CCFL powering question

[FRITZHID]

i have 2 CCFL's but no power supplys. anyone know the basics behind what voltages/amperages these require? one is about 4" long and the other is aprox 8", the larger is from a laptop screen. any advice would be great, i'd love to get these up and running! TY in advance.

 

[FRITZHID]

wow, 68 views and no-one has a clue? :confused:

 

[xul]

They probably require a constant current supply. The surface area of the tube may dictate the power dissipation; check the power req'mts and tube size for commercially available CFLs and extrapolate/interpolate from there.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

if you still have the inverter from the laptop screen, you may be able to just feed it some 12v or something.

also, those plastic layers in the screen are fun too. Got lasers?

 

[hotwiremod]

Power requirements will depend on the actual CCFLs but we're talking kilovolts to strike the arc and the required voltage will drop after the arc has been struck and the tube starts to heat up. Current, on the order of 5mA and frequency is usually around 50kHz (AC). Not something you could hook up to a few batteries, you need an inverter circuit. As above, try to salvage one out of the monitor if you still have it, they're often a separate PCB. Oh and a disclaimer - I wouldn't touch the output of a CCFL inverter, even touching one side without completing the circuit could give you a shock. ;)