Multi Meters

... which in turn are less reliable and shorter-lived than a house brick, with which they are as interchangeable as they are with glow starters.

I have found electronic starters to be particularly useful with 6ft tubes, which are notoriously more difficult to match to a glow starter.

Reduced flicker on starting, longer tube life, plus "one size fits all".

Not efficiency, that's down to the tube and ballast and whether 50 Hz or HF operation. Otherwise, generally:

- flicker free start - you get a longer and better defined pre-heat time, then a tube in good condition will strike first time;

- (as a consequence of the above) less tube-end blackening and longer tube life in frequently-switched applications;

- better low temperature starting;

- they don't keep trying to strike a knackered tube - they try N times and then give up (N = 3, I think);

- indefinite life, unlike glow starters which do fail;

- less RFI.

They're just far more civilised than the crude glow starter and are well worth the small extra cost (IMHO).

Depends on the design of the SMPS. Many regulate perfectly well without a load. It's only where the designer has cut corners that a load is *required*.

MBQ

sorry i was thinking of electronic lighting psus, not starters

NT

Agreed. Also a DVM on a DC range applied to an AC supply will simply show random numbers, IME.

I agree with that.

You haven't lived until you have to work on live wires, with one hand deep in your pocket, feet on a rubber mat with rubber soled shoes :-)

Dave

And if you ask really nicely the boss will let you wear your work clothes home at night... ;-)

Owain

And brown trousers on................

They don't start out that way much and never ended up in that colour with me :-) Real voltages can be found in the back of a TV set. I used to work on them about 50 years ago.

Dave

No need. They turn brown soon enough. ;-)

Tim