Re: Capacitor value in Fluoresent fixture?

On 21 Jun, 14:51, "p...@xxxxxxx" <p...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 20, 10:50 pm, Meat Plow <m...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:25:39 +0000, noone wrote:

I have a couple of ~15 yr old fluoresent shop lights which have quit
functioning. They are the "instant start" type, yet don't use a canned
starter. I took them apart and traced out the wiring and found that they
just use a couple of chokes and a couple of R/C's to light up two F40CW's.
If I correctly traced the wiring, it looks like this diagram I scratched on
the back of a piece of junk mail:

http://usera.imagecave.com/Davetech/fluoresentdiag.jpg

These are resonant circuits on both sides, and cap value is critical.

As for how to determine the value, either measure a working one, find
a similar type of ballast and see what value it uses, or maybe ask at
the expert sites such as sci.engr.lighting, or ask folk like Don etc
at their expert sites.


I know, replacing the fixture would be inexpensive and intelligent, but I'm
retired, on a very tight income, don't have a ready ride to the dept store,
and hate to add to the landfill stuff that could be fixed. Besides, I'm a
tinkerer at heart.

Thanks for any help,


As to replacing the fixture/ballast vs. a couple of caps.

Home Depot/Dollar Store/Lowes will sell you a "shop-light" complete
with tubes for about $12. You will spend several $$ for the caps, they
will need to be AC rated at 200V or better, and you will need either
to order them on-line and pay shipping or find an electrical supply-
house and pay 'retail'. I betcha that purchasing a new ballast
outright (and save the sheet-metal, sockets and lamps) will be your
cheapest option,

Capacity does matter.

Be careful. you could be seeing the most expensive savings ever. And
if you do decide to repair the unit without proper testing of the
choke and transformer, you will wind up still having to replace the
fixture at the end, notwithstanding the possibly spectacular method
whereby the unit tells you to try something else.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

Tinkerers usually use salvaged parts that cost nothing.

As for the claim that reliability of old fittings is bad, the opposite
is in fact the case, with old fl fittings enjoying greater average
life expectancy than new.

What isnt worth salvaging is old halophosphate T12 tubes. Theyre free,
but new lower powered T8s will pay their cost back in use plus a bit
more.


NT

.

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