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Re: Sync Motor Conversion-Strobes
Hi Terry, All,
While fluorescent lamps will work for a rotor strobe, the strobe disk
may look a little fuzzy due to the afterglow of the phosphors used in
the lamp. After the plasma in the tube extinguishes every half cycle,
the phosphors continue to glow for a short amount of time. (Poor lumen
quenching? :-) Neon lamps or tubes in a clear glass make a good mains
frequency strobe, firing at 2*mains F, the rapid deionazation, and no
phosphor afterglow allow very fast rise and fall times of the light
output. The simplest strobe could be one or more NE-2 lamps (each with
its own current limiting resistor). Also, try placing a diode in series
with the lamp(s) for 1*mains F firing, and a more strobe-like light
output. That should improve viewing even more. For greater light output,
visit your local, friendly (hopefully) neon shop, and look for a short,
clear red (neon-filled, clear glass) tube off an old sign in the scrap
yard. Then find an old lower voltage / lower current transformer, if
possible. Even a 3~4kV NST will run more than a dozen feet of neon. Pick
up some GTO-15 secondary wire while you're there, also. If you already
have an NST of any size, it will work on a short tube just fine, as long
as the NST doesn't overheat. If you use a diode (or diode string) with
the neon tube, it would have to be in the secondary (HV side, in series
with the neon tube) and, of course, be rated over what the V and I of
the NST are. (No diode in the primary, or the NST WILL overheat!) I
haven't actually tried this on a sync RSG, but it works great on
phonograph (remember 'records'?) strobe discs, and the like.
Be safe and have fun ! ,
Tony Greer (who still listens to 'records' , even old 78's)