@Holly: It wouldn't take $5K by any means. I'm currently summarizing my expenses from the last trip, 10 days and returning last Friday night. Here is what you'd budget for three/four days with us:
$1000 airline ticket (west coast, maybe more depending on where you live)
$ 250 for Hong Kong hotels (one night)
$ 140 for China hotels (three nights)
$ 200 for meals, various transportation
$ 150 for a Chinese visa
That's under $2,000. Stay longer and spend more. Once you're in China your transit is largely covered by our team, along with many little headaches we normally encounter along the way. And that leaves lots of money for the component market. But buying parts there can be difficult, I should warn you! They don't like selling onesies/twosies, but our helpers will usually make it happen after you struggle on your own for a bit. But they probably won't know what to think of you so they'll simply help you out. We may also have a local electronics instructor with us on this trip, as he wants to go as well. I told him that if he is educating his students in electronics then he should also see a factory or two in Asia as well as the component markets. Whether we like it or not, the supply of electronics is from China and Taiwan. But it sure feels good to buy from Mouser and Digi-Key, doesn't it? Nothing like farm-grown components from Minnesota and Texas. . . must be made in the USA ?!?
Maybe we could even tour the ladyada manufacturer.
Seriously, we always welcome guests and you could join us.
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Post Edited (Ken Gracey (Parallax)) : 10/26/2009 2:28:19 AM GMT
I also forgot to warn everyone that works with el material. The phosphorus should be treated like solder, as a toxin. Also if you read the lytec wire patent.pdf file that I attached above, you will see that IMITATION WIRE could contain some serious toxins. (as with most things in life today) MSDS on products and material is ideal.
Working with electronics has health risks. Burning chips, blowing them up, overheating, smoking them, obviously is not ideal, but very toxic none the less.
The exposure to those situations increases many fold when your job is in the electronics prototype field.
But like someone that is a skydive instructor, the risk is worth the excitement for some..
Cutable, EL-sheet or strips or tape, is something I would buy from parallax.
This el sheeting is fairly expensive, see attached pdf file for US pricing.
Perhaps our friends overseas can figure a cheaper route.
3 inch x 1 foot size piece of el sheet(split electrode) is $19.95
4 inch x 5 inch size piece of el sheet(parallel electrode) is $18.56
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
TERMS OF USE: MIT License
"Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any pers...........................
..............................OMITTED FOR FORUM...............................................
.................. OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. "
Many thanks Ken... I have sent you a PM. Very strange I was in the process of PM'ing you on another matter.
Yes, the ones I used were really bright and the power requirement was very low. Exactly what you need when cruising away from a marina (and power source). IIRC the tubes were glass as one broke. The ones in the glass tubes had a seperate wire running the length of the EL, not woven below an insulated layer.
These wires should make some great Xmas light projects. How about some starburst pieces (for 16 segment huge characters) for a scrolling xmas sign.
I will have to see how the driver block can be controlled by a prop to switch segements.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Links to other interesting threads:
An old scanner I gutted recently has a scan-lamp that looks very similar to the glass-tube version Ken posted at the top. Both are high voltage, the difference is mine has contacts on both ends, not one end. (I haven't measured the H.V.) Very skinny: ~ 2-3mm in diameter.
Is it the same technology? - it is *very* bright for its size.
CounterRotatingProps said...
Is it the same technology? - it is *very* bright for its size.
Personally I suspect that all bright light technology that has a glass tube in it, can be considered a CCFL tube.
Careful those put out 1000+ volts AC.
The part you 'should' be interested in, is the scanning sensor.... [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Post Edited (Clock Loop) : 10/29/2009 1:03:25 AM GMT
I would definitely buy some of those tubes with the required hardware at the prices you indicated.
I probably wouldn't purchase the El-wire itself. Looks like a nice addition to Parallax inventory.
