My kitchen fluorescent lamp which is 6 foot 100 watt unit wouldn't light tonite the starter flickered but no sign of any tube activity. It was very cold in the kitchen so I put the boiler on which warmed things up nicely I tried the tube again and although a bit sluggish it lit ( maybe my swearing at it helped) my question is do you think it's just because the tubes old and doesn't like the cold or is there something else going on?
Rather than waste power on lossy resistors a lot of the cell saver designs of torches do the dimming from anything other than full brightness by chopping the current waveform, so half brightness is the same as full brightness for half the time. What I do not understand is why the makers elect to do this slicing at low audio frequencies, rather than hundreds of kHz, which is just as easy for the electronics and would avoid the worst of the weird optical illusions.
I do seem to be 'gifted' with the ability to see flicker more than most, and to me the overhead motorway variable speed signs flicker as well, and asking at work, most people have not noticed it, but those of us who do agree it is bloody annoying.
Perhaps the flicker you are seeing is caused by intermodulation between the various circuits rather than that of their fundamental chopped frequency?
Rather than waste power on lossy resistors a lot of the cell saver designs of torches do the dimming from anything other than full brightness by chopping the current waveform, so half brightness is the same as full brightness for half the time. What I do not understand is why the makers elect to do this slicing at low audio frequencies, rather than hundreds of kHz, which is just as easy for the electronics and would avoid the worst of the weird optical illusions.
I do seem to be 'gifted' with the ability to see flicker more than most, and to me the overhead motorway variable speed signs flicker as well, and asking at work, most people have not noticed it, but those of us who do agree it is bloody annoying.
Perhaps the flicker you are seeing is caused by intermodulation between the various circuits rather than that of their fundamental chopped frequency?
