Using a burnt out energy saving lamp. Driver for LEDs from energy saving lamp

Hello, dear readers and guests of the Electrician's Notes website.

In one of my articles, I told you that we mainly use tubular and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) for internal lighting of switchgears (RU) of substations.

Read about their advantages and disadvantages.

In this article I will tell you how to repair a compact fluorescent lamp Sylvania Mini-Lynx Economy 20 (W) made in China.

This lamp worked at the substation for about 1.5 years. If its operating mode is converted into hours, you get an average of about 2000 hours, instead of the 6000 hours declared by the manufacturer.

Renovation idea fluorescent lamps arose when I came across another box of burnt-out lamps that were planned to be disposed of. There are many substations, the volume of lamps is large, and accordingly, burnt out lamps regularly accumulate.

Let me remind you that fluorescent lamps contain mercury, so throwing them away with household waste is not permissible.

To begin with, I will give the main characteristics of the Sylvania Mini-Lynx Economy lamp being repaired:

  • power 20 (W)
  • base E27
  • mains voltage 220-240 (V)
  • lamp type - 3U
  • luminous flux 1100 (Lm)

Do-it-yourself energy-saving lamp repair

Using a flathead screwdriver with a wide blade, you need to carefully unfasten the housing latches at the junction of its two halves. To do this, insert a screwdriver into the groove and turn it in one direction or another to unclip the first latch.

As soon as the first latch opens, we continue to open the others around the perimeter of the case.

Be careful, otherwise during disassembly you can chip the lamp body or, God forbid, break the flask itself, then you will have to because of the presence of mercury vapor in the flask.

A compact fluorescent lamp consists of three parts:

  • 3 U-shaped arc bulbs
  • electronic board (electronic ballast)
  • base E27

A round printed circuit board is an electronic ballast board, or in other words, an electronic ballast. The operating frequency of electronic ballasts is from 10 to 60 (kHz). In this regard, the stroboscopic “blinking” effect is eliminated (the lamp pulsation coefficient is significantly reduced), which is present in fluorescent lamps assembled on electromagnetic ballasts (based on a choke and starter) and operating at a network frequency of 50 (Hz).

By the way, soon they will bring me a device to use for measuring the pulsation coefficient. Let's take measurements and compare the pulsation coefficients of an incandescent lamp, a fluorescent lamp with electronic ballasts and electronic ballasts, and an LED lamp.

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The power wires from the base are very short, so do not pull sharply, otherwise you may tear them off.

First of all, you need to check the integrity of the filaments. There are two of them in this energy-saving lamp. They are designated on the board as A1-A2 and B1-B2. Their leads are wound on wire pins in several turns without soldering.

Using a multimeter, check the resistance of each thread.

Thread A1-A2.

Filament A1-A2 has a break.

Thread B1-B2.

The second thread B1-B2 has a resistance of 9 (Ohm).

In principle, a burnt-out filament can be identified visually by the darkened areas of glass on the bulb. But you still can’t do without measuring resistance.

A burnt filament A1-A2 can be bypassed with a resistor with a rating similar to the working filament, i.e. about 9-10 (Ohm). I will install a resistor with a resistance of 10 (ohms) with a power of 1 (W). This is quite enough.

I solder a resistor from the back of the board to pins A1-A2. This is what happened.

You need to install a gasket between the resistor and the board (it is not shown in the photo yet). Now you need to check the lamp for functionality.

The lamp is on. Now you can assemble the case and continue to use it.

With such a repair, the fluorescent lamp will start up with some flickering (about 2-3 seconds) - see the video for confirmation of this.

Malfunctions encountered when repairing lamps

If the filaments in the lamp are working properly, then you can proceed to troubleshooting the electronic board (electronic ballast). We visually assess its condition for the presence of mechanical damage, chips, cracks, burnt elements, etc. Also, don’t forget to check the quality of the soldering - this is a Chinese product.

In my example, the board looks clean, there are no cracks, chips or burnt elements.

Here is the most common electronic ballast circuit that is used in most compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). Each manufacturer has its own slight differences (variation in the parameters of circuit elements depending on the lamp power), but general principle the circuit remains the same.

The following board elements may fail:

  • limiting resistor
  • diode bridge
  • smoothing capacitor
  • transistors, resistors and diodes
  • high voltage capacitor
  • dinistor

Now let's talk about each element in more detail.

1. Limiting resistor

The diagram indicates the FU fuse, but often it is simply missing, as in my example.

Its role is played by an input limiting resistor. If any malfunction occurs in the lamp (short current or overload), the current in the circuit increases and the resistor burns out, thereby breaking the power circuit. The resistor is seated in a heat-shrinkable tube. One of its pins is connected to the threaded contact of the base, and the second to the board.

I decided to check this resistor - it turned out to be intact, which means we can conclude that there was no short circuit in the circuit - there was simply a break in the A1-A2 thread. The resistor's resistance is 6.3 (Ohm).

If your resistor “does not ring,” then in any case you need to look for the reasons why it burned out (see below in the text). If the resistor is burned out, the lamp will not light.

2. Diode bridge

The diode bridge VD1-VD4 is used to rectify the 220 (V) mains voltage. It is made using 4 1N4007 HWD diodes.

If the diodes are “broken,” then we replace them accordingly. When the diodes breakdown, the limiting resistor, as a rule, also burns out, and the lamp stops burning.

Electrolytic capacitor C1 smoothes out the ripples of the rectified voltage. It very often fails (loses capacity and swells), especially in Chinese lamps, so it’s a good idea to check it. If it malfunctions, the lamp turns on poorly and hums.

In the photo it is green. Has a capacitance of 4.7 (uF) with a voltage of 400 (V).

4. Transistors, resistors and diodes

A high-frequency generator (pulse converter) is assembled on two transistors VT3 and VT4. High-voltage silicon transistors of the MJE13003 and MJE13001 series are used as transistors. For my 20-Watt lamp, two transistors of the MJE13003 TO-126 series are installed.

To check the transistors, they need to be desoldered from the circuit, because diodes, resistors and low-resistance windings of a toroidal transformer are connected between their junctions, which will be falsely reflected when measured with a multimeter. Often, resistors R3 and R4 in the transistor base circuit fail - their value is about 20-22 (Ohm).

5. High voltage capacitor

If the lamp flickers strongly or glows in the area of ​​the electrodes, then most likely the reason for this is a breakdown of the high-voltage capacitor C5 connected between the filaments. This capacitor creates a high-voltage pulse to create a discharge in the bulb. And if it is broken, the lamp will not light up, and a glow will be observed in the area of ​​the electrodes due to heating of the spirals (incandescent filaments). By the way, this is one of the common faults.

My lamp has a B472J 1200 (V) capacitor. If it fails, it can be replaced with a capacitor with a higher voltage, for example, 3.9 (nF) 2000 (V).

6. Dinistor

Dinistor VS1 (according to the DB3 circuit) looks like a miniature diode.

When the voltage between the anode and cathode reaches about 30 (V), it opens. It is not possible to check the dinistor using a multimeter, only its integrity - it should not “ring” in any direction. It fails much less frequently than previous elements. Low-power lamps usually have no dinistor.

7. Toroidal transformer

The T1 toroidal transformer has a ring magnetic core on which 3 windings are wound. The number of turns of each winding ranges from 2 to 10. It practically does not fail.

I would like to note that the Sylvania lamp has a cold start, because... it does not have a PTC posistor (a thermistor with a positive coefficient) in its circuit.

This means that when the lamp is turned on, current is supplied to the cold filaments (spirals), which negatively affects their service life, because they are not preheated and during a cold start they burn out from a current surge (similar to incandescent lamps). But we just had one of the filaments burnt out (A1-A2) and this is a good confirmation of this.

When an RTS posistor is installed, current sequentially passes through the RTS posistor and the filaments, thereby smoothly heating them. Then the resistance of the PTC posistor increases, ceasing to shunt the lamp, which leads to voltage resonance on capacitor C5 and the lamp electrodes. High voltage breaks through the gas in the bulb and the lamp lights up. This is called a hot start of the lamp, which has a positive effect on the life of the filaments.

Why do the electronic components of the board fail?

In fact, there may be several reasons: the use of defective elements, poor workmanship, improper operation (frequent switching on, reduced or elevated temperature). As you can see, among the failed lamps there are: Chinese manufacturers, as well as well-known brands such as Osram and Philips. Here, it depends on your luck.

If two filaments burn out at once, and the electronic ballast board remains in working order, then it can be used to power an ordinary tubular fluorescent lamp, thereby getting rid of the choke circuit with a starter and reducing its pulsation coefficient.

P.S. Dear readers and guests of the Electrician's Notes site, any of you who have experience in repairing energy-saving lamps, I will be glad if you share your observations in the comments. Thank you for your attention.

95 comments to the post “Do-it-yourself repair of a 20 (W) Sylvania energy-saving lamp”

    “If two filaments burned out at once, and the electronic ballast board remained in good condition, then it can be used to power an ordinary tubular fluorescent lamp, thereby getting rid of the choke circuit with a starter and reducing its pulsation coefficient.”

    Is reverse replacement allowed? That is, connect the bulb of a CFL lamp to an electronic ballast for a conventional tubular LL.

    Replacement is not possible.

    Admin, why do the filaments or controls burn out? Are these miscalculations in the circuit or specially done by the manufacturer? I saw videos on YouTube about “planned” aging, is that true?

    Alexey, I don’t believe in planned aging. At the end of the article, I indicated the real reasons why lamps fail.

    Dmitry, in the photo the toroidal tr-r seems to be indicated incorrectly.
    And one more question: can ordinary tubular LLs (20 and 40 (W)) also be “treated” with a resistor if the filament breaks? Thank you.

    Where were you before?
    I regularly restore CFLs. I was repairing electronic boards, but didn’t think of bridging the burnt coil with a resistor.
    I recently recycled a whole bag of flasks. Now I will try to solder the resistor.
    Thanks for the advice!

    You won’t believe it, but when I finished reading about opening the case, one of these same lamps went out. As ordered))

    Good evening. I'm interested in this question: is the MLT-1 resistor with a resistance of 10 (Ohm), Soviet-made? Or Russian? If the first option, where do such reserves come from?)

    The article is useful only on the scale of an apartment, and only for tight-fisted owners))) I don’t see the point of doing THIS in production, especially in state production. No one will give a medal 100%. And the article is very useful, thanks for your work!

