"Lightning Bug" Mini Fluorescent Light #FW77R

[coldspot]

Portable little battery powered white lights!

Made in China

Found on the CHEAP at local Dollar Store!

Yep thats right for a Single Dollar each.

On first trip in to the store, I got 4 each.

After a test using the 4 AA's that they take to run it,

I tested one and it has great light "Lum's"!

So I had to go back and buy more,

Ten more for a total of 14.

They also have a power IN plug on them,

Center +

outside -

6 VDC

MIN 0.04A

I had to take one a little bit apart,lol

Bulb info

"CHENHUI"

"F4T5/D"

A couple of resistors

a coil

three cap's

transistor

switch

now I'll have some when I get some time at the cabin,

need to get up that tree and haul up some stuff to start the build.

l8r

 

[willib]

got a picture ?

[Norm]

http://www.electronicworldplus.com/itempage-fw77w-381-442-610.html#

You mean like this...looks like it would have cost

you about $75 or so more here plus S&H charges.

 Was that at the dollar tree ?

     better go get 14 more !

               ( :>) Norm.

[ghurd]

I never saw that one.

But others like it want the battery full, or the bulb ends turn black.

Very low batteries kill the inverter.

Hey! What do you expect for $1 or $7.

Sounds like a job for a 12V battery and a 3A, 7806.

G-

[Norm]

One of my 6v/4amh fully charged would probably

work for me.

  How about a threshold circuit only runs the

light if 6volts or more?

                ( :>) Norm.

gotta get off exceeded time limit set by wife.

LOL

[willib]

I wonder if one could dissassmble those spiral CFL bulbs and use different circuitry to power the bulb.

they can also be had for a dollar at dollar tree , when thay have them.

[dinges]

That's the same question I asked about a week ago on this board. (w.r.t. a 12V FL driver). No answer though.

But I think it should be possible to build a small FL driver circuit into a CFL bulb (like Amanda's design, that's somewhere on this board). Most CFL bulbs I've seen have 4 connections (2 on each side), just like a FL.

Too bad I don't have any defect CFLs at the moment, or I would try it. All defect ones I've had had defect electronics. In the cheap CFLs, electronics go defect before the tube. In the more expensive/good quality ones, the bulb dies first (so I'm told).

[coldspot]

Yep-

Thats them.

The best local Dollar store around here in my opinion is

"Honks"

Thats where I got them.

Yea I've seen the cf's there twice before

First time I got two, went back and all gone.

Next time I filled a shopping cart, got them all!

But, before I made it to my truck a guy bought 3/4 of

them from me and I made $20.00 for the deal!

So in the end I ended up with about 8 or 10,

Girlfriend dousn't like them but I have put one in

the room I use for computer and windmill parts storage

and one in her walk-in closet that she leaves the light on in a lot.

last week I saw one in the top of a garbage can by road side,

I was on my bycycle, so I only got the bulb and left the rest of the stuff.

This one now is in the backyard light, works fine.

Honks store only had the mfl's in two colors, red or purple.

I got most of the red ones.

I might go by there today and see how many are still there and get some more,

them had about 15-20 more.

l8r

[Nando]

Building a small CFl driving circuit is not difficult if one has a good source of ferrite cores and bobbins to assemble the transformer.

The inexpensive electronic ballasts CFl, a Phillips patent that have elapsed and allowed the Asiatic countries to flood the market with low cost ballast/lamps.

These ballasts have 2 transistor in totem pole driving a choke with a resonant capacitor to fire the the lamp, in addition there is a feedback transformer to drive the totem pole transistors.

These circuits operate around 30 KHZ

This type of circuit needs a starting pulse generated by a snap diode.

The PF (Power Factor) is not 1.0 but around 0.6 and some have PF correction with input capacitors for 0.85 to 0.9 PF -- but the smaller ballasts do not have room for such correction.

The AC is full wave rectified, so one can supply around 160 volts DC and the lamp will operate normally.

What we have done is just a DC/DC converter 12 to 160 DC.