Ken sent me some tubes to experiment with. (Thanks, Ken!) I didn't know what voltage to apply to the primary side of the power module, so I started from zero and worked my way up. 12V seems optimum for full illumination, but it turns out that the length of the tube that's illuminated, starting from the powered end, is proportional to the voltage when it's between about 5V and 10V. Sensing an opportunity, I decided to build a variable driver for it that could be controllerd by the Propeller. Here's the circuit I came up with:
The averaged DUTY mode voltage drives the positive input of the op-amp which, in turn, drives the base of a power transistor connected as an emitter follower. The emitter voltage is fed back through a divider to the op-amp's negative input. The divider yields an output voltage range from 0 to 13V, with enough current to drive the power module. Here's a simple program to control the driver:
[b]CON[/b]
[b]_clkmode[/b] = [b]xtal1[/b] + [b]pll16x[/b]
[b]_xinfreq[/b] = 5_000_000
[b]PUB[/b] start |i
[b]dira[/b][noparse][[/noparse]*0]~~
[b]ctra[/b] := %0110 << 26
[b]repeat[/b]
[b]repeat[/b] i [b]from[/b] $4800 to $d800
[b]frqa[/b] := i << 16
[b]repeat[/b] i [b]from[/b] $d800 to $4800
[b]frqa[/b] := i << 16
This provides a LIGHT SABER! effect, with the lighted lengths oscillating from short to long and back. The attached zip is a video clip showing two tubes in action.
Ken made a good find. These tubes are really cool!
-Phil
Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 10/29/2009 6:03:30 AM GMT
Before I continue, I am useless at analog, so please correct any misunderstanding :-(
The duty mode output from the prop is accumulated on the 0.1uF cap via the 510R. Could this be somehow fed to the voltage divider that is used on a voltage regulator to vary the output voltage ? (I am trying to remove the op amp requirement to simplify the circuit)
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Links to other interesting threads:
The VReg technique was actually my first approach. I used an LM317 with a divider, and a 2N3904 to short the divider's bottom leg. The base of the '3904 was driven by the DUTY mode through a resistor without filtering. You can't drive the divider directly because there's not enough range on the output; it has to be amplified. I switced to the op-amp because that seemed simpler to me and, because of the feedback, gave more certain control over the output voltage. It also extended the range of useful DUTY mode values.
Dang, you beat me to the posting about the voltage variation. Ken handed a few of these to me when I stopped by Monday for other reasons and I finally had time to play with them yesterday. I wanted to do a few more checks before I posted. Here are my notes so far:
1) The housing is plastic and the end caps are glued on very well. The tube is inserted through a hole in one of the end-caps and is hot-glued to secure it. The tube can be removed easily by working the hot-glue free from the end cap. The CCFL tube slides right out. Be careful of damaging the bare wire. As usual, do this without power applied.
2) The CCFL tube itself is glass with metal terminals protruding from each end. One terminal is soldered directly to the white 24(?) AWG wire that goes to the 2 pin connector. The other terminal is soldered to a bare piece of tinned wire (30 or 32 AWG) that follows alongside the tube back to the glued end. There it is spliced using solder to the white 24(?) AWG wire and then to the 2 pin connector.
3) The four tubes I have are green, blue, and 2 pink. The 2 pink tubes are the same length. The blue is very close to the same length as the pink but the green is slightly longer. Not sure if this is done on purpose, but if you plan to mount these using the screw holes on the end caps, the distance between the screw holes would be different depending on which color you use.
4) When 12v is applied to the blue invert box, the tubes light up evenly and bright. As the voltage is decreased, the length of the illumination inside the tube begins to shorten from the far end. When connected to a 9 volt battery, the tubes light up about 50% of the length at full brightness, and tapers to no color at all around the 90% length. My first thought was a sound level meter or thermometer.
5) Since the tubes have terminals at both ends, I will be dismantling one of the tubes and re-wiring it with longer insulated wires from each end for further playing... oops, I mean "analysis".
6) I will also pull one out of the plastic tube housing and seal it with clear heatshrink to reduce it's overall size, yet retain it's safety from electrical shock from the bare wire.
I'll have pictures soon of all this playing around. I typed this up last night as I was playing around, but forgot to post it.
