Hi guys, I know next to nothing about electronics and now I'm going to demonstrate: I bought two pairs of cold cathodes, which came with a total of two inverters. In my wisdom, I decided that the cables were going to make a mess of my freshly tidied case so I decided that some custom wiring was in order! I basically chopped off the plugs and made a custom lead. I used the molex plug (yellow and black cables) to connect to the power supply. In turn, the yellow cable is connected to the '0' setting on a rocker switch. I used a red cable (connected to the '1' setting of the rocker switch) to power each inverter and used a black cable on each inverter to connect to the molex's earth cable (again, black). So, anyways, I've been running my rig on and off for a few days now and it looks fantastic However, A couple of moments ago I could smell electrical burning so in a sheer state of panic (I thought the enermax was toast) I killed the power and pulled the case to pieces in an effort to find the source of the foul odour. It turns out it was one of the inverters. It had actually started melting the plastic casing The other inverter is fine however and still runs okay on it's own. The wiring also, is completely unscathed, no heat or scorches or burns anywhere. It seems more than a coincidence though, that the only thing to catch fire in my rig so far was the thing I wired myself So whats the verdict guys? Hideously foolish amateur wiring that nearly sent a grand up in smoke? or a dodgy inverter? Either way, I'd really appreciate a solution.
I'll take a look tomorrow, I might have one spare. It's yours if I do. Otherwise it will need a replacement from somewhere else, they're pretty much unfixable after they've melted
Wow, I really appreciate that dude. Now I'm gonna sound really ungrateful but I've actually got another spare inverter from a blue cold cathode i had. I'm just a little scared now that I might be out of the room or something next time and I could end up with a silicon bonfire on my desk From wht you guys have said though, I'm starting to think it might have just been a dud. I mean, if my wiring was buggered I would have thought it would've burnt out a lot quicker than what it did. (i.e. the comp has been on for a solid 10hrs or so before the problem). So the inverters are renowned for their poor quality and spontaneous combustion eh?
Yes, I have had a strange burning smell in the house on a couple of occasions, turns out it was a cold cathode inverter that was in my media PC. It made the smell, and then stopped, then about a week later did it again. I think it stopped because it had burned a hole thru the casing of it and then stopped for a while. Anyway, the short story is, no more CCFLs here at all, not worth the risk.
It's not really likely to be your wiring at fault. A short would leave the inverter without power but damage the psu, and a loose wire would just leave the inverter without power. Possible your siting of the inverter, they need air around them to stay cool.
Ahhh, Now that makes more sense. I can't get any pics at the mo cos my camera's out of action . However, my other inverter is situated at the top of my case right next to 2 x 120mm blowholes, so it gets plenty of air. The one that blew up is a little tucked away. Not sure if any of you are familiar with the p160 but I placed it next to the floppy drive cage (the right side). It could be that the air here doesn't get moved around a lot, as it has a few cables blocking it in as well. I wasn't aware that they needed a great deal of ventilation, it simply states on the side that it won't operate above 40c. The current heat wave has increased my overall temps but a temp probe in that spot reports 30c.
Yeah, inverters can be hit or miss. I stopped using cathodes for lighting a while ago because I didn't want to bother risking it. I've got about six inverters spare, I'd be happy to get rid of a few if you want to pay postage. Heck, you can have my whole box of lighting stuff for $20+postage if you want it (quite a few lights of varying sizes, including a few round cathodes for 80mm fans). They shouldn't require a huge amount of ventilation, but it's better to play it safe when you're dealing with something that spits out 600vAC. If it was something you had done wrong, it would have almost certainly happened almost immediately after powering up. 99% chance it was either a dud or overheated, and I'd say a stronger chance of the former.
Because of the high voltage and frequency, they have a tendancy to arc, I rarely use them with cold cathodes, just to make massive sparks, but if it starts to arc, it will cut through high-temperature silicone, I find just covering all high voltage wiring with something fairly inert like potting compound tends to help, even a bit a glue along the back helps.
Is there any particular brands to avoid? Or are they all just as risky? The one that got smoked was with an AC Ryan twin UV cathode set. The other one (which is still absolutely fine) came with my akasa cathodes and feels a lot 'weightier' and just generally better quality. If they're all this unreliable how do the companies that manufacture them get away with selling them? These things must have been the cause of a few fires.
More to the point, if they are prone to overheating, then why are they not required to have an over temperature cutout in them. Are they UL listed? I have disposed of mine and cant recall. I may bring it to the attention of the NZ energy saftey services guys, mind you, they dont do anything about the crap being sold in the $2 shops so doubt anything would happen.
i had a similar problem...bought a set of 2 blue CCFTs and after a while only half of the tubes would light up and there would be a burning smell...pulled apart the casing that held the inverter and the top of the transformer and around it seemed a little brown (melted)...i got another set of cathodes and inverter free of charge and the original tubes still work fine, so if i can find a replacement for the transformer i'll just swap it in finding somewhere that gets alot of cool air sounds like a good idea tho
