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• Drives two 20 watt tubes or a 40 watt tube.
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T his is a low-cost project for 20 or 40 watt fluorescent tubes. However the most efficient
is to use a 40 watt tube (or two 20 watt tubes in series). It's a circuit you can put together
from junk box components or build from a kit. It's very simple to build and requires no
printed circuit board.
T he transformer is hand-wound on a ferrite rod (from an old transistor radio) and the
winding wire can be salvaged from an old transformer.
We are purposely keeping costs down to show how cheaply it can be put together.
Depending on your stock of parts, the cost could range from $3.00 to about $15.00 and
if the wires from the transformer are soldered to the ends of the tube(s), you can create a
free-standing light that can be set-up in the garden to illuminate a dark area without the
fear of running 240v wiring. T he cost of powering the circuit is about 22 watts and this
will produce the same light output as a 60 watt globe.
With a normal fluoro operating on the 240v mains, a ballast (or choke) is needed in
series with the tube to limit the current after the tube has "struck". T his ballast dissipates
about 10-20 watts for a 20 watt tube and reduces the efficiency of the circuit.
If the ballast is replaced with an electronic circuit and high-frequency transformer, the
losses are less than 5 watts. Furthermore, if we do not drive the tube as hard as the 240v
version we can get even better efficiency.
T he size of tube, you will need, will depend on the area you wish to illuminate and the
battery capacity you have available, however it is important to realise that the higher
wattage tubes offer the greatest efficiency.
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T his is because they have a longer length and larger diameter (than say an 8 watt tube)
and give more light over a larger area. T hat's why we have concentrated our design on
the 40 watt tube. You can get plenty of circuits and devices that power the 4, 6 and 8
watt tubes but nothing has been done for the 40 watt variety.
T here is another range of tubes, commonly called the "compact fluoro" or high
efficiency fluoro. T hese are a folded fluorescent tube having a rating of either 11 watts,
13watts or 18watts. T hey are not covered in this project as they are expensive to boy
and more difficult to drive. T hey are actually driven VERY HARD and if you feel one
after it has been turned on for a few minutes you will find the tube is quite warm.
T hey are not really suitable for indoor use as they take a while to come on and don't
give enough illumination for an average room. We have tried the whole range of these
tubes and come to the conclusion that they are only suitable for outdoor use as a
decorative lamp or for partially illuminating a dark area.
T his is one of those situations where the old-style product is the best. I think you will find
that the glitter of the compact lamp has almost faded by now as the public has come to
realise they are not the whiz bang invention of the century and have not taken over any
of the areas already serviced by the tungsten lamp or standard fluoro.
After all, you can buy a 100watt globe for less than $1.00 and a compact lamp costs
about $20.00. It will take more than 5 years for the savings in electricity to equal the
cheap 100 watt globe.
T he one problem that lets compact lamps down is the electronic circuitry. T he
electrolytics in the base are driven very hard and tend to dry out after a few years. We
have found lots of discarded bases (with tube) with this problem.
Apart from this, the fluorescent lamp has a number of advantages over incandescent
lighting. T he main one is efficiency.
T his is due to the fact that it's a cold light, in comparison to incandescent light where
the light is produced by the heating of a piece of wire.
T he other advantage is the light does not come from a point source and thus it is more-
evenly spread over a larger area.
Fluorescent lighting is approximately 400% more efficient than incandescent lighting
(50 Lumens/watt compared to 12 Lumens/watt for a 100 watt tungsten lamp), although
there are some losses in the ballast. A 20 watt tube (plus 10-20 watts for the ballast)
gives the same light output as a 100 watt lamp, when it is heavily driven in the 240v
mode.
For a normal household, the lighting component of the electricity bill is only a fraction
of the total and doesn't warrant a house to be converted to fluorescent lighting.
But if you are considering setting up a home in a remote area, where mains electricity is
not available, you will appreciate the advantage of high-efficiency lighting.