One thing I can't figure out (assuming the tubes are AC-driven) is why, at low voltages, one end is favored over the other. There are two possibilities that come to mind:
1. At low input voltages the output waveform becomes asymmetrical, or
2. The wire running alongside the tube to the other end affects the field within the tube and, hence, the gas ionization.
You bet - I'll see if we can get them all the same length. Already ordered a few thousand so that could be a problem. I've also sent a half-dozen of these tubes to TUV labs in Hong Kong for chemical analysis so we can know more about the types of chemicals we're distributing (and people will need to dispose of).
I've also sent some to Cluso99 in Oz.
I've got a robot on my desk right now with two of these CCFL lights. A couple of service guys stopped by to ask about it and they wouldn't leave - "what are those lights, where did you get them!?". Next they wanted to know about robots. . .
BTW, I've broken several in a few destructive tests. What I found is the plastic tubing bends and the inside glass (?) tube breaks, but the plastic contains the glass shards. A photo is shown below.
> This provides a LIGHT SABER! effect, with the lighted lengths oscillating from short to long and back. The attached zip is a video clip showing two tubes in action.
A neo-Jacobs ladder!
Phil, is there any latency in the response of the tube to the applied voltage?
One cool project would be to make a monster-sized audio spectrum display ... just line a bunch up mounted parallel, with a one or two or three for each band. That driver circuit looks really inexpensive, and the output could be multiplexed to save Prop pins.
Just don't mount it on your dashboard to impress your girlfriend - you might get pulled over for some obscure illuminated signage law [noparse]:)[/noparse])
CounterRotatingProps said...
Phil, is there any latency in the response of the tube to the applied voltage?
Not much. To test, I programmed a ping-pong between min and max voltages at 60Hz. Then I waggled the tube back-and-forth and saw cleanly-defined boundaries between "on" and "off", with no discernable "fuzz" in between. This suggests that a spectral display is entirely feasible.
I'm curious.. Has anyone thought of hooking on of these to a neon-sign transformer in a destructive type test?
(I have one... It makes a cool Jacobs Ladder, but will give you a nasty poke if you forget to respect it!)
I'm curious if it would glow like a florescent tube or just break..
Given that the CCFL runs on about 120VAC and a neon sign transformer produces tens of thousands of volts, I think the results could be quite spectacular! Just be sure to wear safety goggles.
The color originates from the end directly connected to the white wire (opposite the end with the bare wire attached) when using less than 12 volts. However, I dis-assembled the blue and soldered the white wires directly to the terminals on each end of the tube. This makes the color originate from both ends at the same time.
7V, single blue, end-to-end wiring:
8.4v:
12v (the terminal ends were rather warm at 12v and the current was higher than with the 2 pinks. Not sure why that is)
Dismantling the end caps. Be patient and work with the hot glue (my green tube ended up being a casualty during this process)
Here's what I did to get the blue one in the state shown in the previous post:
As received: (and with 4 volts applied to the inverter)
Hot glue "worked out of place". My green tube had a bit more hot glue and some to the inside, so trying to remove it was a little too much for the end of the tube.
CCFL has been freed!
Terminal 1 end where the hot glue was. You can see the terminal 2 bare wire coming out of the shrink on the left side.
First layer of shrink removed from terminal 1:
Solder joint on terminal 1. Not sure what is worse: the solder job or my crappy macro shot (I let it focus on the background like a photo-newbie)
Terminal 2 end where the bare wire is soldered to the terminal. Again, you can see the bare wire running alongside the tube.
Neat! I think that the fact that the tubes can light from one side and go to the next would create a cool effect. I think this is what the "lightsaber" effect Phil did was doing?
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Computers are microcontrolled.
Wow, Andrew. Excellent analysis and thank you very much for sharing the results. I could only be happier if you had a chemical lab at work or your home so you could figure out what gas and chemicals are present in these devices.
They have mercury, so they're not RoHS compliant. I'd like to know what else is present in these tubes.
