Fluro light

[pushkins]

How do I test the little starter in a fluro. light ?

[HayZee518]

you can't it is a bimetal switch and a capacitor. fs-2's and fs-4's are cheap enough.

[pushkins]

Thanks Hayzee, that is what I thought but wasn't sure about. I couldn't find any power coming down one side of the wires heading down to one end of the light, one end has power the other doesn't.

[HayZee518]

Inside it there's a thing that looks like a neon light but it's a switch, and a small paper wound capacitor. When you turn on the light, the ballast sends a 750Kv surge to the starter and both ends of the tube. Inside of the tube is a dot of mercury which vaporizes and conducts current between the two electrodes. Once this flash is made, the gas inside floresces and the tube is said to conduct. The arc is mostly infrared energy and excites the phosphors coating the inside of the tube, which glow, producing visible light. The starter disconnects the high current leaving the capacitor in the circuit which keeps the tube conducting but at a lower current.