On Jan 22, 9:19 pm, will <ossumguyw...@gmail.com> wrote: > 1.When the device is plugged in, even with the surge protector turned > off, if I touch any of the neon lamps they light up a little bit (and > if I touch them on the common cathode side, the other lamp lights up > too). I feel no electrical sensation. This isn't really a concern, > just cool.
This may be an item of concern. First, do you have bleeder resistors across any high voltage capactors in your circuit? If not, you should, for protection of anyone who may work on it. The neons could be lighting up from stored charge. Also, (assuming that the plugs of both the surge protector and the clock are either 3-prong or polarized) there may be a problem with either your power outlet or surge protector. Either the power outlet wiring's polarity is reversed, or the surge protector has its switch in the wrong wire. If your clock already has bleeder resistors, this is almost certainly the case. If you have any non-polarized plugs in the loop, one of them needs to be reversed, or better yet, replaced with a polarized plug installed properly. The miswiring results in the neutral wire being switched off instead of the live wire, which is a dangerous situation, and can result in just enough current flow to produce the phenomenon you described. I once had a gas range with electronic ignition that was on a mis-wired circuit, and even when it was off the electronic ignition would spark every 10 minutes or so, because the wiring capacitance allowed a trickle of current to flow "backwards" into the HV generation circuit, and it took that long for it to build up enough to flash over. When off, your clock may be generating a "high" voltage that is fairly low, perhaps in the region of 70 volts, that is just enough to light the neon bulbs with the additional capacitance from your hand. A.J. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
