Ok, I wanted to extend my cathode wires so I could put it somewhere else but it didn't reach so I split it and put bout 3 feet of wire onto it. What I also did was change the switch to a lighted one, got a small LED in it, the cathodes only take 5v in, and thats powering the inverter, but before it gets to the inverter I put that lighted switch taking some of its power. Now only one cathode lights partly and the other not at all, it flickers when it comes on though. So how do I amp the signal so that my 5v actually puts out 5v?
Are you wiring in series? "got a small LED in it, the cathodes only take 5v in" because you need to make sure its in parallel.
The switch has the led in it, like its premade to light up. I think I need a cylinoide, but I don't know how to do that off hand.
It's to do with the type of wire you're using. You need to use wire properly insulated to 2kV. Because you've used normal wire, the insulation is breaking down when it's turned on causing a current to flow between the wires, which in turn will stop the CCFL illuminating properly.
i tried to extend the wired of my chatodes... didn't work wery well... even though i used wire designed for high voltage... and i only extended about 30 cm! the chatodes became a bit dim.. and they also had trouble starting... it might work better on chatodes that are smaller that 30 cm though..
Humm..yeah I extended mine 3 feet on one, that one doesn't lite up at all, so I guess it doesn't half to be the led, but the other bulb that isn't extended only lights up half so part of it must be the led. Are you sure that with that wire it will work properly?
Using HV wire has worked fine for me in the past. I found problems using standard wire when both wires were next to each other or laying on a metal surface.
ok, so the wires are separated for a reason then, the extension I put on it is like..together, I guess I got some fiddling around to do, thanks.
well I found out that the wire insulation was fine, what wasn't was the LED, I shorted the switch and both cathodes lit up perfectly fine, so the LED is sucking up all the juice. I am told that a cylinoid will fix this but I don't really know what it is or how it works.
