I recently got one of these mini neon light thingies:
The problem with this is that the little power supply that comes with it creates an incredibly annoying whining noise. I could be totally wrong but I believe that's because it converts dc to ac, with no filtering, then steps it up through a transformer which creates the whine.
Here's some pictures of the little power supply (it uses two AA batteries for power):
(Excuse the bodge soldering. When it arrived, before I had even opened it, the battery terminals were poorly soldered and they were lifting the pads, so I had to scrape away some solder mask and solder to the bare copper).
I did some voltage readings at the output - note: my multimeter has been acting up recently, so I've got multiple readings, all at different voltages. These were all measured with the neon lights unplugged.
The first one I got was 200VAC but obviously at very very low current.
The next was 25VAC
And finally, 65VAC - 11VAC when the light were plugged in
(probably time for a new DMM!)
My original idea was to remake the power supply but I don't have accurate current draw readings, I don't have accurate output voltage readings, so it would be quite hard I think.
However, there must be some bodge component(s) that I can put in place to remove the whining.
Here's a little clip of the whining noise:
The problem with this is that the little power supply that comes with it creates an incredibly annoying whining noise. I could be totally wrong but I believe that's because it converts dc to ac, with no filtering, then steps it up through a transformer which creates the whine.
Here's some pictures of the little power supply (it uses two AA batteries for power):
(Excuse the bodge soldering. When it arrived, before I had even opened it, the battery terminals were poorly soldered and they were lifting the pads, so I had to scrape away some solder mask and solder to the bare copper).
I did some voltage readings at the output - note: my multimeter has been acting up recently, so I've got multiple readings, all at different voltages. These were all measured with the neon lights unplugged.
The first one I got was 200VAC but obviously at very very low current.
The next was 25VAC
And finally, 65VAC - 11VAC when the light were plugged in
(probably time for a new DMM!)
My original idea was to remake the power supply but I don't have accurate current draw readings, I don't have accurate output voltage readings, so it would be quite hard I think.
However, there must be some bodge component(s) that I can put in place to remove the whining.
Here's a little clip of the whining noise: