Mains flicker in cold cathode CFL lamps on electronic ballasts. Why? « on: November 01, 2022, 01:47:10 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
After having memories of seeing self ballasted cold cathode CFL lamps in Las Vegas and seeing cold cathode CFL candle lamps being sold at Home Depot, I distinctly remember that they have the exact same mains flicker that you see with magnetically ballasted hot cathode fluorescent tubes and hot cathode CFL lamps and I just noticed the mains flicker of some electronically ballasted cold cathode CFL candle lamps in a post light fixture tonight. I wonder why cold cathode CFL lamps exhibit the same mains flicker commonly observed in magnetically ballasted hot cathode CFL lamps and fluorescent tubes despite using electronic ballasts while hot cathode CFL and linear fluorescent lamps exhibit virtually no mains flicker in most cases when they run on electronic ballasts?
« Last Edit: November 01, 2022, 01:51:16 AM by WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA »		Logged

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Mains flicker in cold cathode CFL lamps on electronic ballasts. Why? « Reply #1 on: November 01, 2022, 02:13:51 AM » Author: dor123
120hz flickering: The mains frequency filtering capacitor is dead. 60hz flickering: Other component in the transformer is dead.
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I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.

	Re: Mains flicker in cold cathode CFL lamps on electronic ballasts. Why? « Reply #2 on: November 01, 2022, 02:14:54 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
I see the mains flicker observed in brand new cold cathode CFL lamps with electronic ballasts.
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: Mains flicker in cold cathode CFL lamps on electronic ballasts. Why? « Reply #3 on: November 01, 2022, 03:18:07 AM » Author: Medved
Cold cathode lamps use is mostly in decorative lighting that often feature flashing sequencers which would create a huge stress on the filter capacitor, what would be killing for the lamp, but as well as for the sequencer switch, so their ballasts just do not use them. Being cold cathode, there is no penalty extinguishing and reigniting the discharge, so there is no need to sustain the arc over the mains zero cross to prevent excessive wear (as with the high efficacy optimized hot cathode designs). Consequently they power the lamp only when there is enough voltage at the mains waveform, so not around the zero crossing. The consequent flicker is in the decorative use not considered as a problem with the targeted application, on the other hand the inrush current of a ballast featuring the filter capacitor killing the sequencer and even the lamps would be quite a show stopper for such lamp.
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No more selfballasted c***