Re: Neon Sign Transformer

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: Neon Sign Transformer
From: "William R. Langston" <blangsto-at-iwvisp-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 17:44:31 -0600
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

Ryan,

Don't spend too much time worrying about how your questions make you "look,"
everyone has been in that place sometime about something. What really does make
one look foolish is an ego that will risk destroying things before being able
to admit not knowing something and getting help.

The "beehive" things are probably high(er) voltage insulators. They should be
your transformer output voltage terminals. The two terminals, "part of the same
plastic piece," should be the house voltage input. And the screw terminal under
the one high voltage terminal should be the case ground. It hooks to your earth
ground. You can test all of these with a multimeter on the ohm scale (if you
are familiar with their use). If you do not have one, take a flashlight, insert
two wire leads in the circuit to the bulb (you can open the circuit in several
places inside the flashlight, just look around). Then when you have a complete
low resistance circuit through the circuit you are testing, the ground terminal
to the case, for instance, you will get the flashlight coming on.

Good luck,
Bill Langston

Tesla List wrote:

> Original Poster: "Spud" <spud-at-wf-dot-net>
>
> I was wondering where I could find instructions on how to operate my new
> neon sign transfomer.  I have a working knowledge of electronics, but this
> thing has like five terminals and none of them are labeled in any way.
> There are four terminals on the front.  The two terminals on the left side
> are part of the same piece of plastic.  On the right there is a big plastic
> 'bee-hive' thing with a terminal on the end.  (I don't know what to call
> them, but they are ribbed kinda like beehives.  You see them on powerlines
> holding up the cables.)  Then right underneath that there is one more
> terminal that is just a screw coming right out of the case.   So the front
> side looks kinda like this:
> _______________
> |   __            ___  |
> |  | 0 |          /  0  \ |
> |  |    |          \___/ |
> |  | 0 |                   |
> |                   0     |
> |_______________|
>
> On the back there is one more terminal on a beehive-thing.  I'm almost
> positive of what that's for.
> Thanks in advance for any help; I hope I am not seeming too much like a
> retard to you, cause I sure feel like one. :)
>
>         Thanks,
>               Ryan

--
II*