Blinkfest 2009 (January, preheat fluorescent style!)

Here is another mass starting of preheat fluorescent fixtures. All with glow starters and blinkage. This time, I went in descending order for the straight tubes as far as sizes go and put circlines on the end. All preheat and all blink happy. It was pretty fun to watch. The video combined with youtube's compression doesn't quite capture how it was in real life, but this should give you an idea. It was awesome.

PLEASE NOTE ONE SAFETY ERROR IN THE VIDEO: Due to a lack of wire nuts available and the F14T12 strip not having a cord, I did something you should never do, which was to attach the cord without wire nuts, a safety code violation for sure. Although this haphazard setup was only used for a few minutes just for this video, IT IS VERY DANGEROUS AND SHOULD NOT BE USED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. To eliminate odds of a short circuit, I bent the leads far apart from one another and despite what it looked like on the camera, my fingers were nowhere near the wire leads. I've worked with electricity for a very long time and this is not something even I would do normally. Note that said fixture was the first light to get unplugged after the video was over.

ALSO, IF YOU HAVE LIGHT SENSITIVE EPILEPSY PLEASE DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO!

WITH THAT BEING SAID, ENJOY THIS LIGHT SHOW AND REMEMBER TO USE WIRE NUTS ALL THE TIME, EVERY TIME!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• preheat
• fluorescent
• blink
• flicker
• awesome
• cool
• fest

[rickyatHK]

That's very cool,but why the 30 watt starts up very slow?Why?

[DavidFromAE]

I think it's probably because it had a slow starter. I got the 40 watt one to start up faster by putting a new starter in it. If I tried the same thing with the 30 watt, it would probably start up faster.

[eyecanthelpit]

dude it is still not fare that u have all these lights and i dont lol great vid

[DavidFromAE]

You'll get up to that amount and even beyond that eventually. This was all acquired over a period of years although I made some of the fixtures myself. I've also given some of my fixtures to fellow collectors so the number essentially stabilizes. Speaking of such, this collection is still fairly small compared to those of some of my fellow collectors. Just keep your eyes out for opportunities and if you find a good deal, grab it. Note that some of these fixtures are homemade.

[XmasLightsGuy]

Good blinkfest vid! ... can actually hear the starters click when they light :)

& nice collection too

[SpiritsoftheWolf]

i need to show you one of my antique light fixture, it has 2 14 watts T12 bulbs with starter type ballast, you probably know the year of it, my guess could be in the 50's or the 60's, if you don't know that's fine, least ya seen my light fixture :)

[pumpmaster760]

Whats your email adreess.

[DavidFromAE]

A regular 14-15-20 preheat choke will usually drive a 22 watt circline although some of the older ones also say 14-15-20-22 meaning they were rated for both. If you see one of those, snag it and make use of it.

[dieselducy]

thanks! i got a ballast here on ebay.. for the 22 watt circle what ballast did u use?

[DavidFromAE]

Hey. I've tried to reply to this comment before but youtube doesn't seem to like comments with URL's in them. I'll PM you the Lighting Gallery site and hopefully it will go through. As for the preheat ballasts, the ones that run one 30 or 40 watt lamp as well as a 32 watt circline (same ballast for all) I see on ebay every now and then. As for 14/25/20 watt preheat choke transformers are easily available at hardware stores and home centers.