A simple, low voltage inverter for fluorescent lamps up to 15 watt

Thankyou to Burak Incepinar for letting me document his design. This is his website if you want to check out more awesome designs.

This Instructable will help you run any fluorescent light off low voltages, It has been tested to run Compact Fluorescent Lights and Fluorescent tubes up to 15 watt.

Step 1: Parts

Things you will need:

• 25mm x 20mm x 5mm ferrite core.
• AWG28 (~0.3mm) Magnet wire.
• AWG32 (0.2mm) Magnet wire.
• 2x 22nF unpolarised capacitor, I used ones out of a camera flash.
• 22 ohm resistor (red red black gold) OR a variable resistor.
• 470 ohm resistor (yellow violet brown gold) OR a variable resistor.
• A BD243C or similar NPN transistor.
• A fluorescent light to drive.
• A battery or power supply of your choice.

Comments

[Daniyal Khan18]

what is the value of the transformer??

[Daniyal Khan18]

What is the value of the transformer ? reply fast please

[baven]

Great circuit small, compact and easy to build. Thanks for this instructable.

[ARJOON]

can secondary be wound first? because there is already 250turns.

[N3v3rm0r3]

How many volts does that circuit gives off? And is it AC or DC?

[Constantine017]

what kind of wire is in the ferrite transformer,can I reuse it for another project?

[joinaqd]

hey thermo you think i might be able to charge capacitors?and could you please tell me how many volts it gives off? (LOL my computer was broken for 2 weeks! I just got it back today! I was freaking bored man!)

[computerman299]

i would amagin about 400 or 450 turns or so on the secondary should charge a 350 - 400 volt cap quite nicely. im working on a battery powerd strobe and im thinking of using this circuit for the cap charger

[thermoelectric]

I doubt you can charge caps with this design, If you mod it a little it will though

Ask 11010010110 He has a couple of schematics on cap chargers.

[coilsinamotor]

could i wind say 500 or so turns to get a higher voltage out put.... thankx

[markee2]

tis inverter project is very similar to this 

from this site 
http://electronician.blogspot.com/2009/09/15w-flourescent-inverter-project.html

[red eyes]

in this project not guaidance and you need more simple guaid ok . thanks you

[red eyes]

that cool

[joinaqd]

hey,do you think that an LCD monitor inverter might be able to run fluroscents?becuz i have a monitor that i dont use anymore cuz the screen is cracked..

[thermoelectric]

Usually, Yes but you won't get full brightness out of the lamp because those inverters don't supply enough current to do a big tube while keeping the inverter from overheating...

[flying pie]

try to use heat sink for the  transistor and use a cpu fan

[thermoelectric]

 You should just use a bigger transistor, instead of getting a smaller one, if you were to need a cooler that big on it.

[joinaqd]

the ferrite was hard to get unstuck, so guess what i did?..I put that piece of **** in a cooking pot with water and let it boil for 20 minutes, and it came off freakin so easily! I have destroyed soo many ferrite transformers trying to take the glue off, i lost count. And the answer was sooo obvious! HOT WATER DEFEATS GLUE OF ANY KIND! Maybe i should put an instructable on how to unstick ferrite transformers LOL.

(THIS MESSAGE IS FOR ALL YOU LOSERS OUT THERE ! THIS IDEA IS PROTECTED BY AMERICAN PATENT NUMBER 633488 SO Y'ALL BETTER NOT BE USIN IT! YA HEAR ME?!?! )

[thermoelectric]

Lol, I broke nearly every transformer in the house trying to get it unglued...

[joinaqd]

it also works for iron cored transformers too... i unwinded the iron core and modified the coil and now i get a lot of volts from it.

[thermoelectric]

Yeah, But iron cored transformers only work with lower frequencies...

[joinaqd]

i dont get it why use ferrite?transformers can also use iron right?my transformers are all iron frame...is ferrite better than iron?

[Plasmana]

• Iron core transformers are design to operate efficiently on low frequencies, (20Hz to 1000Hz).
• Ferrite transformers are design to operate efficiently on high frequencies, (1KHz to 100KHz)

You can get ferrite transformers from newer electronic devices or switch mode power supplies.

[flying pie]

can i use a ferrite trorde insted of the  ferrite transformer

[joinaqd]

DARN MAN!! YOU ARE SMART FOR A 15 YEAR OLD !!! Are you related to Albert Einstein?or Thomas Edison or are you an Alien from a planet millions of light years away? Your instructables are my favourite though (whoever you are)...My favourite is the Smallest Electronic Shocker,i did it and it works (i connected 2 thin wires and put em behind my door-knob and my sister got shocked!LOL!)...I want to take out flyback transformers and microwave guts but my parents say that its too dangerous.I cant wait to be 18 and get out man...

[Plasmana]

No, I am just a normal kid who has Asperger syndrome.

LOL, shocking other people can be fun... And my parents were like yours when I first got into high voltage, they got freaked out when I built a 330v power supply and they told me I am not to experiment stuff with voltage over 9v. But I disobeyed them and continued messing with high voltage. After many months, they now feel safe me dealing with high voltage, but still, I am not allowed to exceed 100Kv... Right now, the highest voltages I can go up to is 60Kv from my marx generator.

[ARJOON]

i'm just like you.

[Jimmy Proton]

Ya know. I think I have have asperger syndrome to but for all I know, I just have ADD.

[carebare47]

Hey =)

I thought I was the only 15 year old on here with Aspergers. Just built a variable DC power supply and am now looking for a basic inverter schematic to modify to hopefully power a CFL which in turn will drive a fly back. I did have my suspicions of other 15 year olds who actually knew what they were talking about with electronics but I thought it rude to ask if they also had AS. Thank you, for making me feel less alone =)

[computerman299]

actualy, i thought i was the only one on here with aspergers lol. although im not a kid (im 23) its realy cool to find 2 other people with the same battle and with the rarety of aspergers it realy dose make you feel less alone.

[carebare47]

There are more of us than you think. Why not check out the ASD forums? http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/
Welcome to the team xD

[joinaqd]

lol do you really have asperger syndrome, or are u just kidding?(i looked up asperger syndrome on wikipedia)

[Plasmana]

I really do. If I don't have asperger syndrome, I would be a noob on electronics now...

[thermoelectric]

He does, He is not the type that lies a lot ^{_{I think.}}

[DELETED_Noah feasey-kemp]

(removed by author or community request)

[thermoelectric]

Well once again, That is dependent on a lot of other factors, Wire size, Load from bulb etc.. But if your fluorescent bulb is big it will probably get hot..

[flying pie]

u can try heat sink  it might stay cooler and a cpu 12v fan

[joinaqd]

awesome.....wish i had your parents instead of mines,they are always telling me "dont blow up the house" or "dont burn the house down" and other parenty stuff...☺

[flying pie]

funny u said that because my dad said the same thing

[Plasmana]

Don't get all jealous and that, my parents are like yours too... :-(

They have so many harsh rules on me, I will tell you some...

• I am NOT allowed do do electronic experiments in my house.
• I am threatened to be banned from my workshop if I have a source of flame or hazardous chemical or experimenting with dangerously high voltage (100Kv+) in my workshop.

I am also limited how much power I can have going to my workshop (240v at 5A) which prevents me doing high power projects... :-(