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Cold Cathode Help

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deep22

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 8, 2002
Messages
186
I figured you guys would be the best folks to ask...

I have a metal letter "M" from an old storefront sign. I want to put some cold cathodes in it and mount it on my wall.

I don't know a lot about cold cathodes and I'm curious if anybody knows a way to make the cathodes plug directly into my AC in my wall. Basically is there a way to use them without an entire PSU powering them?
 
Yes. Get a wall-wart AC/DC adapter that coughs up 5 volts. Connect to inverter. Connect to CC. Mount. Done.
 
This one should work. Only needs 300mA to run most CC lights. It does need 12 volts to operate the CC invertor.
 
Well you are going to need some sort of power supply, unless you happen to have high frequency, high voltage AC coming out of your wall socket. Easiest way I can think of is to use the inverters that came with the ccfls and then use a 12VDC wallwart to power them. You could even make it nice and neat by mounting a jack on the big M for the wallwart to plug in to. The other way would be to get a ccfl driver that runs directly off 120VAC, but that would most certainly cost more than a $10 wallwart.
 
hmm I'm gonna check those out... Is there a way to connect four cold cathodes in series?
 
I'm not sure which cathodes to use... I'm planning on using 4 red ones... other than that I'm not really up on cathode brands.
 
This what I'm making by the way...

Some beat up old metal letter signs when I first got them.

rm.jpg


The one I just finished cleaning up and started spraying primer on...

m.jpg
 
The more knowledgeable electrical guys please correct me if Im wrong, but I believe you can run them together, much like you would in your case. Just have to make sure the total amperage from all the ccfl's dont exceed the amerage put out by the ac/dc convertor.
 
Don't run them in series. If you did that then they would all get a fraction of the input voltage. Instead, run them in parallel. That way they all get the same voltage. Just think of the lights and stuff in your house. Wire all positives together and all grounds together and you will be set.
 
I was thinking of painting the inside of the lettering with red and the outside with black.

So even when the sign is "off" it will still look kinda flashy...

I'm just using the duplicolor rattle can stuff from autozone. I'm playing with this new "anodized" finish stuff they have. Supposed to make the metal look anodized... we'll see... the color on the cap looks awesome...but I doubt it will be the same exactly...
 
bleh...painted the red on the outside instead...

my first run with duplicolor's new "red anodized" paint...I think it looks alright...


redanodized.jpg
 
Yeah, it is... I'm gonna have hell painting the crevices...

The top is taped off because thats going to be a different color. Red will just be around the sides.
 
Finished painting and started testing out the cold cathodes inside the "M". Three of the four cathodes are lit and it glows pretty nice...

mglow.jpg
 
Little Grabbi said:
Yes. Get a wall-wart AC/DC adapter that coughs up 5 volts. Connect to inverter. Connect to CC. Mount. Done.
Click to expand...


I'd be careful with cheap "wall-wart" AC/DC adapters, I've seen plenty of of "9VDC" adapters spit out 12-15 volts. I wouldn't run one of those adapters without putting the output through a voltage regulator IC.
 
Very sweet looking... maybe I missed it, but what does the M stand for?
In any case it lloks good.
 
very nice, Mike. get some acrylic, cut it out, frost it on the inside (with some window frosting spray), and mount it on some L-angles.

ytou know, you sir gave me a few ideas. thanks! :)
 
Yeah I was thinking that would finish up this project real nice... I can get lexan at home depot right?
 
deep22 said:
I can get lexan at home depot right?
Click to expand...

Yes you can, all you will have to do is cut it to fit your project. After that part is done, put some sandpaper on a sanding block and evenly sand the side of the lexan that will go on the inside of your letter. When you turn on the CCFL, the sanded lexan will difuse the light and it should look pretty cool. Post some pics when you are done.
 
Well I found some plexiglass at Lowe's and went to work...

I just used the plexiglass blade thingy that you are supposed used to "score" the plexi and then snap off... In my case I just kept cutting until I went all the way thru the plexi.

plex1.jpg

plex2.jpg

plex3.jpg
 
Looks good so far. After you find a way to mount the plexi to the letter, evenly sand the entire inside surface of the plexi so it difuses the light from the CCFL and you'll be done.
 
Yeah I'm trying to think of a clever way to mount it all up. So far I'm drawing a blank :confused:
 
You might also want to consider the spray on window frost. I had one hell of a time trying to get my window even, using sand paper. I ended up redoing it and I bought some of that spray on frost from Home Depot. It worked perfectly. Cool project.
 
Yeah, I'm about to go try that stuff. I've been practicing the sanding technique on scraps of plexiglass and I can't seem to make it look the way I want.
 
Well I finally decided to just use the spray on glass frosting stuff. I was very pleased with the results, much better than I could do with sanding.

frosted1.jpg
 
I have yet to truly mount the plexiglass but I was able to stand it up inside. I'm going to mount it on the wall before I get around to mounting it in there better.

lit1.jpg
 
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