Is there a simple way to have a neon bulb (ne-2) flash with the music of say a portable CD player or AC radio?
Yup! Did that when I was a kid 🙂
Use a minature audio-output transformer wired backwards. Neon lamp on the high-impedance side. That'll flash it.
Use a minature audio-output transformer wired backwards. Neon lamp on the high-impedance side. That'll flash it.
Well I tried 5 small audio and 2 filiment transformers and 4 different radios/CD players.......not quite enough juice. Got quite a jolt on my tongue as I turned the vol up though and flashes on a half dead penlight battery as expected.
You can try an amplified deal. Use a 12AU7 with the neon in the plate. There's a circuit something like that in my files >>
Tim
Tim
tubbytwo said:
Aw, nutz 🙁
Maybe the trannies I used were 5K primary, I dunno. I used trannies found in pocket transistor radios made in the early to mid 70's.
Neons are pretty sensitive to ambient light, and will strike more readily in bright conditions than in the dark.
As a kid, I once made an 'alternative' light meter using a neon driven by a variable amplitude oscillator via a 'backwards' o/p transformer.
As a kid, I once made an 'alternative' light meter using a neon driven by a variable amplitude oscillator via a 'backwards' o/p transformer.
Thanks Sch3mat1c, I found your schematic on your page, interesting. I really don't want to add a tube to a one tube transmitter just to monitor output though. I'll poke around with a ne2/res to the triode plate and see what happens. thanks
tubbytwo said:
That might work. Remember that neons are highly nonlinear things and it might distort your output - especially if the light switches on and off a lot (turning from high to low impedance).
You can just as well use a transistor or MOSFET rated for the voltage, just arrange a linear amplifier. Be sure to limit the current the MOSFET can draw...
tubbytwo said:
It reduces the ionization potential. It's been said that a Marx generator (which uses spark gaps to connect charged capacitors in series), when it finally arcs over big time, all the sparks ionize within nanoseconds from the UV emissions from the first one. 🙂
A more common example of this is a faulty power strip indicator light - I have one right here under my desk, it's flickering a bit right now but mostly on. At night with no lights on, it almost never flashes.
I've always wondered if you can use a neon light relaxation oscillator as a geiger counter. With a low voltage supply (near the breakdown potential) and resistive current source, frequency is proportional to ionization voltage. So the buzz changes with radiation...
Tim
Sch3mat1c said:
Yes. But placing an americium pellet right beside an NE-2 changes the freq only 1/2 Hz or so. So if your neon-bulb Geiger counter is going nuts, it means that you are about to die 😛
Sch3mat1c said:
Then by putting a flashlight on it should "fix" it, right. How about the light given off by the neon gass itself?
..sorry for the double post
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