With modern electronic circuits, fluorescent lamps can be designed to operate very
efficiently and with this project you can build the circuit yourself and operate it from a
12v supply.
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between its ends and the only path seen by the 240v mains is through the ballast, the
filament at one end of the tube, the starter and finally through the filament at the other
end of the tube.
T he ballast is a single winding on an iron core and it has a number of functions. Firstly
it acts as a current limiting device so that when the circuit is first turned on, the voltage
across the starter is about 130v. T he starter consists of a glass tube with two electrodes.
T he 130v is the characteristic voltage of the starter and is governed by the mixture of
helium and hydrogen in the tube.
When a voltage is applied to its terminals, the gas inside begins to glow and heats up a
bi-metallic strip (one of the electrodes) and it touches the other electrode.
T his shorts out the starter and turns off the glow. T he ballast now provides a voltage of
about 8 - 12v for each filament and they begin to glow.
T hey are only designed to glow to a dull red and this begins to heat up the gas in the
fluorescent tube ready for the next part of the cycle.
After a second or two, the bimetallic strip in the starter cools and breaks contact. T his
causes the current in the ballast to reduce suddenly and a voltage of 800v to 1,000v is
produced across its winding.
T his voltage is passed to the ends of the tube. Since the gas at the ends of the tube has
already been heated by the filaments, the 1,000v is sufficient to strike the rest of the gas
along the length of the tube. Once this occurs, current starts to flow and a voltage of
about 110v appears across the tube.
T his voltage is again governed by the characteristics of the ballast and is not enough to
restart the glow in the starter. If the tube does not strike on the first occasion, the starter
glows again and this is where the flickering comes from.
T he final function of the ballast is to limit the current so that the tube consumes its rated
wattage. If a tube that has been "struck" is placed directly across the mains, a very high
current will flow and it would blow up as the resistance between the ends is very low.
It is classified as having "negative resistance" as the flow of current causes the
impedance of the tube to decrease.
20 WATT FLUORO
T he wattage of a fluorescent tube is a characteristic of its size and vice versa; the
wattage determines the size. T hat's why a 20 watt tube is 2 feet long and a 40 watt tube
is 4 feet long.
T he design of a tube is a complex mathematical equation (a lot of experimentation has
gone into its design).
T he tubes are filled with a gaseous mixture that produces ultra-violet light when
operating and this light hits against the walls of the tube to excite the coating on the
inside to produce visible light.
T he gas and the coating are all poisonous and the emission of the ultraviolet waveform
from an uncoated tube is quite dangerous to the eyes, so experimenting with tubes
other than operating them as per this project is to be avoided.
You can buy uncoated tubes (called ultraviolet tubes) for lighting effects, EPROM
erasing, special heating, and germicidal applications. Do not use any of these tubes in
this project as the voltage we are producing will create different effects and damage
your eyes.
12v INVERTER
Now for the 12v version.
T he circuit doesn't require many components but its operation is quite complex. T he
clever component is the transformer. It performs 3 functions.
Firstly it is acting as a feedback component for the transistor to create an oscillator
circuit. Secondly it is providing a high voltage (over 1 000 volts) to strike the tube and
keep it struck and thirdly it is supplying spikes of energy to illuminate the tube.
T he circuit is shown in figure 1 and we will take a detailed look at how the transformer
carries out the three functions.
T he transformer in this project is not a lethal device as the output wattage is slightly
below the value that produces electrocution. However the output is in excess of 1,000v
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and the ends of the secondary winding should not be touched when the transformer is
operating.
To get a shock you must touch both
ends at the same time - it is not sufficient to touch one end and any other part of the
circuit as the secondary is an isolated winding.
Even a simple transformer such as the one we are winding in this project will
demonstrate a number of interesting features. One of them is the ability to step-up a
voltage. T his is the main purpose in this project as we require a voltage of
approximately 1,000v to strike the tube.
