Wednesday, March 30, 2011

CFL Light Bulb Schematics

Lots of good parts in those new fancy bulbs! This site provides schematics for the major brands. Very useful. Try not to eat the mercury in the tubes.
http://www.pavouk.org/hw/lamp/en_index.html#bigluz20w

6 comments:

  1. Some of those designs have transformers but they are connected sideways to how I am used to using them. How does that work?

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  2. Interesting... I see these are 230 Vac input. I wonder - Are these the same as the 120 Vac input bulbs in the USA?

    I also wonder since we (in the govt's wisdom) are not going to be able to get incandescent bulbs soon, is there a CFL replacement that will work in my cooking oven at about 450 F.Deg? ;)

    Anyhow.. I want to thank you for the blogs, keep em coming!

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  3. True scroungers know the value of the components contained within the CFL. I would venture to say that many CFLs are discarded not because of electronic component failure but due to the tube brightness fading.

    73.......Steve Smith WB6TNL
    Scrounging electronic scrap since 1960.

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  4. The problem with these schematics is that there are no winding inductances, series resistances and wire sizes. All of which are easily measurable and all of which are required to make the diagrams truly useful. Without these values, the diagrams are just something to glance at out of interest for the topology.

    Regards, David

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  5. Leif -- that configuration is acting as a "common mode" choke

    Normal "differential mode" AC passes through unrestricted because the magnetic fields from the hot and neutral return cancel out.

    Common mode noise has to deal with a rather high inductance and is sharply attenuated.

    In this case it is protecting the mains from the hash generated by the switch mode supply.

    You will see this a lot in switch mode supplies in PCs, DVD players, etc.

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