Neons need an activation energy to initially light. The electrodes normally have a little radioactive material in them. The electrons emitted by the radioactive material help initiate the discharge. There's very little radioactive material in there and it depletes after some time. If you want to test this all you need is to put energy into it. Take a weak or flickery neon in a dark room and run it with the normal setup (high voltage through a resistor). Shine a black light on it (UV LED comes to mind) and you'll notice you can trigger them to stop flickering when you add the UV light to it. The ambient light from the room was enough to trigger the neon lamps you had.

@DVRproductions52

2 жыл бұрын

That's as good of an explanation as I've seen so far. I'll buy that!

The AC supply gets 100 or 120x (depends where you are) per second down to zero, so the discharge disappears the same way you have shown with the capa tester. Now after the voltage reverses, it has to ignite the discharge again. And to do that, you need to break down and ionize the gas. Now what is the ionization there? The electric field accelerates a free electron there, till it collides with a neutral atom and kicks another electron free from it, generating another ion and free electron that could be accelerated. This way, when the field is strong enough, it generates more electron-ion pairs than they decay (when an electron sticks back to the ion and makes back a neutral atom), so the ionization density rises, in a kind of avalanche way. The high ionization means a lot of free electrons, so high conductivity, which the loads the circuit so causes the voltage across the bulb to drop. So does the electric field, so the avalanche slows down, until it settles at exactly the voltage, where exactly the same amount of ion/electron pairs are generated as they decay back. But this need at least a single, first free electron to start all this avalanche. And that is, where the problem is. Normally, with the proper gas mixture (there is not just Ne, but some small amount of other gas), the electric field should be enough to pull some electron free either from the electrode or from the gas itself (the small addition of the other gas forms a kind of irregularities forming local high field nuclei). But as the lamp ages, the additional gas gets "hammered" into the electrode material, so it becomes missing in the mix. Or some types may use some traces of a radioactive substance, where the radiation energy is then more than enough to free some electron to start the ionization avalanche. But when old, the radioactive substance has decayed,so does not provide the support anymore. But in similar way, the photon energy from an ordinary light uses to be enough to liberate some electrons from the cathode and these electrons are then the start of the avalanche. So even when worn out (the gas lost) or old (the radioactive aid decayed), it still may function when there is enough light around, but not without it anymore. Because we are constantly bombarded by things like cosmic rays or so, occassionally some such thing hits the aged neon lamp and so releases that initial electron, hence itsometimes ignites, yielding that flashing pattern.

@DVRproductions52

2 жыл бұрын

What an insightful and scientific explanation to an all too common phenomena! Thanks so much for the answer, Anna. You must be a chemist or physicist, right?

It is called 'The Dark Effect'

I simply replace those neons with an orange led and 1/4w resistor

@subigirlawd_7307

2 жыл бұрын

I wouldn't there's something cool about them, but I have changed everything around the house with leds to slow color changing rgb leds but that got me In trouble with my parents 😖

@humbuccaneer84

10 ай бұрын

Such a waste.... i replace all my led with neon... wish i could... just love the tremmoring glow. Apart from the old orange, red or green, Led is just painfully bright. 5v110ohm 110v2.2Kohm 240v 4.4Kohm I'll keep chanting till my hair starts to grow...

Cool channel, new sub here love this type of content keep them coming you deserve more subs

@WestviewChurch

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the encouragement SubigirlAWD! I should have another one coming soon.

5:51 - I'm surprised you didn't do a test here with your setup to see if the lamp draws a different current when ambient light is bright or dark.

@WestviewChurch

11 ай бұрын

I suspect it would draw the same current as a newer lamp when it ionizes but haven't yet tried it.

Outer Limits AND Turboencabulator explanation in one video?!? Sell me a carton! I was under the assumption neon lamps fail state was flickering versus open circuit dead, in order to preserve other things down the line that rely on their passing of voltage. I will have to try blasting light at a flickering blub to test your hypothesis if I can find the sibling of your monitor stand power switch. Have you ever tried replacing the lamps in switches like those? Impossibility, or not worth the effort? I have never tried to open one of those switches up before.

@DVRproductions52

Жыл бұрын

To be honest there bluesteelbass, I never tried to open one up either. I'm sure it's not worth the effort unless you're like me and just destructively curious. -- Like you're handle. I play bass too!

@bluesteelbass

Жыл бұрын

@@DVRproductions52 Dean Markley's - Cryogenically Activated! Only musicians or audiophiles get the name right - everyone else thinks I'm an avid fisherman. Everything you wanted to know about the neon indicator lamps, as well as flickering flame light bulbs here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/oK2NzNCPaZzdlrA.html

@DVRproductions52

Жыл бұрын

@@bluesteelbass I like his channel too. Lots of great and entertaining info there.

Computer folklore tells of a machine that was scared of the dark. It was made with lots of neon lamps, which would not fire without the extra energy supplied by the room lights. Off-topic, but the control circuit in my Mom's old dryer had a neon bulb hidden inside the chassis. It was being used as a voltage regulator, lighting up and passing current when the voltage was high enough. (Designed in the days before solid state regulators were cheap enough and rugged enough to do the job.)

@humbuccaneer84

10 ай бұрын

Ah, the time of braided magnets... you can imagine such a torch to use too many batteries. So once on, it stays on. Or bring in the data. 6 feet stacks of punctured paper.