Small hot glue guns can be bought for about $5 and the glue sticks for about the same, here in Oz from Bunnings hardware. They are used by RC modelers, so if you cannot find them cheap, ask your local RC hobbyists.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ Links to other interesting threads:
>They have mercury, so they're not RoHS compliant. I'd like to know what else is present in these tubes.
wiki seems to think - "EL wire's construction consists of five major components. First is a solid-copper wire core. This core is coated with phosphor. A very fine wire is spiral-wound around the phosphor-coated copper core. This fine wire is electrically isolated from the copper core. Surrounding this 'sandwich' of copper core, phosphor, and fine copper wire is a clear PVC sleeve. Finally, surrounding this thin, clear PVC sleeve is another clear, colored translucent, or fluorescent PVC sleeve."
Assuming its correct of course, and talking about the same stuff.
Comments
$1000 airline ticket (west coast, maybe more depending on where you live)
$ 250 for Hong Kong hotels (one night)
$ 140 for China hotels (three nights)
$ 200 for meals, various transportation
$ 150 for a Chinese visa
That's under $2,000. Stay longer and spend more. Once you're in China your transit is largely covered by our team, along with many little headaches we normally encounter along the way. And that leaves lots of money for the component market. But buying parts there can be difficult, I should warn you! They don't like selling onesies/twosies, but our helpers will usually make it happen after you struggle on your own for a bit. But they probably won't know what to think of you so they'll simply help you out. We may also have a local electronics instructor with us on this trip, as he wants to go as well. I told him that if he is educating his students in electronics then he should also see a factory or two in Asia as well as the component markets. Whether we like it or not, the supply of electronics is from China and Taiwan. But it sure feels good to buy from Mouser and Digi-Key, doesn't it? Nothing like farm-grown components from Minnesota and Texas. . . must be made in the USA ?!?
Maybe we could even tour the ladyada manufacturer.
Seriously, we always welcome guests and you could join us.
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
Post Edited (Ken Gracey (Parallax)) : 10/26/2009 2:28:19 AM GMT
Working with electronics has health risks. Burning chips, blowing them up, overheating, smoking them, obviously is not ideal, but very toxic none the less.
The exposure to those situations increases many fold when your job is in the electronics prototype field.
But like someone that is a skydive instructor, the risk is worth the excitement for some..
Cutable, EL-sheet or strips or tape, is something I would buy from parallax.
http://www.e-lite.com/flatlite.htm They are a USA based company. Perhaps parallax should look into this material.
Being that it can be cut, opens up hobbiest type applications. And its electrodes are just two pads.
Post Edited (Clock Loop) : 10/26/2009 5:20:54 AM GMT
Perhaps our friends overseas can figure a cheaper route.
3 inch x 1 foot size piece of el sheet(split electrode) is $19.95
4 inch x 5 inch size piece of el sheet(parallel electrode) is $18.56
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
TERMS OF USE: MIT License
"Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any pers...........................
..............................OMITTED FOR FORUM...............................................
.................. OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. "
The dsp/fpga king is dead, long live the prop.
Yes, the ones I used were really bright and the power requirement was very low. Exactly what you need when cruising away from a marina (and power source). IIRC the tubes were glass as one broke. The ones in the glass tubes had a seperate wire running the length of the EL, not woven below an insulated layer.
These wires should make some great Xmas light projects. How about some starburst pieces (for 16 segment huge characters) for a scrolling xmas sign.
I will have to see how the driver block can be controlled by a prop to switch segements.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)
· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
An old scanner I gutted recently has a scan-lamp that looks very similar to the glass-tube version Ken posted at the top. Both are high voltage, the difference is mine has contacts on both ends, not one end. (I haven't measured the H.V.) Very skinny: ~ 2-3mm in diameter.
Is it the same technology? - it is *very* bright for its size.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Personally I suspect that all bright light technology that has a glass tube in it, can be considered a CCFL tube.
Careful those put out 1000+ volts AC.
The part you 'should' be interested in, is the scanning sensor.... [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Post Edited (Clock Loop) : 10/29/2009 1:03:25 AM GMT
Ken Gracey
I would definitely buy some of those tubes with the required hardware at the prices you indicated.
