Warehouse neons

[Xplo]

yeah for the warehouse neons, des anyone know what connectoree thing for the car is positive so i can wire it up to the psu? i know this was in the old forums but i didnt write it down or anything. any help would be appreciateed.
thnks :)

[Hans]

copper coloured wire is +.

[OberoN]

The LED is the key!!

A diode will only allow current in one direction (some don't know this). Keep the LED (y'know the one on the switch) hook up the wires. _Don't switch on the neon yet_ power up you PSU if the LED lights you got it. Then use lables or something so you don't forget.

If the LED doesn't light then one of the following applies:
Either (a) You've hooked it up with reversed polarity -or-
(b) The LED is blown. :D

[[LvN]N3misiS]

is the fuse thats in the ciggarette lighter plug nesscessary to include when hooking it up to the pc power supply?

[mird-OC]

Originally posted by [LvN]N3misiS
is the fuse thats in the ciggarette lighter plug nesscessary to include when hooking it up to the pc power supply?
not entirely. most modern PC power supplies have some sort of short protection (i.e. cut-off) and it'd probably kick in even if the fuse blew.

[Gene]

Do these come in other colours as well... so far I've only seen green. Assumed they only made green else the red and blues must've been very popular indeed! :rolleyes:

[OberoN]

Repco have blue. Much cooler! Similar price

[Gene]

Yeah, saw those in a mailer... funny what boy racers and modder's have in common. :D Can't recall if they're true blue which are usually prettier and brighter or just cheaper coloured acrylic tube'd types. Planning on using them on another project though... :p

WRT the foil around the circuit:- The circuit is a low wattage inverter converting the 12VDC to some 450-500V oscillating. It's a sitter for electromagnetic interference which will bugger any chances of low S/N sound and most likely interfere with your video output too. A simple faraday cage/screen can be made from foil or an alu. drink/beer can and will resolve a majority of interference resulting from the circuit. Making sure it's well insulated from the circuit of course. Nothing much you can do about the thin wire providing power to the other side of the neon tube other than to place it well away from anything EMI sensitive. I'd however be more concerned about a flyback interference signal on the powersupply seeing as this circuit is not nescesarily filtered in it's input side to prevent this. A simple filter can be constructed knowing the impedance and frequency of the circuit though. Enough of this boring nonsense... :D

:p :p

[Xplo]

thnks guys :D

[SilverPriest]

Funny that.
My boy racer mate painted my case :D
Damn good job too :cool:

[jeef]

i think the warehouse ones come in green, red, blue and UV



quick note, dont extended the wire from the invertor to the tube less u use a low resistance wire... wont work :D

[Grrr!!]

And the Masterton Warehouse has an entire stack of red ones, and nothing else :rolleyes:.

[HomerNZ]

heheh masterton hehe the masterton cossie club :) LoL

[Gene]

There were some blue ones at Glenfield on the North Shore. Yep, there was... :D ...now there's only green ones left! :p

[Wibber]

uv? where! I wan one!

[RedeviL]

Originally posted by [LvN]N3misiS
is the fuse thats in the ciggarette lighter plug nesscessary to include when hooking it up to the pc power supply?

As mird-OC said,
Its really just a use it and forget about it cause its safe.

The fuse ofters more of a return protection than anything - if something with the Neon went wrong, it could end up feeding a few hundred volts back into the PSU.
It wouldnt like this much, if the PSU is any good, it'll pop its fuse or cut off and nothing will die.
If its a shoddy psu, it probably wont, and you could result in fried components.

DSE sell a nice little resettable fuse if your worried about it. It costs afew $, and can save you alot.