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12 volt DC 4-footer! Who said there's no such thing as a 4ft 12vDC fluorescent? Well, there isn't...but I made this out of parts I already had laying around. Fixture body is an older Lithonia shoplight whose original Lumi-Kon LPF rapid start ballast would only light one lamp and trip it's thermal cutout. So I took that out and in it's place installed a pair of 12vDC 13w PL ballasts I had. They seriously underpower a F40T12 lamp, but hey, it works and I think it's pretty cool. I'm wondering about overheating though and killing lamps quickly since there's no cathode heating. I'm thinking of instead making a nice F30T12 setup if I can run the ballasts in "overdrive" mode if I cut down one of my ballastless cheap shoplight husks or something. This thing was also a really huge pain to get working correctly, every time I put the reflector on and stuck lamps in it wouldn't work! (Wires coming loose, etc) And ignore another on of my craptastic wiring jobs LOL.... Keywords: Lit_Lighting

12 volt DC 4-footer!

Who said there's no such thing as a 4ft 12vDC fluorescent? Well, there isn't...but I made this out of parts I already had laying around.
Fixture body is an older Lithonia shoplight whose original Lumi-Kon LPF rapid start ballast would only light one lamp and trip it's thermal cutout. So I took that out and in it's place installed a pair of 12vDC 13w PL ballasts I had. They seriously underpower a F40T12 lamp, but hey, it works and I think it's pretty cool. I'm wondering about overheating though and killing lamps quickly since there's no cathode heating. I'm thinking of instead making a nice F30T12 setup if I can run the ballasts in "overdrive" mode if I cut down one of my ballastless cheap shoplight husks or something.
This thing was also a really huge pain to get working correctly, every time I put the reflector on and stuck lamps in it wouldn't work! (Wires coming loose, etc)
And ignore another on of my craptastic wiring jobs LOL....

PICT0001~4.JPG IMG_5018.JPG PICT0011~1.JPG PICT0001~5.JPG IMG_3306.JPG
File information
Filename:PICT0011~1.JPG
Album name:GEsoftwhite100watts / florescent bulbs
Keywords:Lit_Lighting
Company and Date Manufactured:Um...me...Last month
Model Number:homebrew-Ballast-Setup2
Wattage:2X40w (Well actually 2X13w)
Lamp Type:Fluorescent
Filesize:447 KiB
Date added:Sep 20, 2014
Dimensions:2000 x 1500 pixels
Displayed:318 times
Color Space:sRGB
Contrast:0
DateTime Original:2014:08:23 15:40:46
Exposure Bias:0 EV
Exposure Mode:0
Exposure Program:Program
Exposure Time:1/50 sec
FNumber:f/2.8
Flash:Compulsory Flash
Focal length:5.8 mm
ISO:100
Light Source:Unknown: 0
Make:Minolta Co., Ltd.
Max Aperture:f/2.8
Model:DiMAGE Z1
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=18346
Favorites:Add to Favorites

Comment 1 to 7 of 7
Page: 1

xmaslightguy   [Sep 21, 2014 at 05:08 AM]
Interesting test!
streetlight98   [Sep 21, 2014 at 03:21 PM]
Woah! Sounds like a cool idea! Yeah, if the lamps are really underdriven without any cathode heating then they'll develope blackening rather quickly.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jan 18, 2015 at 01:14 AM]
Yeah I bet they would. Could this be done in "Overdrive" mode for better results?
streetlight98   [Jan 18, 2015 at 02:51 AM]
I'm not sure. I think overdriving would be just as bad as underdriving but you'd get more light, so if you want more light it could work...
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jan 18, 2015 at 08:32 PM]
I mean "Overdriving" to almost-full brightness from like 1/3 brightness!
streetlight98   [Jan 18, 2015 at 08:57 PM]
Oh so drive it properly? Razz I don't know... I think F14T12s were designed for DC current so maybe an F14 would work better...
GEsoftwhite100watts   [Jan 19, 2015 at 01:00 AM]
A F14 would probably be driven almost perfectly by one of these!

Comment 1 to 7 of 7
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