    Dmitry, I was interested in your article about CFL repair. I got to work overnight (I found one lying around), did everything according to the instructions. The only thing is, instead of 12 Ohms (the resistance of the whole thread), I soldered in a 15 Ohms shunt (which was found). The lamp WORKS! Well, I think you can go to bed with a feeling of accomplishment. However, after operating the lamp for a short time, I noticed that the bulb was getting very hot (like a lamp). Why??? After all, this shouldn’t happen. Is it all due to incorrectly selected resistance or is it due to the SHUNT principle itself? Did something similar happen in your experience?

    What about improving ventilation by drilling the housing?

    Andrey, you are right, the resistor is Soviet-made. The reserves have been preserved from the same times. Resistors and other semiconductor elements were purchased for the instrument repair group, which used to be part of our electrical laboratory. Now the group has been transferred to another unit, but the supplies remain.

    Monsieur Serge, I repair them not for the sake of a medal, but solely for the sake of experience.

    Anton, try replacing the resistor with 9-10 (Ohm) and repeat the experiment. My lamp does not get hotter than usual.

    elalex, I did not drill holes for cooling on this specimen, although it would not have been bad.

    Dmitry, maybe my question will seem stupid to you, but still: The filament has burned out, we are installing a shunt - what causes the lamp to ignite??? After all, the thread remained burnt out in the flask???

    I have a problem with 18 X 4 EPRs. Replacing an EPR is a painful task, the wiring diagram does not match the original, each time you have to remove the lamp and make new wiring for the new EPR. Is it possible to repair a burnt epra?

    Can you post a printable version?

    The article is good, but only for those who are familiar with electronics. For people who are far from such things, it will be easier to buy a new one than to look for a specialist to repair it. I don't think repairs will be cheaper than buying a new lamp.
    Purely my opinion.

    Thanks for the article, Dmitry. As always, everything is analyzed thoroughly, you couldn’t write better. For me, shunting a burnt-out thread is an innovation.

    Thanks again!

    I think that before measuring the resistance of the filaments and determining their integrity, you need to disconnect them from the circuit. Or am I wrong?

    Sergey, not necessarily, there are no workarounds.

    Anton (for 10/16/14): Due to the 2nd filament, it emits electrons, and the soldered resistance-shunt restores the circuit, which must work before the lamp is ignited (before the breakdown of the gas gap). After lighting the lamp, this chain will not be needed. See the diagram given in the article. An analogue of this chain in conventional tubular fluorescent lamps is the electrical circuit in which the starter is located (after the lamp is ignited, the starter is shunted by a circuit through the lamp itself, the resistance of which becomes small).

    Dmitry, thanks for the article! I have a lamp with electronic ballasts similar in design. The problem is this. Just yesterday there was a small explosion when the lamp was working. I got to the board and finally discovered that resistors R3 and R4 in the transistor base circuit (according to your diagram) - their value turned out to be about 7 Ohms (judging by the colored circles) were faulty. I soldered it out, replaced it with serviceable ones - when turned on, there was another micro-explosion -(
    At the same time, I have already checked all the elements with a tester, and the capacitances of the capacitors did not find any deviations; about 300V comes to capacitor C1. I just don’t understand what the problem is, can you tell me what is the root cause of the failure of these resistances?

    Thank you for the article. I restored two lamps))) In one the contact on the spiral was sealed off, in the other the high-voltage capacitor was replaced.
    There are three more on the way with broken threads. All that remains is to find resistors.

    Andrey: Have you checked the transistors themselves? Often, due to overheating (not a bad design - I think everything was done this way on purpose in order to increase the output of this rubbish), the transistors themselves or the rectifiers short out. In transistors, the emitter junction is the first to die, and from there... Although there were things that seemed to be OK, but not plowing, whose current transfer coefficient, well, just died. Was and floated, somewhere below 5 and even 3 units. Again, due to overheating. I “drilled” the housings with a soldering iron tip from the sides /while the housing was disassembled/. Everything is fine. Another thing: Lamps burn longer with the base down, because the heat from the tubes heats the box when it is on top. Fact. Place them, it’s better to stand, not to “hang”. In addition, from time to time it is necessary to blow off dust and fried moths from the /insufficient/ central holes on the housing cover, which is on the side of the tubes. Clog the holes, and 3.14 damage to the convective cooling of the PPP. They are already stretched up to their ears and without glasses. Next: it’s better if you put a resistor in place of the burnt-out thread, then first combine its two wires, breaking the track before / or after / the pin where we put the resistor. Emission improves, because the halves of the thread are already plowed at the same potentials.
    Those. must plow. And then we'll see.

    Installed a 10 ohm resistor. Combined 2 wires. When connecting a resistor to one of its terminals, it lit up. The end of the flask, where the broken spiral is, is heated. The plastic melts.

    Admin, this is probably a stupid question, but why is the resistance 1W? There is an 11W Ecolight lamp. I checked the coils, one is dead, the other is 12.3 ohms. There is a resistance of 12 Ohm / 0.25 W. Can I install it, and what might happen in my case, I wouldn't want to start a fire the first time I repair the lamps??? I read about Ohm's law. The resistance power can be calculated, but I only know the resistance of the resistor. What voltage is supplied to the filaments or what current flows through them?

    Everything is fine, but shunting a burnt filament is downright bad advice; it can end in the depressurization of the bulb, the electronic ballast going off, or even a fire. The filaments in fluorescent lamps, as a rule, do not simply burn out; during operation, the emitter paste is sprayed from them (which is clearly visible from the appearance of characteristic “soot” on the lamp bulb near the filament), and because Pure metal has worse emissive abilities, then the filament begins to heat up more strongly, up to a bright white heat and melting of the glass of the bulb along with the plastic base.

    You can bypass the thread (a simple jumper is enough, a resistor is unnecessary) only in the case when the emission is normal, and for example the thread was simply shaken. And then such a lamp will be a time bomb. To be fair, that’s what savings are all about, because electronic ballasts have no protection (the fuse doesn’t count, and there are instances where it doesn’t exist) at all! He will thresh until the bitter end. This fully applies to the simplest Chinese electronic ballasts for linear lamps; their actual circuit is one to one. The branded electronic ballast will simply turn off.

    And here it should be noted that “thick” lamps, compared to compact bulbs, have completely different operating parameters (lower voltage, but higher current) and therefore connecting them to electronic ballasts from CFLs is not entirely correct. The lamp will be underloaded (and since the filaments are heated directly by the discharge current during operation, when underloaded, the emitter will be intensely sprayed from them, because they are designed for a certain operating temperature, which is achieved at the rated current, and as a result the lamp will die faster), and the electronic ballast itself will be overloaded. Therefore, you can only connect lamps with similar overall length/diameter tubes. And it would be nice to measure the actual power consumption of the resulting “centaur”, which, in the absence of the necessary devices, is easiest to do by powering the electronic ballasts from direct current (a network rectifier with sufficient filter capacity, available as part of a computer power supply unit, for example). It is more convenient to measure current consumption indirectly, without breaking the circuit, by connecting the electronic ballast to the rectifier through a low-resistance resistor with a known resistance.

    By the way, when repairing electronic ballasts, it is highly advisable to make the first switching on through a light bulb; if something is wrong, and the circuit is short, then there will be no “micro-explosion”, but only the light bulb will light up. A light bulb power of 60-75 watts, or even 40, is quite enough. The principle here is the following - it’s better to start with a lower power, and if the electronic ballast generally behaves adequately, then you can try with a higher power bulb, and then directly into the network.

    And it is also useful to increase the filter capacitor, at the rate of 1 µF per 1 W of electronic ballast power, or simply whatever fits. Its mode is very heavy, the ripple range on it is under 100 V!.. Only here you need to remember about the current surge when turned on, because there may not be a limiting resistor as standard, or it will need to be replaced with a more powerful one.

    Admin, reverse replacement (CFL bulb to electronic ballasts of direct lamps) is allowed, since these are absolutely identical electronic ballasts, only different in the shape of the board. By the way, if you adapt the bulb from a CFL to the electronic ballasts of ordinary direct lamps such as LB20 and the like, then both the bulb and electronic ballasts will live much longer (The bad thing about CFLs is that when the lamp is used with the base up, the electronic ballast is simply FRIED from the heat of the bulb, which is why it fails

    Edward, you can't do that! The modes of CFL bulbs and direct lamps differ, which I actually already talked about above. IN in this case we will overload the “thin” tube of the flask, it will live brightly, but not for long.

    But I agree about operation with the base up.

    I repaired a 55 W CL, instead of the standard EPR I installed a 30 W lamp, I just replaced the transistors with more powerful S13007 and a 47 μF filter capacitor. It has been working for more than six months to this day. There is no noticeable decrease in brightness. At work I'm tired of buzzing 2x36 W lamps. I had epra from 105 W CL with a 6U flask. I rebuilt 3 lamps - they have been working great for two years now. I changed 2 or 3 lamps over the entire period due to filament failure.

    Thank you for the article.
    In the paragraph where it talks about the transformer, in the picture the arrow points to the throttle. The transformer is located behind it, wound on a ferite ring.

    Thank you for the article. I was faced with the fact that when I turn off the lamp in the room, it starts blinking with a period of 5-10 seconds, what could it be. The lamp is new.

    More than 20 30-55 watt lamps were handed over for recycling. I started to figure it out. The reason for failure is the same for everyone, the electronic ballast burned out, the filaments are intact. Apparently they were in sealed lamps, hence the overheating. Regarding the use of electronic ballasts with 18 Watt tubular lamps, the flight is normal for 2.5 years, provided that electronic ballasts from an 18 Watt saving lamp are used. I set it to 20-26 watts from a more powerful one, which lasts for half a year and the filament on the tubular lamp burns out. I also use serviceable electronic ballasts as an electronic transformer with a 12-volt stabilizer for LEDs and LED strips
    2 years, no complaints so far. I just had to attach radiators to the transistors. I also use refurbished lamps with different bulbs and electronic ballasts, but of the same power, they have already been working for 3-4 years. I will try to light the lamps with a shunt, I tried without a shunt, they get hot.

    Thank you, you were right, now I put the phase through the switch, the lamp has stopped blinking, but some flashes are passing through it. This is probably due to the poor quality of the lamp itself, as you already wrote.

    The resistor was soldered in, the lamp shone for about five minutes, farted and went out, it was hot. I think the resistance of the cold and hot coil is not taken into account here. When the spirals heat up, their resistance increases, but the resistor remains the same as 10 ohms. Maybe this method is not suitable for low-power people, or you need to play with the resistance of the coil. Lamp 11 W.