Another interesting feature is the availability to get positive or negative voltage (phase)
from a separate winding on the transformer, simply by connecting the winding around
one way or the other. In this project we connect the winding to get positive feedback so
that a single transistor will drive the circuit.
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T he voltages produced by the transformer are very spiky and the gas in a fluorescent
tube is very quick to react to these spikes. T he gas produces ultraviolet light that strikes
the fluorescent material on the inside of the tube and causes it to produce visible light.
T he tube forms part of the load for the transformer and has an effect on quenching the
spikes to the transistor so it is not advisable to operate the transformer without the tube
connected.
PARTS LIST
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1 - BC338 transistor
1 - T IP 3055 transistor
1 - on/off switch
1 - 12mm bolt and nut for transistor
1 - heat-sink 5cm x 10cm
1 - ferrite rod 10mm dia x 8m long
1 - 30m winding wire .28mm dia
1 - 4m winding wire .61 mm dia
(wire diameters are NOT critical)
1 - insulation tape either sticky tape
or masking tape
1 - interlayer insulation - paper
Extras:
T he ferrite core of the transformer is an antenna rod from an old transistor radio. You
could use a slab antenna but we have chosen a 10mm diameter rod, 8cm long and the
first winding to be wound on it is called the primary.
T his consists of 58 turns of wire spaced slightly apart so that is occupies the centre 6cm
of the rod. T he first thing to do is wind two layers of insulation around the rod so that the
wire does not touch the rod and create a short.
Leave the first 8 - 10cm of wire and start winding with the thick .61mm wire. But firstly
hold the end of the wire in place with a short piece of sticky tape folded over itself and
stuck along the length of the rod, where the winding is to be placed. Continue winding
and fix the other end in a similar manner, leaving 8 - 10 cm for connecting to the rest of
the components.
Place one layer of paper over this winding and secure both the start and end of the
paper with sticky tape. Make sure this insulating paper is tight by rolling it like a
cigarette before sticky-taping.
T he next layer is called the feedback winding and consists of 13 turns of the thin .28mm
wire, wound in a spiral fashion so that it takes up the full length of the 6cm.
Terminate both the start and finish of the winding with sticky tape to prevent it
unwinding. Cover this with a layer of insulation.
Now, for the final winding, called the secondary.
T his consists of 450 turns of .28mm wire, wound in 3 layers of 150 turns.
T he winding does not have to be neat and you could quite easily jumble-wind the turns
and it would work perfectly ok, however there are two factors to remember.
T he voltage between the start and finish of this winding will be about 1,000 volts and
the insulation on the wire is only about 100v. So the start and the finish must not be
near each other. T his also applies to most of the other turns so the best way to prevent
the inner-turn sorts is to carefully wind the turns side-by side.
T his also produces the best results.
Leave 8 - 10 cm of wire and hold the start in place with a piece of sticky-tape folded
over itself and stuck to the insulation. Wind 150 turns neatly across the 6cm of the
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transformer and hold the last turn in place with sticky tape before placing a layer of
insulation over the winding. Continue with the next layer and one more, making a total
of 450 turns.
Cover the last layer with insulation, tin the ends of each of the windings with a hot
soldering iron and plenty of solder and the transformer is complete.
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connect the feedback winding any way you wish. T urn the project ON AND OFF very
quickly. If the fluoro's don't come on immediately, the feedback winding is around the
wrong way. T he safety resistor will only allow 5amps to flow thorough the circuit and the
transistor will not be damaged.
When the fluoro's come on, remove the 2R2 and the project is ready to use. Use the
figure-8 flex and hang the tubes in your bush shack or workshop.
See the project used in a farm application.
It threw me for a few minutes having only one tube light up on first use;
(albeit at lower-than-usual brightness, but having not seen these tubes
going before I wasn't sure how bright they would get). It made sense that
the feedback coil was the wrong way around, but readers might like to know
one tube may light up, even with it wired backwards, though of course the
tranny getting very hot is a give-away as well.
Dave T hompson
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