Ultimate Fluorescent EOL show??? I think I got one!!!

  My classroom has 2 lamp F32T8 instant start (was F40T12) troffers. I have no clue of the ballast brand, but whatever brand it was, it sure gave an awesome show. I was sitting in class doing a test, and it started flickering on Tuesday, it was swirling flashing a bit, and with only 10 minutes left of the period, I thought I was gonna miss out on an EOL show. So the next day come in, it was flashing like crazy, same thing except worse, and it was only the one bulb. I left again on Wednesday, with no EOL show. Come Thursday, it was glowing BLUE! and flashing. I have no clue what bulb was in there.
  So I come in Friday (today), and it was flashing terribly, almost like the power was going on/off to the fixture, but it was still just the one tube in the 2 lamp troffer. While trying to ignore it because I HAD to do my work, I was actually getting annoyed because of the flashing. Although, the whole classroom is on one switch, so it was not possible to shut off the one fixture or row of lights. Half of the tube was BLACK!!! All the way to the center almost, and started going nuts, until it turned red, and stayed there for a few minutes, turned orange, flashed more, then BOOM! IT CRACKED IN HALF, right in the center, it gave way, and the tube dropped onto the lense. One weird thing was.....it was exactly in the center, and there was no shards. It was pretty loud, and scared everyone. Thank goodness for a lense on that light! I also saw the green endcaps, it was a Philips ALTO! Anybody else got a story? 

Wow :shock: I've never heard of one actually imploding :shock: or even going through multiple color changes! that would have made an AWESOME video 8-) 8-) 8-)

I wonder if in that final moment the ballast shorted & fed mains power directly to the tube?

Wow :shock: I've never heard of one actually imploding :shock: or even going through multiple color changes! that would have made an AWESOME video 8-) 8-) 8-)

I wonder if in that final moment the ballast shorted & fed mains power directly to the tube?

Something must have shorted, because the was a horrible electrical smell for a few minutes, but that ballast was still running the other bulb. Its been replaced now, and its still workings fine, so I have no clue why or how it happened. All i know is that I am GLAD there was a lenses on it, because it was directly above me 

For sure a good thing that it had a lense on it very weird that the other other bulb was still on I woulda thought something like that - whatever happened - would also kill the ballast.

It'd be interesting to know exactly what type of ballast & lamp that was.
(LOL I could just picture doing some EOL tests with that thing...outside ofcourse)

I once caused cancellation of evening class by fluorescent hacking

1. Collect 40 starters (good, stuck, open, does not matter)

2. Open them, twist the capacitor to short its wires, effectively turning the starter into a "stuck starter"

3. Replace all starters in the entire room with the "stuck" starters

No light ! A lot of glowing lamp ends and humming ballasts, all other classrooms allready locked, janitor allready went home

4. Tomorrow morning, replace starters back

LOL at "fluorescent hacking" that's a good one!

Ash, this is a good one.   However, if my place of work had switch start fittings, and someone tried it, it wouldn't cancel the classes as I carry a master key and could find another room ! On a side note, it might give a nice warm orange glow to the room, similar to a bunch of candles... EDIT : I am a high school teacher and know the tricks students try to avoid class time... 

You could simply remove the starters and then the lights wouldn't work at all or may glow dimly. My preference would be to replace the 40w starters with ones for 20w lamps, then all the lamps would blink continuously 

Instead of removing the starters, i could trip the RCD by sticking a 4uF 250V AC (like PFC) capacitor between L and E in the socket. But glowing ends are so much more fun

We have 240 V here and most starters are universal 4 - 80 W. There are Philips S2 and Osram ST151 but in my case they were not available, cause school did not have fixtures that use them. If you're friends with the janitor (and i was) you have endless supply of EOL lamps and starters of any type and manufacturer the school ever used, so 40 stuck starters are very easy to gain