Cannibalizing parts from compact florescents

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By Gareth Branwyn
Posted 2009/01/08 @ 12:40 pm
Category Electronics

This isn’t the sharpest Instructable on the site, but I like the idea that people are starting to see what sorts of useful projects they can do with the innards from dead CF light bulbs (such as, in this case, a step-down DC-DC converter and a Joule thief).

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3 Responses to Cannibalizing parts from compact florescents

Chris on January 8th, 2009 at 3:17 pm said:

Nice. Though it’s a shame only the toroid is reused in this Instructable.

If the bulb fails but the ballast is still good, it can be reused to do what it was intended for – lighting a fluorescent tube. I’ve used them for years to drive standard straight tubes with great success. Ironically, it’s even more efficient than the original spiral tube. Straight tubes produce more usable light for the same power, because less of the light is blocked by the tube itself.

These can be used to replace broken, buzzing, or slow-starting ballasts in existing fixtures. Or you can make custom fixtures, like aquarium lighting, shelf/bookcase lights, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) lightboxes, etc.

You can even overdrive tubes, for example using a 23W ballast with a common 15W tube. It does produce increased light, at the cost of slightly lessened tube life and efficiency. Useful when you need a little more light, but can’t use larger or additional tubes.

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paolo- on January 8th, 2009 at 5:59 pm said:

Euh, interesting, I know the guitar effect pedal community has been using these for a while now.

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/DRAGONFLY-LAYOUTS_0/LIGHT+BULB+PROJECTS/

I also remember seeing a thread on diystompboxes of people trying to reorganized the parts on the pcb to use it as a guitar effect. I don’t know how that worked out.

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paolo- on January 8th, 2009 at 6:01 pm said:

Euh, interesting, I know the guitar effect pedal community has been using these for a while now.

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/DRAGONFLY-LAYOUTS_0/LIGHT+BULB+PROJECTS/

I also remember seeing a thread on diystompboxes of people trying to reorganized the parts on the pcb to use it as a guitar effect. I don’t know how that worked out.

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