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12volt fluorescent lighting 2

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JW:
Huh,
 Thanks guys, I didnt think about a ground plane within the proximity of the bulb. Everything seems fine, and one of the bulb leads runs along the bulb, I have them sealed in a polycarbonate tube. I wonder if this would serve the same purpose as a grounding plane. Probably not. I loathe opening the poycarbonate tubes again. Even though, they have a nylon plug that I machined on a lathe to fit an o-ring.
 Anyway here's a pic of the aluminum housing I tig welded for the ballasts, before I painted it.



JW

JW:
uknow,
 The more I think about the fact, that one wire is running the length (damn I need to fix my spellchecker) of the bulb without anytype of shielding, makes me wonder about the signifigence [:)] of using polarity with the fluorescent. Its a situation were it should not matter, yet conditions are a little different, hmmmm.
 Perhaps, by observing a polarity of sometype, which is relevent, to the wire running along the bulb with no shielding? In all the cases, where I illumiated the bulb with the DC ballast, the bulb had no fixture. With the AC ballasts there was always a fixture with a grounding plane when I illuminated them. I cannot interchange the 60" tube into both.
 On both the AC and DC types of ballast there is polarity specification. Such as the the AC ballasts connected a single bulb with either a red or blue wire to a yellow wire, that was common(yellow wire) on that end of the circuit running multiple bulbs. The DC ballast only powers one bulb, and has a long and short wire of the same color per circuit.
 It may be possible, that since there is no shield inbetween the power leads, to the bulb, observing polarity on the output side of the ballast compensates for a probable negative effect on the bulb. Since without the fixture there is no gounding plane?
BTW,
 Why I posted again in the first-place, I can solder tined-copper wire to the brass pins on the end of the bulb with no problem. Im using a high-watt soldering iron, it has a light that is on as you hold the trigger, maybe its a 1000watts, im not sure. Im using rosin-core solder.
JW  

JW:



JW

JW:
"I have noticed the flicker goes completly away if the 'longwire' on the ballast output connects to the side of the bulb with the writing."
    In this case, the 'longwire' from the ballast output, had more to do with the fact,that it ran alongside the bulb, for most of its distance, and the label on the bulb, happened to be facing the same direction..
   The bulb could be reversed, so that the label, faced the 'shortwire' of the ballast output wire, with no adverse performance of the bulb. As long as, the longer of the two ballast output wires(from the ballast), ran alongside the bulb for the far end connection. This refers to un-shielded wires.
 So its not the direction the bulb is facing, with respect to output polarity of the ballast, Its which wire runs along the bulb for the most distance. But if the bulb is in a grounded fixture it doe'snt really matter. Again, this is my opinion, from what im seeing, with what I am working with.
JW  

JW:
If it was the AC ballast, id use the red or blue wire for the length of the bulb, and the yellow(common) for the end with no bulb exposure.
JW

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