On Monday 04 November 2024 04:09:10 pm wn4isx wrote:
Somewhere I have GE light bulb manuals [in PDF] from 1960ish. NE-1 were wire lead with no resistor, today the NE-2 looks to be the same.
On my server I'm pretty sure I have the "GE Glow Lamps" manual. If it's not on my web site I can put it up there.
Try a Google search for "Neon NE-1 bulb."
My father bought me 500 from Burstein-Applebee when I was 10. I still have more then I want to count.
I remember that company, though it's been a really long time since I've thought of them. Are they still in business? Why 500 of them? Neon bulbs can be fun. Certain organs that I worked on used them in frequency divider stages, and sometimes the vibration in the console of the lower notes would cause a lead to break, giving a missing note, or several. In those units you could take out a couple of screws and swing the chassis out into a horizontal position, and it was easy to observe which bulbs didn't light when you pressed keys. I always wanted to get some of the ones that it up in different colors because different gases in them. Like some VR tubes do. I'd probably play with them some more if I had a suitable power supply, but haven't so far felt motivated to build one.
On those salvaged flash units, there are two types, most were (?are?) small xenon strobe tubes, probably have a life of no more then a few hundred flashes, the other uses white LEDs.
These all have the flash tubes. How do you figure they have such a short lifetime?
The ones with the xenon strobe will have a ~300uF 300~400V capacitor that will light you up but good.
That cap is very apparent on these units.
Been there, done that and still feel the zap. I mean be careful with those tube ends and capacitors! They have enough energy to stop your heart. Use the "keep one hand in your pocket" technique.
Look up " xenon strobe circuit diagram" on Google for examples of how they are constructed.
Unless you need a really bright light that lasts a 1/1000 of a second, I'd be really tempted to send them to the electronic recycler.
I figure to play with 'em one of these days.
I no longer work on tube guitar amps because of the high voltage. I've worked with 24V and less for most of my professional life.
My brother is very much into tube guitar amps, for the sound of them. I have a power supply and amplifier chassis and speakers out of an organ that was scrapped, and my intention is to make a guitar amp out of that. One of these days.
1V of video won't fry your ass. [most of my professional life revolved around 1V of video and 0dBv of audio]
Marshal made an amp with 1200V at 500mA B+.
I very much doubt that. Maybe half that much. I used to be a Marshall service center, and probably still have schematics around here someplace.
We had a tech get zapped and stopped breathing. We managed to get him breathing but it was a way too exciting 5 minutes. The boss buttoned up the Marshal and told the customer, "We don't work on these."
Sounds to me like he got careless...
I suspect many (?most?) members in this group have limited education in electronics and fail to appreciate all the dangers.
Back when I was into messing around with chemistry experiments I tried electrolysis, but found operating from batteries (which were probably prett much at the end of their useful life anyway) to be abysmally slow. So I took a selenium rectifier that I had handy, rigged it up with a line cord, and was very pleased with the results. I had to keep adding water, and was surprised at how dark the water got after a while. Put me off of drinking tap water for a good long while, that did. I was probably 11 or 12 at the time,
I strongly suggest purchasing a "stand alone" Ground Fault Interrupter/Residual Current Sensor and never work on any mains powered device that is not plugged into that outlet!
Got one of those in a short extension cord kind of format, but pressing the test button doesn't do anything. I might have to investigate that one of these days.
I used
until I had time (and mobility) to wire in real GFI outlets.
~$15 is cheap insurance.
Not something I worry about too much. I started out in electronics when tube gear was still pretty common, all over the place, actually. Ran a TV repair shop for a bit, and it was mostly tube gear in those days. I only got zapped good one time, ignoring the warning on a sticker in a zenith TV set and gouging my arm on the lip of the metal cabinet on my way out of there. That's about 25KV or so, and is probably the worst I've ever gotten zapped. One of the first bits of stuff had to do with a course my father was taking (that I ended up finishing). They had a 5x7x2 metal chassis with a 35Z5 rectifier tube and a light bulb in a socket, line powered of course. One of the things you were supposed to do with it was connect the output wires to nails stuck in a potato, and observe the different behavior near each of the nails. That things gave me a good tingle or two when I was messing with it.
Unless you know why, have all your equipment powered from the same outlet, use high quality metal power strips.
I have some power strips, but also DIY some of that stuff, outlets in electrical boxes with a line cord attached, etc.
And forget Variacs and mains isolation transformers until you understand their limitations and safety risks they can add.
Got both of those, and I know how to use them. And also how to get by without them. I can still remember one TV I was working on where if you plugged the (non-polarized) plug in the right way the chassis was grounded, the other way it was hot. So I'd check this every time I plugged it in, until the one time I forgot to do that, and damn near vaporized a ground clip of my scope....
I started messing around with radios when I was 4, crystal radio, AC mains radio when I was 7, got my ass knocked off, look up All American Five.
I don't have to look it up, I know it well. Both the octal and the miniature variants. Built one in shop class back in high school. Where I doubt very much that they even have that shop class any more.
By the time I started formal electronics education I'd survived most of the stupidest stunts one can do and learned safety the hard way.
Yup. that's how that works.
My father once told me "Son if you're determined to be stupid you'd better toughen up." This was over Sunday lunch and my family broke into hysterical laughter.
The idea of "Terry toughening up" is still funny.
Please be careful.
That's a matter of course.
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
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Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