I probably wouldn't purchase the El-wire itself. Looks like a nice addition to Parallax inventory.
OBC
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
The averaged DUTY mode voltage drives the positive input of the op-amp which, in turn, drives the base of a power transistor connected as an emitter follower. The emitter voltage is fed back through a divider to the op-amp's negative input. The divider yields an output voltage range from 0 to 13V, with enough current to drive the power module. Here's a simple program to control the driver:
[b]CON[/b] [b]_clkmode[/b] = [b]xtal1[/b] + [b]pll16x[/b] [b]_xinfreq[/b] = 5_000_000 [b]PUB[/b] start |i [b]dira[/b][noparse][[/noparse]*0]~~ [b]ctra[/b] := %0110 << 26 [b]repeat[/b] [b]repeat[/b] i [b]from[/b] $4800 to $d800 [b]frqa[/b] := i << 16 [b]repeat[/b] i [b]from[/b] $d800 to $4800 [b]frqa[/b] := i << 16This provides a LIGHT SABER! effect, with the lighted lengths oscillating from short to long and back. The attached zip is a video clip showing two tubes in action.
Ken made a good find. These tubes are really cool!
-Phil
Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 10/29/2009 6:03:30 AM GMT
Can we simplify the cct?
Before I continue, I am useless at analog, so please correct any misunderstanding :-(
The duty mode output from the prop is accumulated on the 0.1uF cap via the 510R. Could this be somehow fed to the voltage divider that is used on a voltage regulator to vary the output voltage ? (I am trying to remove the op amp requirement to simplify the circuit)
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)
· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
-Phil
1) The housing is plastic and the end caps are glued on very well. The tube is inserted through a hole in one of the end-caps and is hot-glued to secure it. The tube can be removed easily by working the hot-glue free from the end cap. The CCFL tube slides right out. Be careful of damaging the bare wire. As usual, do this without power applied.
2) The CCFL tube itself is glass with metal terminals protruding from each end. One terminal is soldered directly to the white 24(?) AWG wire that goes to the 2 pin connector. The other terminal is soldered to a bare piece of tinned wire (30 or 32 AWG) that follows alongside the tube back to the glued end. There it is spliced using solder to the white 24(?) AWG wire and then to the 2 pin connector.
3) The four tubes I have are green, blue, and 2 pink. The 2 pink tubes are the same length. The blue is very close to the same length as the pink but the green is slightly longer. Not sure if this is done on purpose, but if you plan to mount these using the screw holes on the end caps, the distance between the screw holes would be different depending on which color you use.
4) When 12v is applied to the blue invert box, the tubes light up evenly and bright. As the voltage is decreased, the length of the illumination inside the tube begins to shorten from the far end. When connected to a 9 volt battery, the tubes light up about 50% of the length at full brightness, and tapers to no color at all around the 90% length. My first thought was a sound level meter or thermometer.
5) Since the tubes have terminals at both ends, I will be dismantling one of the tubes and re-wiring it with longer insulated wires from each end for further playing... oops, I mean "analysis".
6) I will also pull one out of the plastic tube housing and seal it with clear heatshrink to reduce it's overall size, yet retain it's safety from electrical shock from the bare wire.
I'll have pictures soon of all this playing around. I typed this up last night as I was playing around, but forgot to post it.
Ken, can you check on the length issue of #3?
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
1. At low input voltages the output waveform becomes asymmetrical, or
2. The wire running alongside the tube to the other end affects the field within the tube and, hence, the gas ionization.
-Phil
You bet - I'll see if we can get them all the same length. Already ordered a few thousand so that could be a problem. I've also sent a half-dozen of these tubes to TUV labs in Hong Kong for chemical analysis so we can know more about the types of chemicals we're distributing (and people will need to dispose of).
I've also sent some to Cluso99 in Oz.
