Safe topology for average DIYers? It depends on...what does "average DIYers" mean? And what does "safe" mean? Keep the circuit alive? Or avoid terrible accidents?
CCFL inverter is much less dangerous than a mains SMPS, but dangerous than a solid state audio ampilfier.
Also, it depends on how do you use it. It's hard to design a CCFL inverter reliable for long operation and massive production, either for a DIYer or for a new engineer. In this case, there is no "safe" topology exist.
But if you want to do several hours of experiment without serious accident( though you may explode several transistors and so on) and you stick to low / moderate power level, and you do not touch the HV output terminals or smoking devices, than almost any battery powered topology will be safe.
Many elsctronics DIYers are just started from similliar battery powererd HV generating circuits. IMHO, the number of these "battery heated newbee DIYers" may take up to 20% of all electronic DIYers, especially those started from childhood.
The HV thing they involve:
inverter for florescent lamp lantern,
gas igniter,
electronic mosquito bat (something like a tennis bat, but with a HV metal net),
HV striking units (mini version of the thing used by police),
TV high voltage transformer,
car engine spark coil (Richard Feynmann used this to power his "CCFL" tube or burn paper.)
and so on.
Many of these people have met some kind of accident , but numerically less than / less dangerous than accident caused by the mains.
In DIY, most of mains accident are caused by mistakes in room wiring or insulation failure of equipments , e.g. soldering iron. These are REAL dangers.
CCFL inverter is much less dangerous than a mains SMPS, but dangerous than a solid state audio ampilfier.
Also, it depends on how do you use it. It's hard to design a CCFL inverter reliable for long operation and massive production, either for a DIYer or for a new engineer. In this case, there is no "safe" topology exist.
But if you want to do several hours of experiment without serious accident( though you may explode several transistors and so on) and you stick to low / moderate power level, and you do not touch the HV output terminals or smoking devices, than almost any battery powered topology will be safe.
Many elsctronics DIYers are just started from similliar battery powererd HV generating circuits. IMHO, the number of these "battery heated newbee DIYers" may take up to 20% of all electronic DIYers, especially those started from childhood.
The HV thing they involve:
inverter for florescent lamp lantern,
gas igniter,
electronic mosquito bat (something like a tennis bat, but with a HV metal net),
HV striking units (mini version of the thing used by police),
TV high voltage transformer,
car engine spark coil (Richard Feynmann used this to power his "CCFL" tube or burn paper.)
and so on.
Many of these people have met some kind of accident , but numerically less than / less dangerous than accident caused by the mains.
In DIY, most of mains accident are caused by mistakes in room wiring or insulation failure of equipments , e.g. soldering iron. These are REAL dangers.
Stocker said:
Something I fogot to say:Use electronic ballast as CCFL inverter may result in dangerous failure of the ballast / CCFL, even a fire or explosion.
Electronic ballast are not designed to power a CCFL. So what you get is depend on how the ballast is designed. Different ballast topology may have utterly different behaviour when connected to a CCFL. So it's completely depend on your fortune. (Unless you are very, very familliar with the ballast's internal circuit, just to the extent that you can tweak it to fit another lamp / design a new one.)
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