Fluorescent Circuits

This circuit is a simple ultraviolate light that can be powered by a 6 volt battery or power supply (such as the power supply on the "Circuits" page) that is capable of supplying 1 or more amps...

Vacuum Fluorescent (VF) displays are becoming more and more common in a variety of applications. Manufacturers of everything from Automobiles to Video Recorders have taken advantage of these easy to read displays. VF displays are available in a wide variety of configurations; clock displays, calculator displays, multi-segment, and dot matrix displays are readily available at a low cost. This application note develops and covers in some detail a small CMOS system consisting of a single chip microcontroller and two display drivers which control a 20 character, 5 x 7 dot matrix VF display...

This Application Brief exists as a supplement to Application Note 63. When used with Application Note 63, this document contains all the necessary information to convert an ML4833 Evaluation Board into a low-cost, non-dimming 220V ballast...

This application note describes a high performance low cost ballast design using the ML4831 electronic ballast controller IC. The design can be evaluated by assembling the parts listed in this document...

Figure 1 presents a block diagram of a typical emergency lighting system. The control circuit monitors the mains supply, and if all is well, allows the charger to trickle charge the battery pack. In the event of the mains voltage failing, the controller then enables the inverter which provides sufficient power to a fluorescent tube to provide illumination...

A number of people have been unable to find the transformer needed for the Black Light project, so I looked around to see if I could find a fluorescent lamp driver that does not require any special components. I finally found one in Electronics Now. Here it is. It uses a normal 120 to 6V stepdown transformer in reverse to step 12V to about 350V to drive a lamp without the need to warm the filaments...

If you are tired of replacing small night light lamps, try this circuit. The line powered circuit uses a long life cold cathode fluorescent lamp. A simple charge pump technique runs the lamp without any transformer...

The circuit was designed to experiment with using small fluorescent lamps as a broad pattern source of modulated light. The circuit hits the small lamp with narrow 1us pulses at a rate of 10KHz. Each pulse launches about 10 watts of visible light. The lamp starting method is a bit crude but the circuit does work...

Zetec Semiconductors Applications Notes An overview of the principles behind typical emergency lighting systems, fluorescent tube behaviour, and the requirements of the transistors for efficient voltage inversion. The note also includes two "Royer" based designs for low voltage systems...