent: Monday, September 01, 1997 9:34 AM
To: Tesla List
Subject: Re: dying neons
At 07:40 AM 9/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>> I am having a little trouble with my neons. I believe it is because I
>>
>> am over stressing them but I'd like to know what I can do to save
>> them.
>> The other night, I was testing out my toriod and a sphere and I was
>> getting my largest arcs yet. Anyway, none of my runs went longer than
>>
>> 15-20 sec and then eventually, everything would stop and the neon
>> would
>> make a low, quietsounding buzz/hum. I didn't leave it plugged in when
>> I
>> noticed that. I'd run it a bit longer and it'd happen again. The
>> neon
>> also began to warm. My safety gap would fire occasionally. What
>> exactly is happening in the system that causes it to fire anyway? I
>> have two chokes, but perhaps they aren't good enough. They're 8" of
>> 2"
>> diam. pvc wound with regular (not magnet wire) 22 awg insulated wire.
>> I
>> recall some one suggesting that you use the same wire used for the
>> secondary, what's the story on that? I don't have any capacitors from
>>
>> my neon to ground either. Would that make a difference?
>>
>> I'm not able to come across neons very readily so I want to protect
>> what
>> I got. Sure, I could always set my spark gap smaller and not turn up
>> the voltage all the way, but what fun would that be? :)
>>
>> any suggestions would be great
>> Kevin
I have a set of OBIT's (oil burner ignition tranformers) that do exactly
the same thing.
I'm sure that the OBIT's are shorting internally, as they do the same
thing with two sets of caps.
I'm going to try the 'bakeing' cure that someone posted on the list,
just pop them in the oven for a while and see if re-melting the tar
removes the carbon track the usually causes the problem...
Daryl