Cold cathode tubes

Tim M · 13 June 2005, 19:50

I bought a pair of cold cathode tubes on ebay the other day, with the intention of installing them in a white fireplace. They came this morning, so I set about installing them. The pack came with some wiring, and an inverter, which converts 12v to some ungodly high voltage. Anyway, wired them up, switched them on (powered by a 12v transformer I already had) but after a couple of minutes the inverter overheated and sizzled to an untimely end.

My question is this: could the tubes be run striagt off the mains. The specification says they will run on between 200 and 1000 volts. The only issue is that they only draw 5mA - is there is chance the mains could give them too much power and blow them up?

Tim

jwalker · 13 June 2005, 20:08

Were you supplying the inverter with 12vac directly from the transformer?

Tim M · 13 June 2005, 23:16

12v dc

Simon666 · 14 June 2005, 19:14

Funny that.
I bought 2 from ebay and the inverter also fizzed out after a few hours.

i wouldnt try to power them from the mains, the inverter proberly alters the frequency aswell as the voltage. Might fry yourself!

Si

Tim M · 14 June 2005, 20:20

I wired it up to the mains anyway. Nothing.....
When your invter blew up did it screw the tubes up too?