Purposed Hivac Neon

[pinnerite]

I must have had it since 1969 or 1970. It was a sample neon made by Hivac Ltd. I found it while repacking all my electronic components and modules prior to downsizing, many not touched since the 1970s.

While working on an old record player. The motor had stopped. I could not tell whether the 4-way power strip into which it was plugged was working or not as the neon wasn't illuminated. The fuse was OK so it had to be the neon.

Having only seen the Hivac sample a day or two earlier, I retreived it used it to replace the duff one. Perfect!

I never chuck nuts and bolts away .... or sample neons. It pays off eventually.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

So what exactly was the neon doing? I well recall the early Bush colour tvs which when you looked in the back had glowing neon's used as voltage regulators. Brian

[alan_m]

I vaguely recall 40 odd years back working on test equipment where a neon and photo transistor were used as some form of isolation to pass a

50Hz mains synchronisation signal. The circuit stopped working when the inside of the neon glass started to go black which was the common fault on that equipment.