On 09/09/2014 09:00 PM, Brooke Clarke wrote: > Hi Chuck: > > Is there something special about the GR strobe tube that prevents you > from using a more modern strobe tube?
Extremely special. Google "GR guided arc flash tube". There are some old GR tech reports on the tube. It uses a large bulb so it won't melt at very high flash rates and uses a series of electrodes between the main ones, biased like in a photomultiplier tube, to keep the arc nice and tight. It quenches so fast that the xenon afterglow is the main thing that limits its flash rate. I have two of the earlier GR neon tube based Strobotrons. The neon actually has less afterglow than xenon but they hadn't discovered the guided arc principle yet so it isn't as bright. But it's real fast. In one of them I replaced the tube oscillator with a little microprocessor board to give it crystal-controlled accuracy. I retained the cool multi-turn analog speed control to keep it looking authentic. Linearizing that thing in software was a chore! John -- John DeArmond Tellico Plains, Occupied TN http://www.fluxeon.com <-- THE source for induction heaters http://www.neon-john.com <-- email from here http://www.johndearmond.com <-- Best damned Blog on the net PGP key: wwwkeys.pgp.net: BCB68D77 _______________________________________________ volt-nuts mailing list -- volt-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts and follow the instructions there.