    I’ll try to make a modest contribution to the topic)) the reason for at least 8 out of 10 faults in the electronic ballast circuit is a breakdown of the high-voltage capacitor in the ignition circuit (the one with 1 kV). I tried to repair faulty CFLs - almost all of them came back to life after replacing it.

    The mains voltage in my house is 259V, CFLs burn out from overheating. Can I try to convert them to a higher voltage by unwinding the wire at the output of the electronic ballast step-up transformer?

    Yaroslav 05/20/2015 at 16:13
    And if the voltage is restored, will you rewind? What about the rest of the apartment’s appliances, probably also suffering?
    In the first case, cut off 10-15V throughout the apartment with an autotransformer, continuously take statistics of the network voltage, and then we will see.

    Yaroslav, contact the electrical network - 259 (V) - this is a voltage value above the maximum permissible norm. Let them reduce it, because... this is a violation.

    Thanks for the advice, but I live on a farm with 10 yards. The voltage has been at least 250V for many years, statements do not help. Unless you collect some paper evidence and go to court. Each TV operates through a separate stabilizer. Equipment from the times of the Soviet Union is not afraid of such voltage, except for a vacuum cleaner - it burned out after a few minutes of operation, and in a city where the voltage was normal it worked for many years. Incandescent lamps shine brighter and burn out faster. So I thought about remaking the equipment. As for winding, I don’t think it will be necessary, since undervoltage will not be as critical as overvoltage. The modern radio has already been redesigned by adding a KREN142 stabilizer chip to the circuit.

    Find a powerful autotransformer and power everything, if you always have 250.

    I see the topic is still relevant, so the question! I myself tried to do these bypasses half a year ago. The lamp in the area of ​​the base heats up to a high temperature and as a result, after a couple of hours of operation, the circuit burns out, which is exactly what I didn’t pick. I imagine, purely theoretically, that tube lamps in ceiling lamps (20,40,80) have the same principle as energy-saving ones. For the ceiling, I assembled a circuit with a multiplier using 4 diodes and capacitors, it is used in case of broken filaments, there are plenty of articles on the Internet. But won’t this small tube from the energy saving device burst if it is revived with a multiplier circuit? Who tried it???

    Isn’t it easier to buy (or assemble) a stabilizer? There are amateur simple stabilizer circuits based on an autotransformer with electronic tap switching

    I would like to see... A transformer with four or five taps will be of little use, because... the output adjustment steps will be too “wide”, and even this you need to be able to wind, make bends, oh, it’s not that easy. There are circuits, no question, but all this also needs to be tied to an autotransformer, find good, high-quality relays, create a circuit that does not allow short-circuiting of the transformer sections when moving from stage to stage and many times a day. Chesslovo - it’s easier to find a good ready-made one.

    Colleagues, I have about five working flasks and several different ballasts, all from 15-20W lamps. But I forgot how to connect the bulb filaments to the ballast, because the last time I repaired it was 2 years ago. Does it matter where the thread is, so to speak, do they have “+” and “-” or does it make no difference where to screw it? Do the threads also need to be screwed in place or can they be soldered to the ballast?

    Evgeniy, + and - no, you can screw it in as conveniently as possible, one pair to the left, the second to the right of the capacitor. There should be corresponding pins on the board.
    I usually replaced the pins with new ones, because... old ones in oxide.
    In order not to damage the bulb, I didn’t put much effort into the threads, so it’s not always possible to wind it well, especially on small boards. Therefore, in addition, I also soldered a little.

    On the author's advice, I repaired the lamps by shunting the burnt coil with a resistance. As a result, the lamp works for a maximum of 3 hours and burns out. I don’t see any point in poking around. Moreover, LED ones already cost less than 200 rubles, you need to switch to modern technologies. In general, the site is useful and necessary, thanks to the author for his work.

    Unfortunately, shunting is fraught and more often than not the result will be negative. It is better to immediately put these in a box and then hand them over to a collection point.

    In general, the previous one correctly noted that we need to go for LED ones: on AliExpress, “corn” 25 W for 130 rubles.

    Moreover, unlike CFLs, there is no danger that it will break.

    And the main thing is that possible repairs are much simpler: no RF generators - a simple reduction to the supply voltage of the garland.

    And if the diode is dead (dark point), then on Ali you can order a roll of SMD5730 (100 pcs) for possible repair.

    1- your corn is also sometimes fed through a more complex ballast than just a capacitor, and an HF. there too.
    2- degradation of crystals in simple power circuits is a traditional phenomenon, burnout in cheap ones in large quantities.
    If we remember the conversation about LL and so on, then it’s the same here - good LED lamps cannot be cheap.
    3- Ali and so on. They’ll sell anything, but will the I-V characteristics of these diodes be close to your old ones?
    4- there is no danger of breaking, but heating?

    Hello, there is an error in the article. One of the photos shows not a toroidal transformer, but an output choke. The transformer, as the name suggests, has a ring-shaped core.

    Artem, I have known what a TOR is for a long time, but if this is written in the prospectus, then what should the average person do?

    Good day!
    I recently encountered such a problem. For some reason, the lamp filaments begin to overheat and fail. Those. places in the flask darken and the plastic in this place is already charred.
    What could be the matter? If the capacitors shunting the flask are not broken and the RTS is normal.

    In the picture *29.jpg the toroidal transformer is incorrectly indicated.
    The arrow points to the inductor, and the transformer itself is partially visible
    in the same photo.

    Thank you, I’m not an electrical professional myself, but it was interesting. In my version, unfortunately, the bulb ran out =(Wolta 75w spiral

    Vladimir.

    These lamps are in demand while LED lamps are still expensive.

    Repairing them is more for curiosity than profit. If you also managed to save money by not throwing it away or buying a new one, then this is just another additional plus.

    Moreover, if you add up the cost of all the parts (if you buy them separately in a store), the price you get is several times higher than the cost of a new lamp. Those. Not every repair of such type is financially profitable.

    What's right about the repairs is that it's not worth it. But the board with the base is stored in a safe place and is waiting in the wings. But I didn’t like diodes. No, it's not about the price. About 3-4 months ago I bought several pieces - a Chinese Ecomir and a couple of Philips. In my subjective opinion, after whileing away the evenings under these analogues of Ilyich’s light bulb, I became noticeably more tired. One evening I dropped a box of matches and saw that approaching the floor was accompanied by a strobe effect. I decided that this was not good and screwed the luminescent ones back in.

    LED lamps are very different (by the way, just like gas lamps).

    The flickering is also different for different models. Unfortunately, the seller does not indicate this parameter, so you need to study independent tests or do your own.

    If you have already bought it (and a good LED lamp is generally not cheap), then it makes sense to try to upgrade it. But that is another story...

    Regarding LED lamps, I found my know-how on how to choose a normal flicker-free lamp in a store. By the way, flickering-pulsation indicates that the lamp uses the simplest LED power supply circuit - through a diode bridge and a capacitor, i.e. without any electronic drivers. So, it’s very easy to decide on a lamp in a store. Nowadays, almost every mobile phone, with the exception of the simplest dialers, has a camera. We turn the phone into photo mode and bring it as close as possible to the switched-on lamp and see on the screen all this horror - black stripes running across the image , a soy-shaped vest. Don’t take such a lamp! By the way, among the unknown Chinese brands There are decent lamps without pulsation, but I’ve seen so many types of Maxuses, they’re all outright junk.

    Good way. :)

    Although in such testing the result will probably be affected by the frame rate in the camera, but for a rough assessment it is normal.

    If the filament burns out, then the fault is a broken capacitor (1. Failure of the power capacitor (capacitance is usually 47 nF). One of the lamp terminals is connected through it). If you replace it and put a resistance of 10 ohms on the terminals parallel to the burnt filament, then the lamp will last for a very long time (do not disconnect the filament terminals from the board). If the capacitor is not replaced, the lamp will last 5-10 minutes. (then a loud explosion of the capacitor and transistor).

    Thanks for the useful information, I have not encountered this yet.

    The transformer failed on several lamps. Due to overheating, the insulation became unusable and the awl through the ferrite became unusable. It can be treated by rewinding a wire with a similar cross-section and normal insulation.

    PS. The lamps were DeLux.

    Yuri. Interestingly, this is already quite exotic. I've never even heard of such a problem with these lamps.

    If I come across them, I’ll take a photo or even a video of the breakdown. Sincerely.

    I met a woman, a grandmother, she sells light bulbs at the market, customers regularly bring burnt ones as an example and leave them with the saleswoman, she then throws them away, I asked if it was possible to buy such damaged energy-saving ones from her for 5 rubles, but she said - nonsense, they I don’t need them, I throw them away and get them for free, so I’ll give them to you for free too. Over the past year I’ve collected three full bags of different capacities and brands of such light bulbs, I’ve repaired a few, I still can’t get around to others... I think if I come up with a small high-voltage electronic device such as a Tesla coil (so that the field spreads within this flask) in the field of which gas glows in energy-saving flasks, you can organize lighting without filaments in the flasks! It turns out that the flask is eternal, all that remains is to organize the durable electronics, selecting a good margin of safety for the radio components at nominal value. ...

    I also like LED bulbs, but they are still a little expensive...

    Alexander

    Interesting idea. You just need to figure out what’s happening with the gas inside the flasks.

    TO BE STARTED, TESLA HAS A COMMON TRANSFORMER AND ENERGY SAVING ELECTRONICS AND THE CONTROL DEVICE OF DAYLIGHT LAMPS OF THE SOVIET ERA - THEY ALL HAVE GLOWING DUE TO HIGH VOLTAGE OCCURRED BY LUMINOPHOROSPHER, GAS IN THE K OLBACH, I THINK YOU CAN MAKE EXTERNAL ELECTRODES BY POSITIONING NEAR THE BULB AND DIRECTING A HIGH CURRENT INTO THEM VOLTAGE AND MODERATELY HIGH FREQUENCY... AND THEN YOU NEED TO THINK AND EXPERIMENT)))

    "energy-saving lamp E-27, the filaments are in good condition. When the lamp is turned on, it burns at half incandescence. What is the reason for what needs to be replaced in the circuit?

    I would check the thermistor first. Try how it will work if you just unsolder it.

    Is it possible to use a handkerchief from a 20w light bulb to start a Soviet 80w light bulb (increasing the power of the transistors and selecting other elements) the original chokes and starters destroy the lamp faster.

    Unfortunately, I have not encountered Soviet ones, so I cannot answer this question.

    Dear Dummy Luck! Why did you stop making videos? Your videos are some of the most interesting and educational, because you tackle everything with your mind, and not just according to an established scheme. Slowly, surely and clearly, explaining each step, for me this is the most correct approach.