Some have used small 24 volts Center tapped transformers that with some 2N3055 transistor and a couple of resistors and a full way rectifier at the high voltage end, that is enough to have the necessary operating voltage and as well not run at 60 Hz but around 1 Khz -- adding two additional transistors the transformer can be driven in the linear mode and not in the saturated mode that is less efficient.

Nando

[dinges]

I was more thinking of this kind of circuit:

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/6/3/62548/82431

schematic:

http://www.otherpower.com/images/scimages/2006/09590161.PDF

Small enough to fit inside the case of an old CFL, simple to make. Requires a bit of experimenting with the components, but still, possibly an idea, esp. since 12V & 24V CFLs are hard to come by & expensive.

Once I get a defect CFL, I'll give that schematic a try (unless there's something I've overlooked, in which case I'd like to be corrected!)

[Nando]

This circuit works BUT it will shorten the life of the lamp because the operating pulse is MONO POLAR and not Bipolar the tubes will darken fast in about few thousands hours.

Using 2 transistors with a push-pull set up the lamp will have a true AC voltage giving long life and reduced lamp darkening.

Nando

[willib]

i have one ,but it only has a single bulb ,F6T5CW bulb,it had a black light in it but i took it out , got the unit  at K-mart a couple years ago,on sale .the origional bulb was about three inches longer but i modified the holder.

any way it only consumes 3W .

12.06V battery voltage @ .25A

i could reverse engineer the circuit if anyone is interested? it looks simple , not much to it really ..

[terry5732]

I've used this basic set-up :

to run both straight tubes and compact bent tubes from 12 Volts. It doesn't require filament starting and even 'burnt out' tubes will work.. 40 Watt tubes run about half brightness at 12 Watts. I ran a 12W compact at 12V 100mA to near full brightness. If you vary the frequency upwards, you can run them with one wire like an antenna. Who cares about the effect on TVs, there's nuttin good on anyhow.

U1 = 555 timer

T1 = wall wart ~ 120V/ 6-12V

I usually use variables for all Cs and play around frekes

[Slingshot]

Terry,

About what frequency are you driving the wall wart?  Also, how are the starting values chosen for c3 and c4, what's a typical value?

[terry5732]

Actually I haven't found any benefit to C3 and C4 and usually omit them. Not for sure on the frekes ( not measured), but by the cap values on the timer (approx) it should be thousands to tens of thousands. I adjust for peak brightness by varying pulse width and frequencies. As the frequency gets higher the width can be reduced for same brightness. Then there appears to be a diminishing brightness but farther up you get another sweet spot where it brightens again. The tubes won't usually start at the peak performance settings thus the variable caps. Pretty neat to see a 40 Watt tube light up at 12 Volts 1 Amp. Or to use (caution) your body as one wire and illuminate a tube by touching the glass with only one wire to the base. The higher frekes travel through concrete floors well.

[dinges]

I don't think I'd feel comfortable driving a 50/60 Hz power transformer at several kHz.

In fact, I wouldn't do it. For those kind of frequencies you need ferrites, not transformer iron.

[asheets]

Electronic Goldmine had something like this a few years ago.  The mini CFL, 3 aa nicads, and a small solar cell.  I bought a bunch of them, pulled the solar cells, and turned the cfls into a makeup lamp for my college girlfriend.

[wooferhound]

Do a little R & D

Ripoff & Duplicate

[terry5732]

At these frequencies you can go coreless. The transformer sings but doesn't heat.

[coldspot]

One dollar Mini C/F lights.

have been tested on cabin 12 VDC system.

Wired two in series, (Had to think about it for a few moments, LOL)

{Was very last and did put up outside face trim on 18 doorways YA-Know!LOL,  }

Wired the second one as allways on, (after the switch, soldering point)

Wired the first one as masterswitch.

Work very well!!!!!!!

Will be picking up as many more as they have left!!!!!!!!

Thanks again for the great idea!!!

Lucky local Dollar store had them!!!!!