I been playing with these self oscillating circuits for a minute now, lord knows I've fried my fair share of them... but honestly I don't care, new ones only cost a few bucks each.
Basically, the answer is yes, it CAN be done! The proof is in the pictures...
What you see is a hacked sunbeam 25 tubular cfl ballast I got at Fred's dollar store driving an F15/T8 15w linear fluorescent, mind you in broad daylight on a cloudy day. I paid a whopping $2.50 or so after tax was included.
Getting the bulbs open is easy. Take a hacksaw blade (not the whole saw) and carefully go around the ring up near the top being careful to just barely cut deep enough to cut the plastic but not enter into the center of the bulb. If you do, you risk cutting the wire leads on the bulb and or breaking the glass. Takes about five minutes.
Anyhoos, I'd love to post more at the moment but I'm a bit pressed for time. Everything is in the very early research stages, eventually I would like to be able to get one of those relatively low output cfl ballasts and boost the power output to a level that will drive a standard 48" tube.
So far so good.
Basically, the answer is yes, it CAN be done! The proof is in the pictures...
What you see is a hacked sunbeam 25 tubular cfl ballast I got at Fred's dollar store driving an F15/T8 15w linear fluorescent, mind you in broad daylight on a cloudy day. I paid a whopping $2.50 or so after tax was included.
Getting the bulbs open is easy. Take a hacksaw blade (not the whole saw) and carefully go around the ring up near the top being careful to just barely cut deep enough to cut the plastic but not enter into the center of the bulb. If you do, you risk cutting the wire leads on the bulb and or breaking the glass. Takes about five minutes.
Anyhoos, I'd love to post more at the moment but I'm a bit pressed for time. Everything is in the very early research stages, eventually I would like to be able to get one of those relatively low output cfl ballasts and boost the power output to a level that will drive a standard 48" tube.
So far so good.
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