I've got a robot on my desk right now with two of these CCFL lights. A couple of service guys stopped by to ask about it and they wouldn't leave - "what are those lights, where did you get them!?". Next they wanted to know about robots. . .
BTW, I've broken several in a few destructive tests. What I found is the plastic tubing bends and the inside glass (?) tube breaks, but the plastic contains the glass shards. A photo is shown below.
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
A neo-Jacobs ladder!
Phil, is there any latency in the response of the tube to the applied voltage?
One cool project would be to make a monster-sized audio spectrum display ... just line a bunch up mounted parallel, with a one or two or three for each band. That driver circuit looks really inexpensive, and the output could be multiplexed to save Prop pins.
Just don't mount it on your dashboard to impress your girlfriend - you might get pulled over for some obscure illuminated signage law [noparse]:)[/noparse])
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
-Phil
I'm curious.. Has anyone thought of hooking on of these to a neon-sign transformer in a destructive type test?
(I have one... It makes a cool Jacobs Ladder, but will give you a nasty poke if you forget to respect it!)
I'm curious if it would glow like a florescent tube or just break..
OBC
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
New to the Propeller?
Visit the: The Propeller Pages @ Warranty Void.
-Phil
Current draw with two pink tubes connected:
0v 0.00A (duh)
4v 0.02A
5v 0.03A
6v 0.05A
7v 0.07A
8v 0.09A
9v 0.13A
10v 0.34A
11v 0.58A
Note how the top one is basically full brightness but the lower one isn't? The upper one went full bright at 10.7v and the lower at 11.4v.
12v 0.62A
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
Post Edited (WBA Consulting) : 10/31/2009 12:11:46 AM GMT
7V, single blue, end-to-end wiring:
8.4v:
12v (the terminal ends were rather warm at 12v and the current was higher than with the 2 pinks. Not sure why that is)
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
Post Edited (WBA Consulting) : 10/31/2009 12:06:18 AM GMT
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
Here's what I did to get the blue one in the state shown in the previous post:
As received: (and with 4 volts applied to the inverter)
Hot glue "worked out of place". My green tube had a bit more hot glue and some to the inside, so trying to remove it was a little too much for the end of the tube.
CCFL has been freed!
Terminal 1 end where the hot glue was. You can see the terminal 2 bare wire coming out of the shrink on the left side.
First layer of shrink removed from terminal 1:
Solder joint on terminal 1. Not sure what is worse: the solder job or my crappy macro shot (I let it focus on the background like a photo-newbie)
Terminal 2 end where the bare wire is soldered to the terminal. Again, you can see the bare wire running alongside the tube.
Solderjoint on terminal 2:
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Andrew Williams
WBA Consulting
WBA-TH1M Sensirion SHT11 Module
Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, Mar 20, 2010
Post Edited (WBA Consulting) : 10/31/2009 12:03:59 AM GMT
-Phil
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Computers are microcontrolled.
Robots are microcontrolled.
I am microcontrolled.
But you·can·call me micro.
Want to·experiment with the SX or just put together a cool project?
SX Spinning light display·
Want cheap wholesale electronic parts?
Transistor parts wholesale
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)
· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
They have mercury, so they're not RoHS compliant. I'd like to know what else is present in these tubes.
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Computers are microcontrolled.
Robots are microcontrolled.
I am microcontrolled.
But you·can·call me micro.
Want to·experiment with the SX or just put together a cool project?
SX Spinning light display·
Want cheap wholesale electronic parts?
Transistor parts wholesale
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)
· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
>They have mercury, so they're not RoHS compliant. I'd like to know what else is present in these tubes.
wiki seems to think - "EL wire's construction consists of five major components. First is a solid-copper wire core. This core is coated with phosphor. A very fine wire is spiral-wound around the phosphor-coated copper core. This fine wire is electrically isolated from the copper core. Surrounding this 'sandwich' of copper core, phosphor, and fine copper wire is a clear PVC sleeve. Finally, surrounding this thin, clear PVC sleeve is another clear, colored translucent, or fluorescent PVC sleeve."
Assuming its correct of course, and talking about the same stuff.
James