On Jun 17, 3:03 am, John Berube <[email protected]> wrote: > Has anyone ever figured out a way to get the ins-1 bulbs to work > properly over time. no matter what I do the bulbs seem to wobble after > some time. I know there has been sine discussion about this problem > before but has anyone found a solution?
What do you mean by "some time" and "wobble"? Like most neons, they need to be "aged". One solution in an article I have from 1966 regarding ageing neon bulbs (type NE2) suggests wiring a 100K 1/2 W resistor in series with a bulb, then using a variac to slowly increase the voltage until there is about 30VAC across the resistor, and leave for 48 hours. Then lower the voltage such that there is now only 10VAC across the resistor and leave for another 24. You can do batches of these in parallel. The article needs 60 NE2s but suggests testing 100 as some will not work at all, some will be unreliable, and some will not be matchd in terms of current drawn & striking voltage - even then in the heyday of neon use, the quality was not great. To be fair, the article was using NE2s in ring counters, so they needed to be matched well, but the general principle still applies. Nick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
