If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
Registered Member #2901
Joined: Thu Jun 03 2010, 01:25PM
Location:
Posts: 837
I didn't mean to modify the phosphor, just to excite it ... pumping atmospheric discharge electrons through it, more like CRT phosphors than EL phosphors.
PS. is there any place to get small amounts of fluorescent tube phosphors? (Other than scraping out the mercury contaminated stuff from a lamp.)
Registered Member #2099
Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716
Pinky's Brain wrote ... PS. is there any place to get small amounts of fluorescent tube phosphors? (Other than scraping out the mercury contaminated stuff from a lamp.)
If it had never been in a lamp, what would make it "fluorescent tube phosphor"? Actually, you could get just what you want (in colors, even) from a neon signmaker.
I don't think the stuff brushed from the inside of a fluorescent lamp has enough mercury to worry about, but you shouldn't eat it or get it in your eyes! Earlier this year I added a teaspoon of water to some of that powder in a small Erlenmeyer flask, swirled it around, and boiled it dry to make an impromptu CRT screen along the lines of
Would not hesitate to intentionally vent a small fluorescent lamp, releasing a few mg of mercury vapor outdoors, if an accidentally broken lamp is not handy.
Registered Member #2463
Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546
Years ago a demo I made as follows: A 48" fluorescent lamp was carefully broken at each end leaving a portion of the rolled glass for strength. Into this was slid a 30 watt clear germicidal lamp with leads to connect to a balast Powering this tube up made the phosphor glow almost as brightly as when the tube was intact and powered.
Object was to show the 237.5 nM radiation was what made a fluorescent tube work and it didnt have to come from ionized gas and mercury atoms impacting it.
Registered Member #2901
Joined: Thu Jun 03 2010, 01:25PM
Location:
Posts: 837
I think they use mercury mainly because it keeps the striking voltage lower and because xenon is expensive ... but yeah, I know that most of the light is generated from the UV hitting the phosphor.
Registered Member #96
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4062
Had some success with "watering down" the conductive silver from the EL kits with "Liquid Poly" plastic welding compound. This is sold for glueing together plastic Airfix (tm) kits but as it contains nearly the same solvents as silver paint, it works fine. Also works for the EL if you use a dried out container and mix it thoroughly. (would a ball bearing work maybe?)
I used Sellotape for the insulator as this seems to work well. Superglue might also work but am concerned that the adhesive would melt when the top contact is applied... Have fun!
On a side note, I did notice something strange when testing a piece of old cpu casing I used to spread the EL and conductive graphite, it "lit up" when i applied voltage at either end. this is unusual, any ideas what might be going on here? all it consisted of was some of that graphite adhesive mixed with RTV, EL paint underneath. I would speculate that somehow conductive pathways between the phosphor particles are forming and applying alternating voltage across them, in contrast with the "normal" capacitor layout. EDIT:- it doesen't light up now, once dry..
Perhaps this may be worth investigating further?
the last picture in this series is of a piece of coated ITO glass being illuminated with UV light.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.
Electroluminescence