    I can say this about light bulbs, for me personally, the filaments burn out, so far not a single electronic device has burned out (only what I burned myself for experimental purposes). One thread fails.

    In response to BobrOff, I can say that it is very difficult to select a resistor for a burnt-out filament, because when heated, the filament has a completely different resistance. And it’s not the capacitor that burns out the filament, because if you change it to another bulb, the lamp will last for a very long time. It burns out, most likely due to quality, and plus, they practically stopped installing thermistors.

    I myself encountered this problem, I re-soldered the entire board - the whole problem turned out to be in the conductor between the filament.

    Thank you. Now there is a problem with time, but I think I will continue soon.

    Hello everyone, I, too, having seen enough advice, decided to bring a burnt-out CFL back to life by soldering a resistor in parallel to the burnt-out filament... Not a single lamp lasted more than a week. This time is basically enough to go to the store for a new lamp. But after reading quite a few forums, I saw in the form of bypassing both threads at once with an ordinary wire. I tried it and, surprisingly, the lamp in my corridor has been shining for about three months. This method is suitable if the thread is torn on only one side, and if the thread is completely torn and only two whiskers stick out in the bulb, then after such or similar repairs the lamp will work for 3 to 5 days at most until the electrodes burn out... If On a new lamp, bypass the filaments with a jumper, then such a lamp will last much longer than in the usual version. Please note that after this the lamp WILL NOT BECOME ETERNAL!!! As many promise.

    The principle of igniting a CFL lamp is something like this:

    After switching on, the resistance of the unlit lamp is high and a high-voltage capacitor is connected in series with the inductor through the filaments of the lamp. As a result of resonance, the voltage at the output of the converter sharply increases, the lamp lights up and its resistance sharply decreases, thereby shunting the high-voltage capacitor. The resonance disappears, the voltage drops to 350 volts, which is quite enough for the lamp to burn steadily. It’s noticeable that you can read in more detail in the same Wikipedia....

    So, when we install two jumpers, we connect this capacitor in parallel with the lamp and all processes occur in the same way as the normal switching on. When the lamp is started, the resistance of the unlit lamp is high and the capacitor is connected in series with the inductor. A resonance occurs, the voltage increases, the lamp lights up and its resistance decreases, which shunts the capacitor.... Etc....

    I made a short video, but since I don’t have a tripod and there’s no one to hold the camera, I took a photo and then edited it in a video editor, and I filmed the operation of the lamp myself and also added it to the review...

    I heard a lot of complaints from sofa experts in the field of EPR design about the imperfection and inexpediency of this resuscitation of CL lamps...

    I do not pretend to anything and do not promise that the lamp will become ETERNAL - this modernization option simply extends for some time (week - month-year-...) the service life of an already burnt-out lamp, which has already served its purpose and had to be disposed of.

    And do not forget about safety measures, you can get exposed to electric current and get electrical injury!!!

    All work on converting a CFL lamp must be done with a 100 W incandescent lamp connected to the break in the network wire. This will save you from a loud BANG and knocked out traffic jams in case of a mistake...

    There is a 7W fluorescent energy-saving lamp (almost the same as in the video).

    It seems to work, but incorrectly. (incorrect operation was tested on 2 cartridges, so a cartridge malfunction can be excluded)

    During operation, it lights normally for 5 seconds, then for 1 second the brightness decreases slightly (by 20-30%), and so on in a circle (i.e. 5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1).

    At the same time, the lamp gets VERY hot (after 10 minutes of operation there is a strong smell of plastic).

    Before the malfunction appeared, the lamp worked normally for ~6500 hours (it lit well and hardly got hot)

    Are there any ideas on how to fix this?

    First, I would try to remove the thermistor and see how the lamp behaves.

    “In the future, it makes sense to consider the possibility of igniting a lamp with a high-voltage field - generally when the filaments are burnt out”

    Don’t forget to think about the feasibility of all sorts of “collective farms” - it’s often cheaper to buy a new flask than to fashion a voltage quadrupler from expensive high-voltage capacitors for a cold start without threads...

    And this is even more true for the ideas of gas ionization in a flask by an external EM field - this will bury all the economy of the “housekeepers” - the efficiency of such lamps is low.

    Energy saving lamp with a power of 35W. The phosphor has darkened and is very worn. The lamp filaments are intact - perhaps due to the diodes standing in parallel. The fault is a breakdown of one MJE13003 transistor, probably due to overheating.

    The transistors were replaced with MJE13007 in TO220 packages, which have more power and better heat dissipation.


    A 30 Ohm NTC thermistor is installed in series with the filaments. Why this is needed is described in a separate article on upgrading energy-saving light bulbs.


    Ventilation holes are drilled in the lamp base for a milder operating temperature of the electronic ballasts.



    A few more photos:



    Disassembled lamp.
    The lamp contains transistors in TO92 packages, which is quite unusual for a power of 20W.


    Ventilation holes in the base.
    To facilitate the thermal operation of the electronic ballasts, ventilation holes are drilled.


    Repurposed lamp. The arrow shows the installed thermistor.
    The thermistor is installed in the open circuit of the lamp filaments in a convenient place, which depends on the design of the particular lamp. The resistance of the thermistor shown in the photo is 30 ohms. When the lamp is turned on, the thermistor is cold and its resistance limits the current flowing through this circuit. After a few seconds, the thermistor heats up and its resistance decreases, no longer affecting the current in the circuit. This ensures a more gentle lamp ignition mode.
    Please note that the bulb filament leads may be brittle. Disconnect them from the electronic ballasts and clean them carefully before tinning.

    Modernization tips from Vitaly:

    The power of this lamp is 26 watts. I would like to draw your attention to the features of this circuit - these are resistances of 10 ohms two and 2.2 ohms two, which are very important in this circuit. Capacity 47 microfarads 400 volts is also very important! The most important thing is that the starting capacitors are 6800 nf 630 volts two - connect in series (GREEN). All ballast circuits are basically the same, in any circuits find two pairs of identical resistors, I indicated 10 and 2.2 Ohms in the diagram - change them to these values, the lamps undergo the following modernization - 13-32 Watt 220 volts. Do not forget to place diodes to the transistors E and K, opposite to the current, as in the horizontal scan of any TV. The temperature inside the circuit reached up to 80 degrees Celsius, my lamp has been working for about 4 years. I'm not kidding! I recently looked at my circuit - I will say one thing - due to the temperature, all the parts are black and it works for 4 years. An example of an error is that out of 100 pieces, 10 lamps are unusable, the reason is depressurization of the bulb (glass), air ingress. Try it, experiment - the result is good.

    U.P. 15.10.2012
    Another broken lamp (23W), and previously upgraded. The filaments are intact, which means the NTC thermistor protected them throughout the entire operating time of the lamp. One rectifier diode burned out and one transistor was broken. Several paths were burned out.



    The tracks were replaced with wiring, the diode was replaced with a new one (1N4007).



    HLB123T transistors have been replaced with HLB124E. In the photo above, new transistors are already installed in the lamp, the old ones are lying nearby.

    The transistor housing and pinout are different, this must be taken into account when making such replacements.



    After the repair, the lamp started working again.

    U.P. 4.2.2013
    After repair, the lamp worked for 4 months and broke again with a bang and smoke. The malfunction turned out to be similar - several rectifier diodes, a resistor at the input were broken, a track and another resistor in the emitter of the transistor burned out. It looks like an increased current when turned on, which raised suspicions about the electrolytic capacitor after the rectifier, although according to the device it is in working order. The transistors were not damaged, the lamp filaments were intact, so it was decided to repair it. Diodes and resistors were replaced, the burnt track was restored. Just in case, the electrolytic capacitor was replaced.



    In the photo next to the lamp there are replaced parts. After the repair, the lamp came on.



    The following photo shows the lamp before assembly. A 33 Ohm NTC thermistor is clearly visible, designed to protect cold threads from current surges when turned on.



    Do you want to read more about DIY circuits? Here's what's trending this week:
    Regulated power supply from an ATX computer power supply
    Power supply for cordless screwdriver from 220 volt network
    Circuits and printed circuit boards of power supplies based on UC3842 and UC3843 chips
    Leopold approves.

    Any questions or comments? Write:


    Drilling holes is not just necessary, but necessary, because... The ballast is heated by the hot bulb.


    Dear specialists! Recently a question arose: what kind of beast is this ring with 3 windings and what does it affect? Planting is primitive. Be right. But if you carefully look at the diagram of a computer power supply, we will see similarities in the final stage circuits, only the matching phase shifter is wound on a w-shaped transformer. Hm. Who has any ideas? Yeah, what do we need? We need to get rectangular pulses with a high steepness and a platform for cooling the key, a type called delay. And what? So this ring is designed to increase the steepness due to a pulse in the magnetic circuit and forms a delay when the core is saturated. Someone talked about the frequency... The frequency of generation depends on this trance too. If everything is correct, there is no need to drill holes - the keys will be cold. The manufacturer is not a stupid shoemaker! And one more thing: the greater the load - the lamp current, the higher the oscillation frequency. This is the way. Do not try to regulate the frequency with capacitors, it depends on the load, and the load is the inductor and the lamp itself, and of course the parameters of the transformer. When you understand how this ring with 3 windings works, the world will become simpler! Happy improvements to everyone! And remember: manufacturers are no worse than radio amateurs, this is an axiom.


    Now answer a couple of questions:
    1. How long will the converted lamp last?
    2. Will the ballast survive after the electrodes evaporate?
    3. Do 1N4007s work well at ballast frequency?


    Attention! The most important comment! A must read! Any lamp can be revived!
    We bring the board to working condition (you can strengthen the transistors and add a self-recovering fuse), add a diode bridge at the output (from 1n40007 - it will do) - all the lamps light up (even with burnt-out coils). The contacts of the spirals can be twisted in pairs.
    In this method, electron emission is not needed to ignite the lamps: the constant accelerates the gas ions itself.
    Only some schemes require a selection of ballast (placed in front of the bridge).

    Today, manufacturers of lamps with energy-saving parameters leave no choice at all to ordinary consumers who choose between incandescent and ESL lamps. The choice in favor of the latter is obvious. Now there are almost no apartments or houses left where they were installed energy-saving lamps. And this is not to mention office or industrial premises. ESLs can save up to ninety percent of electricity per year. Many of us are interested in the question of whether it is possible to repair energy-saving lamps with our own hands.

    Repair of energy-saving lamps or how to assemble one lamp from two

    In most cases, manufacturers indicate 8000 hours of continuous operation in service life. But practice shows that most often light bulbs do not last for the specified period. And this comes as a rather unpleasant surprise, since they are not cheap.

