Originally posted by star882:
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{{{"if you use a 2 pin cfl you need to take the base apart and disconnect the starter."}}}
Thanks for the tip. That would have stumped me for sure. I had no idea there would be something in the lamp connector base thing. "
There is no starter in the base.
These are just instant-start lamps.
These lamps use a flyback SMPS to obtain the required voltage(1000+v start, 150-500v run).
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The tubes I will be swaping in are the household compact fluorescent lamps. The one I just got at Home Depot is a Philips 7 watt twin tube. The package marking is as follows:
7w, 27, PL-S, G23.
On the package it says "each lamp uses a glow switch containing less than 15nCi of KR-85"
I took my 12", 8 watt battery powered fixture and removed the tube, and connected the terminals to the pins of the new lamp. It did not start. I uncrimped the aluminium coller from the plastic base and cut the crimped ends off of the pins and the plastic base pulled off. Witch uncovered the glow switch. I cut the leads to the switch and tried again. The tube started as usual. Dim at first, and after a few seconds brighter. The color of this tube is much warmer than the stock tube.
I will see about getting an 8 AA battery holder and think about making a houseing to hold the inverter circuit and new tube.
Thanks all for your tips