These won't be around forever (Patreon)

Neon tube driver hacks

Ever fancied a real glass neon tube as an ornament in your home? With the progressive replacement of traditional neon signs with the short lifespan LED versions it's getting harder and harder to find a traditional neon making workshop. The equipment used to make neon is quite complex and very expensive. Not just the vacuum pump and manifold system, but the very high power bombarders that heat the tube by passing a lot of current through the internal vacuum to burn out all the tubes internal surface impurities. I strongly recommend saving any old neon signs that you can, or if you're lucky and find a neon workshop, then it may be viable to get a short custom tube made for ornamental use. Neon signs require a high voltage, current limited supply. One of the cheapest and easiest ways to get a suitable low voltage version is to buy one of the CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Tube) drivers online. These ones seem quite well rated and are used for powering vehicle CCFL angel-eye tubes used as borders around headlights. The hacks shown here allow you to customise the output to suit your tube. I kept saying nanofarad instead of picofarad. It's rare I use picofarad values. In this case they range between about 22pF to 47pF. It's interesting to note that in the PC-case cold cathode tube era, the short length tubes just had a lower value capacitor fitted in their drivers. These power supplies are usually good for about 2' (600mm) of 12mm neon tube or a bit longer for the argon/mercury/phosphor tubes. Over time I expect these power supplies to get rarer and rarer. So it might be worth grabbing one now. They're not that expensive at the moment. This one came from an AliExpress seller:- https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001561157745.html A search for angel eye ccfl should find them. Here's a UK seller who makes straight demo-tubes for collectors and educational establishments. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256366499235 I'll ask about and see if any of the USA neon benders are interested in putting some straight tubes (easier to ship) on eBay. If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. #ElectronicsCreators