    But this shouldn't be a big disappointment, since energy-saving light bulbs turn out to be quite easy to repair. It’s not necessary, because out of several non-working ones you can make one working one.

    Is it worth starting renovations?

    First, you need to find out whether it is even worth undertaking to repair a burnt out light bulb and whether it will be justified. Many experts say that it all depends on how many lamps you want to repair. If we are talking about one light bulb, then it is better not to take it at all. The only exception is the situation when you have several non-working light bulbs, which will become the basis for one working one.

    Such a light bulb, like any other, should also be distinguished by its operating life. If your lamp stopped shining after a year and a half, and its service life is 10,000 hours, then it may be cheaper. After all, you have to spend money on spare parts, travel, and also lose your own time.

    After prolonged use, ESLs lose the ability to turn on quickly. They work a couple of seconds after switching on. You also need to take into account that old light bulbs over time begin to produce more heat than light. Another significant drawback of old light bulbs is the wear and tear of the fluorescent bulb, which fades over time and the lamp becomes not as bright as it was.

    To summarize all of the above, you should start repairing light bulbs only when you have several non-working ones on hand. Practice confirms that out of twenty you can make about 5 lamps. If you still decide, then ask your friends or family - they will probably help you with old light bulbs.

    How to assemble one lamp from two

    To understand what needs to be repaired and how, let’s first look at what it’s made of. Any gas-discharge fluorescent lamp consists of three parts:

    • flasks;
    • electronic board (ballast);
    • base

    If the bulb of your non-working lamp has defects (in the form of cracks, for example), then it can no longer be repaired. In other cases, if you have the desire and skills, you can fix it.

    Most often, lamps stop working because the filaments burn out or as a result of a breakdown of the electronic board. Before repairing, the lamp must be disassembled and the cause of the breakdown identified. To do this you need to do some steps.

    The first step is to disconnect the base from the burnt bulb. The fastenings used are the same as in the housings of mobile phones or remote controls. Therefore, be extremely careful. The best tool here is a screwdriver with a wide and thin tip. Yours the main task- do not completely break the base.

    The connecting wires are usually short in length, so do not disconnect them too abruptly. In most cases, the first latch is the one located under the inscriptions with the characteristics of the light bulb. You need to insert a screwdriver into this place and turn it gradually. After this, the lamp should split into two parts.


    The second stage will be the process of disconnecting the wires from the filaments. There are two pairs of conductors in the bulb - they are the filaments. If you do not disable them, you will not be able to determine functionality. It shouldn't be too difficult for you to disconnect them, since in most cases they are not soldered, but simply wound on top.

    The third stage of disassembly and testing will be the diagnosis of filaments. To do this, you need to ring two threads. This will allow you to understand which of them is faulty. In most cases, the lamp consists of two spirals, which have a resistance of 10 to 15 ohms. Based on the results of the call, you can find the cause of the breakdown. There are two options here:

    • ballast is damaged;
    • one of the filaments has burned out (lamp with a damaged filament).


    Depending on the type of breakdown, you will have to perform various manipulations. Let's consider both of these options.

    Repair of system components

    Restoring a lamp after the failure of the electronic ballast involves identifying all burnt-out elements, as well as those that are still suitable. After disassembling the light bulb, inspect the board for visible external defects on all sides. Also inspect each of its components. If during inspection you do not find any visible defects, then proceed to testing its main modules, namely:

    • limiting resistor;
    • diode bridge;
    • filter capacitor;
    • high voltage capacitor.

    The fuse is installed into the light bulb by soldering it to the contact on the base. It is already attached in heat-shrinkable material. Most often, it suffers after a short circuit, after which the entire circuit breaks. When a fuse blows, a resistance of 10 ohms is considered normal, while infinity is considered abnormal. Please note that when cutting wires after a fuse has blown, do so as close to it as possible. This way you will provide yourself with a supply of wire to solder the new resistor.

    The main function of the diode bridge is to rectify the 220 V voltage. It is based on four diodes. You can ring them on the spot; this does not require soldering them.

    The filter capacitor breaks down first in lamps that are made in China. It serves to rectify voltage. The burnout of this element is initially accompanied by unstable operation of the energy-saving light bulb - it emits extraneous sounds, does not turn on immediately, and so on. After failure, you may notice external defects: swelling, darkening, drips, and so on.

    The high-voltage capacitor is designed to create a pulse, which, in turn, creates a discharge in the bulb itself. The failure of this particular element causes most breakdowns of energy-saving lamps. You can determine the malfunction without ringing. The lamp will not light up, and the filaments will create a glow near the electrodes.

    Once you have checked the main modules of the board, move on to the additional ones: transistors, resistors and diodes. It should be noted that with soldered transistors you will get incorrect multimeter readings, so they must be desoldered first. Also keep in mind that one detected failure does not exclude the possibility of another, so you will have to check all elements.

    But there is a method that will allow you to avoid soldering the transistors. You just need to measure the resistance of the elements on the working board and compare them with the non-working ones.

    Spiral repair

    Often light bulbs stop working for other reasons - failure of the filaments or circuit. A hint here will be the darkening in the place of the burnt spiral. To check, measure their resistance. If one of the threads burns out, the correct solution would be to get rid of the bulb. Moreover, the board can be used in the future to repair other ESLs. But thrifty users were able to find a way out of the situation here too. You just need to short-circuit the leads of the burnt out spiral.

    Do not expect that this will allow you to again enjoy thousands of hours of operation from the corrected lamp. A lamp will not last long on one working coil. Here's what needs to be done.

    First of all, disconnect the spirals and determine the performance of each of them (read how to do this above). Using a multimeter, you can find a non-working thread (it will also show signs of burnout). If the second thread is working, you will simply have to bypass the non-working thread with a resistor of the same value as the working one. This step is mandatory because the circuit will not work without the bypass.

    That's all. As you can see, repairing energy-saving lamps at home is not easy, but possible. If you yourself have encountered the restoration of such light bulbs, share your comments under this article.

    Energy-efficient lighting products are known for their longevity, but their lifespan can be significantly reduced if mishandled. We propose to consider how to repair an energy-saving lamp with your own hands, and how to repair a lamp with a burnt spiral.

    Types of faults

    Before you start repairing a light bulb, you need to determine the type of damage. There are several types of faults:

    1. Factory;
    2. Operational.

    The first are breakdowns that arise due to the dishonesty of manufacturers. These include divergence of contacts, incorrect shape of the base, etc. In this case, operational malfunctions are those that arise in connection with the use of the light source. This is the usual burnout of the spiral, violation of the integrity of the bulb, rupture of wires, etc.

    How to fix a lamp

    To repair an energy-saving lamp, you need to find out the type of breakdown. Next, study the design of the lamp. An energy-saving lamp consists of a special bulb and a circuit that is responsible for the appearance of light, or power wires. You can disassemble the lamp at home if you have a thin knife or screwdriver. By separating the components, you can study the design in more detail.


    Disassembling the lamp using a knife

    Please note that not all energy-saving lamps can be repaired yourself or even disassembled. For example, luminescent ones contain harmful gases and compounds in the bulb that can cause poisoning. Mercury lamps are quite dangerous. If your lamp of this type breaks down, then under no circumstances begin repair or disposal without specialists.

    Video: How to fix an energy-saving light bulb with your own hands

    And another interesting video:

    First, let's look at what to do if the electric lamp burns out. The lamp burns out due to two reasons:

    1. The filament has burned out;
    2. The ballast circuit flew out.

    They can only be determined by disassembling the electronic device. You need to pick up an energy-saving lamp; on the bottom of the bulb you will see a small depression. In the photo this place is shown by arrows. Carefully, so as not to damage the case, insert a thin but or screwdriver into it and slightly lift the case. It is very important that the bulb does not burst, otherwise there will be no point in repairing it.

    Here is a disassembled lamp, the wires of which are connected using a simple rewind method, without soldering or other thermal fastening methods. Inside the device you can see a round board, which has darkened a little due to overloads. Along its edges there are several bayonets, square in shape, they act as a kind of terminals. Power wires are connected to these terminals, through which electric current is supplied. The wires are taped to the bayonets; when reconnecting, do not solder them under any circumstances, even using the spot method.


    After you have untwisted the wires, you need to check each spiral with a multimeter. Thus, it becomes clear which of them burned out. After ringing and determining the type of failure, the burnt spiral is replaced with a new one.


    If you want to check the serviceability of the electronic ballast, then you must study its design. The schematic diagram of this lamp part is very similar to the standard one. The main elements are a capacitor, a resistor and a dinistor. To protect the circuit from combustion, rectifying diodes as well as resistors are needed. When the lamp is connected to the circuit, the resistor charges the capacitor. When the part is normally charged, the dinistor turns on and generates a pulse, which in turn connects the transistor. After this cycle, the capacitor is discharged again, and the rectifying diode begins to shunt the network. Next, the transistors start the lamp generator and transformer.


    C6 is a power capacitor that passes electric current through itself to the incandescent wire. In this case, the current is also filtered by a capacitor and tested for inductance. The power with which the lamp burns is determined using a resonant capacitor. The frequency of the circuit when operating this part is slightly reduced, because The power capacitor has a significantly larger capacity. During operation of the parts, the transistor is in the open state, and the transformer core is saturated. When it is fully charged, the reverse process occurs, and so on for an infinite number of cycles.

    After this, the starter contacts heat up due to the fact that a certain discharge of gas enters them. The contacts close and electricity flows to the glowing wires. For energy-saving lamps, they can heat up to 700 degrees Celsius or more. When the starter contacts cool, the throttle transmits a super-strong voltage signal to the electrodes. After which the gas located inside the lighting device is ignited.

    This principle diagram of the operation of the ballast unit is used in such models as “Navigator”, “Maxus” (ESL series), “Cosmos”, “Sputnik”, “Svetozar” and others.

    In a fluorescent lamp, the electronic ballast looks like this:


    Repair of this part is in most cases necessary if some part of the circuit could not withstand the voltage or surge and burned out. You need to install a new one in place of the burnt out part, but this is not always advisable. Often the faults are quite serious, and the entire unit will need to be replaced; it is much easier to buy a new energy-saving lamp to replace a burnt one, rather than repair the old one yourself.

