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burnt up HV connection
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Neon junction for GTO wire, the yellow thing is rubber and houses the connection between 2 letters for a "1 HR PHOTO" sign.. there was also another burned connection on the last 2 letters "T, O" and I had to run new wire to them and remove the neon to do so then re install it
This is why I perfer the ceramic junctions! They can't burn up
I suspect it burnt up because the wires weren't twisted well
The transformer is 12KV 30mA
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The fluorescent signs have bad ballasts sometimes, usually an EOL lamp or two takes it out, especially those 4-6 lamp T12/HO ones, the lamps are all in series so every 2-3 years one burns out making a dim section
I always thought those flashing, glittering LED open signs were cool but I like seeing neon on buildings too.
I hate LED christmas lights. they have that annoying eye-grabbing 60Hz flicker to them (just like older LED car tail lights) and they don't have that warm feeling that the incandescent ones have. And white LED christmas lights just aren't the same as clear incandescents, though i prefer the colored christmas lights. i think the clear ones are drab and boring anyways lol.
For gas station canopies and car dealerships, LEDs are nice and bright but for street lights they're always dim. So i think utility companies are replacing their HPS lights with LEDs that are designed to replace lower wattage lights (like replacing a 400W HPS streetlight with a 250w HPS equivalent LED fixture.)
I got a weird LED retrofit lamp today, pics to come later.
IIRC, magnetic ballasts require AC to operate so on DC systems, they either had resistive ballasts these needed a polarity reverse switch cause the lamp would only wear one way, inverter ballasts (I'm not sure if the early ones used a electromechanical vibrator or were already solid state), or just used regular AC ballasts off a M/A set.
how do the poletop transformers work on AC though because I only ever see one wire entering the top, the high voltage line. And then the three low voltage 120V, neutral, and 120V lines come out.
Vince, nice to see you on EEVblog.