that inverter... those are like the onesvantec uses. Essentially, what you look at in an explosion situation, is where the capacitor fails, discharges current and the transformer takes it. Overheats, firebomb. I had one vantec inverter burn out on me. Just started to smell one day, and refused to work. However, this is what, three to five cases to hundreds of thousands of cathodes? So it's a bad capacitor.
i always use Flexiglow Ccfls. expensive, yes. The cheap ass ones just don't do it for me, they all look white. the blue is aqua, and the red is pink. My blue ones are blue, and my red one is red (if not a slight slight orangish)
guys guys ur taking this a bit too far. Those inverter were constructed badly thats all. After all the same technology they use goes in laptops and scaners and lcd screens of any type. And a total meldown is very unlikely. And what happened to that guy could have been cause because he tampered with it. I personaly dont change anything after the 12v point on my inverter. I leve that closed and stock. Besides that my cheep generic inverter has a built in fuse. I saw it as the inverter has breathing holes. I bought my cathode cheep and its comp usa brand and works dam well and the inverter on it is extremly simple. I have seen inverters that are 3 inches long and such and full of parts. The one I have is 1/2 the size and its simple. Simplicity is the key to reliability. my .02cent TA
wont it b easier to just wier the CCFL outside of the case incase u got a antec true power like PSU, (has an external molex connector) leave the inverter outside and make it so the CCFL is in the case that way if something blows up nothing goes dead
its got to be a bad batch of parts somewhere down the line, and turning away from ccfl's cus of a bad batch of inverters the you might as well run from all inverters. Oh wait if you did that you would have to throw out your power supply too. I have 3 power inverters in one machine running 5 ccfl's and the machine's been running 24/7 for almost a year now, of course i have a high quality psu in it. It was probably a surge in the 12V line from the psu, or just a crappy psu, who knows? People just need to stop jumping to conclusions, thats how the spanish inquisition started. As of now there hasn't been been enough failures of ccfl inverters for me to go pulling all my ccfl's out of my computers. This is just like when one person got a brain tumor and thought it was because he talked on his cell phone alot. proof people, where's the proof??
The arguement against CCFL's and their inverters doesn't seem to be objective. I'd like to know who's brand of CCFL inverters are catching fire and whether they are single 12"/4" cathodes or double 12"/4" cathode arrangments on a single inverter. This also seems to be a fairly recent occurance which leads me to conclude that it's down to the PC custom market being flooded with cheap and nasty CCFL kits. How many stores have you seen selling generic/unbranded CCFL kits? Lots and lots of them, in my view anyhoo! These exploding inverters are most likely down to poor construction (in China/Tiawan?) and poor quality parts so CCFL kits can be mass produced for minimum cost and max profit. I bought a cheapish generic dual 4" UV CCFL kit and one of the sodding cathode wires fell out of it's socket....it wasn't even stripped properly! Spend a little more and stick to reliable brands: Akasa, Sharkoon, etc. There's no way I can UV light my entire case without CCFLs, unless I want to spend £3 a pop on 25+ 5mm UV LEDs (that's £75 versus £25 for the CCFLs). If your paranoid switch 'em off when you not showing off your PC mod at a LAN party or to your mates. That's what I do, otherwise it's a 24/7 moth magnet!!
In the UK at least (not sure about the US) if something is faulty and/or causes the damage of something else, first of all it's up to the company to prove that their component was NOT faulty, and secondly they are legally responsible to cover the costs of other equipment that is damaged due to its faultiness. So if it takes out an expensive graphics card and motherboard the manufacturer has to cover the costs of these and the CCFL that exploded. -Sam
BUSTED Sorry...I just had to say that I've had some unpleasent situations with CCFL's but I have to agree....nothing beats the light of a CCFL (well...maybe 4 SunBeam Laser led's) Cheers, Mike
how about a 10 million candlepower flashlight from canadian tire? also, weirdly enough, last night and the day before, the cold cathode under my computer stand ceased to work. So I unplugged it as I didn't feel like moving stuff around. and late lastnight, I decided to give it another try, and poof... it works fine I'll leave it running a bit longer I thing. the inverter is taped up nicely, so it shouldn't be able to catch aflame as there is not enough o2 to let it ignight.
After reading this I thought I'll email a company that sells these things, (AC Ryan). This is what I wrote: I have heard that the cold cathode lights you sell here are dangerous and can easily catch fire. People have claimed with images that they can easily burn down a computer as the cold cathodes are badly made. What has been done about this? And if one did burst into flames and damage my computer, what would the AC Ryan do to compensate? This is the response: Great to hear from you! We have never had such experience nor heard of anyone with such a problem. And we have sold many CCFLs. Would you be able to put us in contact with the user with such a problem or send us the images or point us to where we can see / read about the problem. I always do this sort of thing cos its good to see what replys you get, and dont we get some funny ones - 'Great to hear from you'??? Ok, so if my computer burnt down and i told the company to pay up, they would reply, Great to hear from you!.
I would imagine that "Great to hear from you" bit was actually meant as "Good to know some of our customers are not so pissed off as to not give us feedbak to better our products." Or something similar.
I have a question about the inverters, how are the caps that are going up being used in the inverter? Are they being charged and then dumped into the transformer? Because if they are, and if the resistance is low enough on the transformer, than that is really a pulse application, and electrolytics aren't meant for pulse applications. Some of the low ESR ones are meant for stopping ripple, and there is photoflash ones. But regular electrolytics break down from major discharging. A well built one in combination with a good transformer may work well, but get a cheaper transformer with a lower resistance or inductance, and a generic electrolytic, and you have a overheating cap that will blow. Just put the inverters somewhere where they cant cause trouble.
Hmm... somebody find me a yellow LED that's actually yellow (not orange like most are) and I'll convert in about two seconds I have amber for my HDD LED and it's moderately close (maybe that with a green right next to it? or green/red?) Well I would have done it a while ago anyways, but I also can't get any decent PCB to work with so I can mount them all nicely and whatnot. Stupid radioshack.... Kinda OT question here... the LSDiodes 5mm 12000mcd white LED is rated for a max of 4v... would I still want some sorta resistor if I just used three in series and powered it off of 12v?
That's Exactly What We're Talking About, By Sueing the Company It Puts them Responsible To Repay You For The Damages Caused To Your Computer From Their Product
£3 each from maplin or Kustom PCs, but go to eBay and you can buy direct from manufacturer for 10p each. I got me 50
hehe, I know what your talking about (moth magnet) built up a computer for a customer with 5 blue led fans in it. tons of moths in it just over the weekend. We will be putting some plastic window screens in there to keep the moths out. will do the same with my case at home. though the moths aren't a problem for me, its those darn fruit flies that get sucked through the window screens.
The capacitor that "blew" up seems to be on the input side so besides any filtering, if there wasd any in the first place, that capacitor would indeed be used for an oscillation circuit. If the frequency were to decrease below what the transformer is rated for, a transformer if I remember correctly can handle higher frequencies to a point and not lower ones, then the duty cycle would be too much for the transformer. This would cause periodic short circuits in the lines feeding the transformer and thus would create enough heat to actually start an ignition. Power supplies do indeed have short-circuit protection but I have short-circuit before two wires that were very thin and the power supply did not shut off. The insulation was melted off and smoke came off the wire itself so a fire could indeed happen. This is why you should, if you have the knowledge, to build your own inverters for your CCFLs.