    In imported lamps such as Comtech, Galeon, Lezard, Philips, Camelion and others, high-voltage transistors often burn out. These devices are necessary for normal power supply of the thread, and when burned, they can damage the entire board. To replace them, see the table:

    If the energy-saving lamp blinks, then most likely there is a failure when the contacts are turned on. This failure can be classified as a factory failure if the device began to malfunction immediately after purchase. To eliminate the malfunction, you need to carefully disassemble the lighting fixture again. Let's look at an example of repairing a lamp with an E27 base.

    Corrosion processes often occur at these points; to repair an energy-saving lamp with such a base with your own hands, clean it from rust. This must be done carefully, using abrasive paper. In the same places we check the tightness of the contacts, tighten them a little and check the device with a multimeter. The resistance must be within ten ohms; if there is a malfunction, a break will occur.

    If you can’t fix the board yourself, then try using a choke circuit. In this case, the threads will be located parallel to each other. If the toggle switch closes, voltage begins to flow to the contact wire of the lamps, and then to the starter, passing through the inductor. Below is a diagram of such a connection. It can be implemented in lamps “Era”, “SPIRAL-econom”, “Vito”, “Nakai”.

    Although, if you believe the manufacturer, the service life of energy-saving lamps is simply enormous. I bought myself a lamp, gave the money and rejoice. It gives you light and saves electricity!

    And since energy-saving lamps are not cheap, it seemed wasteful to me to buy a lamp once a month for 5–8 greenbacks. What kind of savings can there be? It even turns out to be more expensive.

    As usual, I went online, and it turns out that “our” people have been repairing such lamps for a long time. And successfully. So I decided to try it myself.

    We disassemble an energy-saving lamp

    The lamp that I started disassembling had the bottom part of its socket broken, so be careful if you halve any energy-saving lamp. But it doesn’t matter – it can be fixed.

    When the lamp is already repaired and assembled, we put the torn part back in place and solder the cracks with a soldering iron. You can glue it - whatever suits you.

    It is best to halve an energy-saving lamp with the working part of a screwdriver. There are special latches inside the cartridge that will need to be snapped off. If you have ever taken apart the remote control remote control or cell phone, then this is a similar procedure.

    Only here you do this: insert the working part of the screwdriver between the two halves, and twist the screwdriver to the right or left. When the gap gets bigger, you can insert another screwdriver into it, and with the first one you step back a little, insert it into the gap and turn it again. The most important thing here, like a remote control, is to unlatch the first latch.

    When you have two halves in your hands, move them apart carefully. There is no need to rush here, you can tear off the wires.

    In front of you will be an electronic unit board, one part of which is connected to the base, and the other to the lamp bulb. The electronic unit board itself is an ordinary ballast, which is usually installed in old fluorescent lamps. Only here is the electronics, and there is the throttle and starter.

    Determining the degree of damage to the lamp

    First of all, we inspect the board on both sides and visually determine which parts are clearly damaged and need to be replaced.

    There were no visible violations on the part of the radio components, but on the side of the tracks where the SMD components are located, two resistors R1 and R4 are visible, which definitely need to be changed.

    Here again from right side resistor R1 burned out a piece of the track. This may indicate that when the lamp was turned on or during its operation, a circuit element failed, resulting in a short circuit in the circuit.

    The first inspection was not very encouraging. If resistors and tracks are burning, then this indicates that the circuit was working in heavy duty, and we will not get away with replacing just these resistors.

    We identify faulty elements on the ballast board

    Fuse.

    First of all, we check the fuse. It's easy to find. One end of it is soldered to the central contact of the lamp base, and the other to the board. A tube made of insulating material is put on it. Typically, fuses do not survive such a malfunction.

    But as it turned out, this was not a fuse, but a half-watt resistor with a resistance of about 10 Ohms, and it was burnt out (in an open circuit).


    The serviceability of the resistor is easily determined.
    Switch the multimeter into resistance measurement mode to the “continuity” or “200” limit and take measurements. If the fuse resistor is intact, then the device will show a resistance of about 10 ohms, but if it shows infinity (one), then it is broken.

    Here, place one multimeter probe to the central contact of the base, and the second to the place on the board where the lead of the fuse resistor is soldered.

    One more thing. If the fuse resistor turns out to be burnt out, then when you bite it, try to bite it closer to the resistor body, as shown on the right side of the top picture. Then we will solder a new resistor to the terminal remaining in the base.

    Bulb (lamp).

    Next, check the resistance of the bulb filaments. It is advisable to unsolder one pin on each side. The resistance of the threads should be the same, and if it is different, it means one of them has burned out. Which is not very good.


    In such cases, experts advise soldering a resistor parallel to the burnt spiral with the same resistance as that of the second spiral. But in my case, both spirals turned out to be intact, and their resistance was 11 Ohms.

    The next step is to check all semiconductors for serviceability - these are transistors, diodes and a zener diode.


    As a rule, semiconductors do not like working with overloads and short circuits, so we check them carefully.

    Diodes and zener diode.

    There is no need to unsolder the diodes and zener diode; they already connect perfectly right on the board.
    The forward resistance of the p-n junction of the diodes will be within 750 Ohms, and the reverse should be infinity. All my diodes turned out to be intact, which made me a little happy.

    The Zener diode is a two-anode diode, so in both directions it should show a resistance equal to infinity (one).

    If some of your diodes turn out to be faulty, then you need to purchase them at a radio components store. 1N4007 are used here. But I couldn’t determine the value of the zener diode, but I think that you can install any one with a suitable stabilization voltage.

    Transistors.

    The transistors, and there are two of them, will have to be unsoldered, since their base-emitter p-n junctions are shunted by the low-resistance winding of the transformer.

    One transistor rang both to the right and to the left, but the second was supposedly intact, but between the collector and emitter, in one direction, it showed a resistance of about 745 Ohms. But I didn’t attach any importance to this, and considered it faulty, since this was the first time I was dealing with transistors of type 13003.

    I couldn’t find transistors of this type in a TO-92 package, so I had to buy a larger one in a TO-126 package.

    Resistors and capacitors.

    They also need to be checked for serviceability. But what if.

    I still had one SMD resistor, the value of which was not visible, especially since I did not know the circuit diagram of this ballast. But there was another similar working energy-saving lamp, and it came to my rescue. It shows that the value of resistor R6 is 1.5 Ohms.

    To finally make sure that all possible faults were found, I rang all the elements on the working board and compared their resistance on the faulty one. And he didn’t solder anything.

    In the end, the price was not at all expensive:

    1. Transistors 13003 – 2 pcs. 10 rubles each (in the TO-126 case - I took 10 pieces);
    2. SMD resistors - 1.5 Ohm and 510 kOhm, 1 ruble each (I took 10 pieces);
    3. 10 Ohm resistor – 3 rubles per piece (I took 10 pieces);
    4. Diodes 1N4007 – 5 rubles per piece (I took 10 pieces just in case);
    5. Heat shrinkage – 15 rubles.

    Assembly

    A surprise awaited me here. But about this in order.

    First of all, we solder off the burnt ones, and then solder in new SMD resistors. Here, it’s difficult to advise anything, because I haven’t really learned how to solder them myself.

    I do this: I heat both sides with a soldering iron at the same time, while trying to move the resistor from its place with a screwdriver or soldering iron tip. If possible, then I heat it from the side of the resistor and squeeze it out with a tip, and if not, then I heat the top part and move it with a screwdriver. Just do this carefully and quickly so that the conductors do not peel off from the board.

    The photo shows that the resistor warms up from the side.

    Soldering SMD resistors is much easier!
    If there is solder left on the contact pads and it interferes with the installation of the resistor, then we remove it.

    This is done simply: hold the board at an angle with the tracks down, and bring the corner of the tip tip to the contact pad. You also remove excess solder from the tip first.

    When the pad warms up, you will see how the solder flows onto the soldering iron. Again, this must be done quickly and carefully.

    Put the resistor in place, align it and press it with a screwdriver, and now solder each side in turn.

    Now we unsolder the faulty ones and solder in new transistors. I couldn’t find any transistors in the required housing, and these are a little too big, but the pinout matches. Which isn't bad anymore.
    Here we bite off the conclusions, approximately as in the picture below.

    Unsolder the faulty one and solder in the new one in the same way. One transistor will be facing you “in front”, and the second “back”. In the picture below, the transistor is facing backwards.

    And the last step is to solder the fuse-resistor.
    You bite off the lead as long as on the faulty one. Solder to the terminal protruding from the base, put on heat shrink, and only after that, solder the free terminal of the resistor to the board in place.


    All is ready. But we are not completely assembling the lamp yet. We need to make sure it works.

    Once again, carefully inspect the places where soldering was done and whether the circuit elements are installed correctly. There is no room for error here. Otherwise, the entire repair process will have to start all over again.

    We supply power to the lamp. And here I had a bang. The transistor jerked, and from the same side where the faulty one rang both to the right and to the left. There could be no errors in the installation - I checked it several times.

    After the bang, I lost the transistor and resistor R6 with a nominal value of 15 Ohms. Everything else was intact.

    Again I disassemble the working lamp and compare the resistance of all elements. Everything is okay. And then I remembered about the transistor, which was half working.

    When such a transistor was removed from the working lamp and rang, it turned out that between the collector and emitter it also showed the presence of a resistance of about 745 Ohms in one direction. Then it became clear that this was not a simple transistor. I went to Google on the Internet.

    And then on one Chinese site (the link has been deleted, since the site no longer works) I find about transistors of the 13003 series. It turns out that they are simple, composite, with a diode inside, and differ only in the last 2 - 3 letters printed on the case. This ballast contained composite transistors with a diode inside.

    As it turned out, the “faulty” transistor, whose collector and emitter were ringing in one direction, was “live”. And when you have to change transistors, first determine by the last letters whether it is simple or compound.

    Soldering in new transistor, and between the collector and the emitter I place a diode according to the diagram above: the cathode to the collector, and the anode to the emitter.
    Instead of an SMD resistor, I put an ordinary 15 Ohm resistor, since I didn’t have an SMD resistor with that rating.

    I'm serving food again. As you can see, the lamp is on.

    That's all.
    Now, when you repair energy-saving lamps, I hope you will find my experience useful.
    Good luck!

    Based on materials from sesaga.ru

    Also Interesting

    Modern fluorescent light bulbs are a real godsend for budget-conscious consumers. They shine brightly, last longer than incandescent bulbs and consume much less energy. At first glance, there are only advantages. However, due to the imperfections of domestic power grids, they exhaust their resources much earlier than the deadlines stated by the manufacturers. And often they do not even have time to “cover” the costs of their acquisition.
    But don’t rush to throw away the broken “housekeeper”. Considering the considerable initial cost of fluorescent light bulbs, it is advisable to “squeeze” the maximum out of them, using all possible resources to the last. After all, right under the spiral there is a circuit of a compact high-frequency converter installed in it. For a knowledgeable person, this is a whole “Klondike” of all kinds of spare parts.

    Disassembled lamp

    General information

    Battery

    In fact, such a circuit is an almost ready-made switching power supply. The only thing missing is an isolation transformer with a rectifier. Therefore, if the flask is intact, you can try to disassemble the body without fear of mercury fumes.
    By the way, it is the lighting elements of light bulbs that most often fail: due to resource burnout, merciless operation, too low (or high) temperatures, etc. The internal boards are more or less protected by a sealed case and parts with a safety margin.
    We advise you to accumulate a certain number of lamps before starting repair and restoration work (you can ask around at work or with friends - usually there is enough of this kind of stuff everywhere). It’s not a fact that all of them will be repairable. In this case, what is important to us is the performance of the ballast (i.e., the board built inside the light bulb).

    You may have to do a little digging the first time, but then in an hour you can assemble a primitive power supply for devices of suitable power.
    If you plan to create a power supply, choose more powerful fluorescent lamp models, starting from 20 W. However, less bright light bulbs will also come into use - they can be used as donors of the necessary parts.
    And as a result, from a couple of burnt-out housekeepers it is quite possible to create one completely capable model, be it a working light bulb, a power supply or a battery charger.
    Most often, self-taught craftsmen use housekeeper ballast to create 12-watt power supplies. They can be connected to modern LED systems, because 12 V is the operating voltage of most of the most common household devices, including lighting.
    Such blocks are usually hidden in furniture, so appearance the node is not particularly important. And even if the craft turns out to be sloppy in appearance, it’s okay, the main thing is to take care of maximum electrical safety. To do this, carefully check the created system for operability, leaving it to work in test mode for a long time. If there are no voltage surges or overheating, it means you did everything right.
    It is clear that you will not extend the life of the updated light bulb much - sooner or later the resource is exhausted anyway (the phosphor and filament burn out). But you must agree, why not try to restore a failed lamp within six months to a year after purchase.

    Disassembling the lamp

    So, we take a non-working light bulb, find the junction of the glass bulb with the plastic body. Carefully pry the halves with a screwdriver, gradually moving along the “belt”. Usually these two elements are connected by plastic latches, and if you are going to use both components in some other way, do not apply much force - a piece of plastic can easily break off and the seal of the light bulb body will be broken.

    Having opened the case, carefully disconnect the contacts going from the ballast to the filaments in the bulb, because they block full access to the board. Often they are simply attached to the pins, and if you no longer plan to use the failed bulb, you can safely cut off the connecting wires. As a result, you should see something like this.

    Disassembling the lamp

    It is clear that lamp designs from different manufacturers may differ in “filling”. But the general scheme and basic constituent elements have much in common.
    Then you need to carefully inspect each part for swelling, breakdowns, and make sure that all elements are soldered securely. If any of the parts has burned out, it will be immediately visible by the characteristic soot on the board. In cases where no visible defects are found, but the lamp is not working, use a tester and “ring” all elements of the circuit.
    As practice shows, resistors, capacitors, and dinistors most often suffer due to large voltage drops, which occur with unenviable regularity in domestic networks. In addition, frequent flicking of the switch has an extremely negative effect on the operating time of fluorescent light bulbs.
    Therefore, in order to extend their service life for as long as possible, try to turn them on and off as little as possible. The pennies saved on electricity will ultimately result in hundreds of rubles to replace a burnt-out light bulb ahead of time. .

    Disassembled lamps

    If, as a result of the initial inspection, you have identified scorch marks on the board, swelling of parts, try replacing the failed units by taking them from other non-working donor lamps. After installing the parts, “ring” all the components of the board with the tester again.
    By and large, from the ballast of a non-working fluorescent light bulb, you can make a switching power supply with a power corresponding to the original power of the lamp. As a rule, low-power power supplies do not require significant modifications. But, of course, you will have to work hard on blocks of higher power.
    To do this, you will need to slightly expand the capabilities of the original inductor by providing it with additional winding. You can regulate the power of the power supply being created by increasing the number of secondary turns on the inductor. Want to know how to do it?

    Preparatory work

    As an example, below is a diagram of a Vitoone fluorescent light bulb, but fundamentally the composition of the boards from different manufacturers does not differ much. In this case, a light bulb of sufficient power is presented - 25 watts; it can make an excellent 12 V charging unit.

    Vitoone 25W lamp diagram

    Power supply assembly

    The lighting unit (i.e., a bulb with filaments) is indicated in red in the diagram. If the threads in it have burned out, then we will no longer need this part of the light bulb, and we can safely bite off the contacts from the board. If the light bulb was still burning before the breakdown, albeit dimly, you can then try to revive it for a while by connecting it to working diagram from another product.
    But that’s not what we’re talking about now. Our goal is to create a power supply using ballast taken from a light bulb. So, we delete everything that is between points A and A´ in the above diagram.
    For a power supply of low power (approximately equal to the original one of the donor light bulb), only a small alteration is enough. A jumper must be installed in place of the remote lamp assembly. To do this, simply wind a new piece of wire to the freed pins - at the place where the former filaments of the energy-saving light bulb were attached (or to the holes for them).

    In principle, you can try to slightly increase the generated power by providing additional (secondary) winding to the inductor already on the board (it is designated L5 in the diagram). Thus, its native (factory) winding becomes the primary one, and another layer of the secondary one provides that same power reserve. And again, it can be adjusted by the number of turns or the thickness of the wound wire.

    Connecting the power supply

    But, of course, it will not be possible to significantly increase the initial capacity. It all depends on the size of the “frame” around the ferrites - they are very limited, because originally intended for use in compact lamps. Often it is possible to apply turns in only one layer; eight to ten will be enough to start with.
    Try to apply them evenly over the entire ferrite area to obtain maximum performance. Such systems are very sensitive to the quality of the winding and will heat up unevenly and eventually become unusable.
    We recommend that you remove the inductor from the circuit during the work, since otherwise it will not be easy to wind it. Clean it of factory glue (resins, films, etc.). Visually assess the condition of the primary winding wire, check the integrity of the ferrite. Since if they are damaged, there is no point in continuing to work with it.
    Before starting the secondary winding, lay a strip of paper or electrical cardboard along the top of the primary winding to eliminate the possibility of breakdown. Adhesive tape in this case is not the best the best option, since over time the adhesive composition ends up on the wires and leads to corrosion.
    The circuit diagram of the modified light bulb board will look like this

    Scheme of a modified light bulb board

    Many people know firsthand that winding a transformer with their own hands is a pleasure. This is more of an activity for the diligent. Depending on the number of layers, this can take from a couple of hours to a whole evening.
    Due to the limited space of the choke window, we recommend using varnished copper cable with a cross-section of 0.5 mm to create the secondary winding. Because there is simply not enough space for the insulated wires to wind any significant number of turns.
    If you decide to remove the insulation from an existing wire, do not use a sharp knife, because... After the integrity of the outer layer of the winding is damaged, one can only hope for the reliability of such a system.

    Drastic changes

    Ideally, for the secondary winding you need to use the same type of wire as in the original factory version. But often the “window” of the choke magnetic receiver is so narrow that it is not possible to even wind one full layer. And it is also necessary to take into account the thickness of the gasket between the primary and secondary windings.
    As a result, it will not be possible to radically change the power output by the lamp circuit without making changes to the composition of the board components. In addition, no matter how carefully you carry out the winding, you will still not be able to make it as high quality as in factory-produced models. And in this case, it is easier to assemble a pulse unit from scratch than to remake the “good” obtained for free from a light bulb.
    Therefore, it is more rational to look for a ready-made transformer with the required parameters at the disassembly of old computer or television and radio equipment. It looks much more compact than a “homemade” one. And its safety margin cannot be compared.

    Transformer

    And you won’t have to rack your brains over calculating the number of turns to obtain the desired power. Soldered to the circuit - and you're done!
    Therefore, if you need more power from the power supply, say about 100 W, then you will have to act radically. And only the spare parts available in the lamps cannot be used here. So, if you want to further increase the power of the power supply, you need to unsolder and remove the original inductor from the light bulb board (indicated in the diagram below as L5).

    Detailed UPS diagram

    Connected transformer

    Then, in the section between the previous location of the choke and the reactive midpoint (in the diagram, this section is located between separating capacitors C4 and C6), a new powerful transformer is connected (designated as TV2). If necessary, an output rectifier is connected to it, consisting of a pair of connecting diodes (they are designated in the diagram as VD14 and VD15). It wouldn’t hurt to simultaneously replace the diodes on the input rectifier with more powerful ones (in the diagram these are VD1-VD4).
    Don't forget to also install a larger capacitor (shown in the diagram as C0). It must be selected at the rate of 1 microfarad per 1 W of output power. In our case, a 100 mF capacitor was taken.
    As a result, we get a fully capable switching power supply from an energy-saving lamp. The assembled circuit will look something like this.

    Test run

    Test run

    Connected to the circuit, it serves as something akin to a stabilizer fuse and protects the unit during current and voltage fluctuations. If everything is good, the lamp does not particularly affect the operation of the board (due to low resistance).
    But during high current surges, the lamp resistance increases, leveling out the negative impact on the electronic components of the circuit. And even if the lamp suddenly burns out, you won’t feel as sorry for it as a self-assembled pulse unit that you’ve been poring over for several hours.
    The most simple circuit The test circuit looks like this.

    After starting the system, observe how the temperature of the transformer (or the inductor wound with the “secondary”) changes. If it starts to get very hot (up to 60ºC), de-energize the circuit and try replacing the winding wires with an analogue with a larger cross-section, or increase the number of turns. The same applies to the heating temperature of transistors. If it increases significantly (up to 80ºС), each of them should be equipped with a special radiator.
    That's basically it. Finally, we remind you to follow safety rules, since the output voltage is very high. Plus, the components of the board can get very hot without changing in any way externally.

    We also do not recommend using such impulse blocks when creating chargers for modern gadgets with fine electronics (smartphones, electronic watches, tablets, etc.). Why take such a risk? No one can guarantee that a “homemade product” will work stably and will not ruin an expensive device. Moreover, there is more than enough suitable stuff (meaning ready-made chargers) on the market, and they are quite inexpensive.
    Such a homemade power supply can be safely used to connect light bulbs different types, for powering LED strips and simple electrical appliances that are not so sensitive to current (voltage) surges.

    We hope you were able to master all the material provided. Perhaps it will inspire you to try creating something similar yourself. Even if the first power supply you make from a light bulb board will not be real at first working system, but you will acquire basic skills. And most importantly – passion and thirst for creativity! And then, you see, you’ll be able to make a full-fledged power supply for LED strips, quite popular today. Good luck!

    “Angel eyes” for a car with your own hands How to properly make a homemade lamp from ropes Design and adjustment of dimmable LED strips

    Over time, a huge amount accumulates in the glove compartment of any radio amateur. electronic filling from energy-saving light bulbs, and many radio components from them can be actively used in other amateur radio areas. So a high-voltage generator from the ballast of a regular energy-saving lamp is assembled in 5 minutes, and voila, the Tesla generator already has power.

    As practice has shown, fluorescent lamps work for years. But over time, their brightness decreases. Such lamps, of course, can still serve you until the bulb filled with an inert gas is broken through by a high-voltage discharge, but it is not advisable to bring them to this state, since the electronic part may also burn out, but it can still be used.

    Inside the energy saving box there is electronic circuit- ballast. This is a ready-made step-up high-voltage AC-DC converter, it is necessary to increase the standard 220 volts to 1000 volts. Attention, there is a life-threatening voltage at its output, so during experiments, exercise extreme caution and always remember.

    To assemble a circuit for a high-voltage generator, we need a line transformer, it can be borrowed from a line scanner, people are throwing these out en masse right now, so finding one is not a problem at all. Another important component of a high voltage design is the capacitor. By the way, it can also be found in a horizontal scan unit, for example 2200 pF 5 kV. The voltage from the ballast goes to the winding of the line transformer not directly, but through a capacitor; this connection protects the ballast circuit. I suggest you learn about the correct removal of the line transformer from the video:

    Using a multimeter on the transformer, we find the winding with the maximum resistance (except for the high-voltage one) and apply voltage from the ballast to it. Such a high-voltage generator can be used in experiments with electricity. If we add two metal rods, we get Jacob's ladder. You can even assemble it on it, because the circuit is capable of powering a line transformer for days, and the voltage at the output of the line transformer is 5 kV.

    Energy-saving lamps are widely used in everyday life and in production; over time they become unusable, but many of them can be restored after simple repairs. If the lamp itself fails, then from the electronic “stuffing” you can make a fairly powerful power supply for any desired voltage.

    What does a power supply from an energy-saving lamp look like?

    In everyday life, you often need a compact, but at the same time powerful low-voltage power supply; you can make one using a failed energy-saving lamp. In lamps, lamps most often fail, but the power supply remains in working order.

    In order to make a power supply, you need to understand the operating principle of the electronics contained in an energy-saving lamp.

    Advantages of switching power supplies

    In recent years, there has been a clear tendency to move away from classic transformer power supplies to switching ones. This is due, first of all, to the major disadvantages of transformer power supplies, such as large mass, low overload capacity, and low efficiency.

    Eliminating these shortcomings in pulse blocks power supply, as well as the development of the element base, has made it possible to widely use these power units for devices with power from a few watts to many kilowatts.

    Power supply diagram

    The principle of operation of a switching power supply in an energy-saving lamp is exactly the same as in any other device, for example, in a computer or TV.

    In general terms, the operation of a switching power supply can be described as follows:

    • The alternating mains current is converted into direct current without changing its voltage, i.e. 220 V.
    • A pulse-width converter using transistors converts DC voltage into rectangular pulses with a frequency of 20 to 40 kHz (depending on the lamp model).
    • This voltage is supplied to the lamp through the inductor.

    Let's look at the circuit and operating procedure of a switching lamp power supply (figure below) in more detail.

    Electronic ballast circuit for an energy-saving lamp

    The mains voltage is supplied to the bridge rectifier (VD1-VD4) through a limiting resistor R 0 of small resistance, then the rectified voltage is smoothed on a high-voltage filter capacitor (C 0), and through a smoothing filter (L0) is supplied to the transistor converter.

    The transistor converter starts at the moment when the voltage on capacitor C1 exceeds the opening threshold of dinistor VD2. This will start the generator on transistors VT1 and VT2, resulting in self-generation at a frequency of about 20 kHz.

    Other circuit elements such as R2, C8 and C11 play a supporting role, making it easier to start the generator. Resistors R7 and R8 increase the closing speed of the transistors.

    And resistors R5 and R6 serve as limiting ones in the base circuits of transistors, R3 and R4 protect them from saturation, and in the event of a breakdown they play the role of fuses.

    Diodes VD7, VD6 are protective, although many transistors designed to work in such devices have such diodes built-in.

    TV1 – transformer, with its windings TV1-1 and TV1-2, voltage feedback from the output of the generator is supplied to the base circuits of transistors, thereby creating conditions for the operation of the generator.

    In the figure above, the parts that must be removed when remaking the block are highlighted in red; points A–A` must be connected with a jumper.

    Modification of the block

    Before you begin remaking the power supply, you should decide what current power you need to have at the output; the depth of the upgrade will depend on this. So, if a power of 20-30 W is required, then the alteration will be minimal and will not require much intervention in the existing circuit. If you need to get a power of 50 watts or more, then a more thorough upgrade will be required.

    It should be kept in mind that the output of the power supply will be DC voltage, not AC. Get from such a power supply AC voltage frequency of 50 Hz is not possible.

    Determining power

    Power can be calculated using the formula:

    P – power, W;

    I – current strength, A;

    U – voltage, V.

    For example, let’s take a power supply with the following parameters: voltage – 12 V, current – ​​2 A, then the power will be:

    Taking into account the overload, 24-26 W can be accepted, so the manufacture of such a unit will require minimal intervention in the circuit of a 25 W energy-saving lamp.

    New parts

    Adding new parts to the diagram

    The added details are highlighted in red, these are:

    • diode bridge VD14-VD17;
    • two capacitors C 9, C 10;
    • additional winding placed on ballast choke L5, the number of turns is selected experimentally.

    The added winding to the inductor plays another important role as an isolation transformer, protecting against mains voltage reaching the output of the power supply.

    To determine the required number of turns in the added winding, do the following:

    1. a temporary winding is wound onto the inductor, approximately 10 turns of any wire;
    2. connected to a load resistor with a power of at least 30 W and a resistance of approximately 5-6 Ohms;
    3. connect to the network, measure the voltage at the load resistance;
    4. divide the resulting value by the number of turns to find out how many volts there are per 1 turn;
    5. calculate the required number of turns for a permanent winding.

    A more detailed calculation is given below.

    Test activation of the converted power supply

    After this, it is easy to calculate the required number of turns. To do this, the voltage that is planned to be obtained from this block is divided by the voltage of one turn, the number of turns is obtained, and approximately 5-10% is added to the result obtained in reserve.

    W=U out /U vit, where

    W – number of turns;

    U out – required output voltage of the power supply;

    U vit – voltage per turn.

    Winding an additional winding on a standard inductor

    The original inductor winding is under mains voltage! When winding an additional winding on top of it, it is necessary to provide inter-winding insulation, especially if a PEL type wire is wound, in enamel insulation. For interwinding insulation, you can use polytetrafluoroethylene tape to seal threaded connections, which is used by plumbers; its thickness is only 0.2 mm.

    The power in such a block is limited by the overall power of the transformer used and the permissible current of the transistors.

    High Power Power Supply

    This will require a more complex upgrade:

    • additional transformer on a ferrite ring;
    • replacing transistors;
    • installing transistors on radiators;
    • increasing the capacity of some capacitors.

    As a result of this modernization, a power supply with a power of up to 100 W is obtained, with an output voltage of 12 V. It is capable of providing a current of 8-9 amperes. This is enough to power, for example, a medium-power screwdriver.

    The diagram of the upgraded power supply is shown in the figure below.

    100W power supply

    As can be seen in the diagram, resistor R0 has been replaced with a more powerful one (3-watt), its resistance has been reduced to 5 Ohms. It can be replaced with two 2-watt 10 ohm ones, connecting them in parallel. Further, C 0 - its capacity is increased to 100 μF, with an operating voltage of 350 V. If it is undesirable to increase the dimensions of the power supply, then you can find a miniature capacitor of such a capacity, in particular, you can take it from a point-and-shoot camera.

    To ensure reliable operation of the unit, it is useful to slightly reduce the values ​​of resistors R 5 and R 6, to 18–15 Ohms, and also increase the power of resistors R 7, R 8 and R 3, R 4. If the generation frequency turns out to be low, then the values ​​of capacitors C 3 and C 4 – 68n should be increased.

    The most difficult part may be making the transformer. For this purpose, ferrite rings of appropriate sizes and magnetic permeability are most often used in pulse blocks.

    The calculation of such transformers is quite complicated, but there are many programs on the Internet with which this is very easy to do, for example, “Pulse transformer calculation program Lite-CalcIT”.

    What does a pulse transformer look like?

    The calculation carried out using this program gave the following results:

    A ferrite ring is used for the core, its outer diameter is 40, its inner diameter is 22, and its thickness is 20 mm. The primary winding with PEL wire - 0.85 mm 2 has 63 turns, and the two secondary windings with the same wire have 12.

    The secondary winding must be wound into two wires at once, and it is advisable to first slightly twist them together along the entire length, since these transformers are very sensitive to the asymmetry of the windings. If this condition is not met, then the diodes VD14 and VD15 will heat up unevenly, and this will further increase the asymmetry, which will ultimately damage them.

    But such transformers easily forgive significant errors when calculating the number of turns, up to 30%.

    Since this circuit was originally designed to work with a 20 W lamp, transistors 13003 were installed. In the figure below, position (1) is medium power transistors; they should be replaced with more powerful ones, for example, 13007, as in position (2). They may have to be installed on a metal plate (radiator) with an area of ​​about 30 cm2.

    Trial

    A test run should be carried out with certain precautions taken so as not to damage the power supply:

    1. The first test run should be carried out using a 100 W incandescent lamp to limit the current to the power supply.
    2. Be sure to connect a 3-4 Ohm load resistor with a power of 50-60 W to the output.
    3. If everything went as expected, let it run for 5-10 minutes, turn it off and check the degree of heating of the transformer, transistors and rectifier diodes.

    If no errors were made during the process of replacing parts, the power supply should work without problems.

    If a trial run shows the unit is working, all that remains is to test it in full load mode. To do this, reduce the resistance of the load resistor to 1.2-2 Ohms and connect it directly to the network without a light bulb for 1-2 minutes. Then turn off and check the temperature of the transistors: if it exceeds 60 0 C, then they will have to be installed on radiators.