RE: Asteroids Deluxe backlight (follow up)

] Can anyone tell me what's going on with the three wire connection
] and how bright should the asteroid field look.

Sure! The problem you're having is that the starter is bad (because the
tube actually lights after you remove the filaments from the circuit via the
disconnected wire) or is for a much higher wattage lamp. The starter cycles
depend on the lamp wattage and ballast voltage. With a larger value starter
for the bulb in use, it'll just sit and may occasionaly blink. A smaller
starter than called for will usually pine for the fijords, push up the
daisies, become an ex-starter. :)

What the starter basically does is connect the heater elements on the ends
of the tube just long enough to get electrons flowing. The breaking of the
filament circuit results in an inductive kick generated at the instant of
opening which triggers the main discharge in the fluorescent tube. Then the
ballast creates a potential between the two ends that will keep the lamp
lit, conducting through the gasses inside. Just pick up a new one that's
the correct size for your lamp and you'll be good to go.

Sam Goldwasser & Don Klipstein have an excellent FAQ about fluorescents at:
http://fribble.cie.rpi.edu/~repairfaq/REPAIR/F_flamp.html

I've always seen the playfield to be fairly bright, though the BL will make
the fluorescent paint glow quite nicely. I've seen the bulb in a properly
working Asteroids Deluxe and I guarantee it's an F15T8BL, black light, white
(phosphorous coating) glass.

You definitely don't want to use a clear UV lamp. Ouch! Talk about a
suntan.. And if you're in a very dark room and don't mind the greenish tint
you'll get from the monitor, you can go with the BLB filtered version.

On a side note, the only place I have ever seen a BLB on an arcade game is
in front of the joystick-handle-thingie on a Tron. Then again I haven't
seen every game!! Generally, out-in-the-open blacklight fluorescents are of
the filtered BLB variety, else the direct light of a BL would be
objectionable.

Wow, I've babbled on and on!! Hope this helps!

John

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Received on Thu Mar 23 23:23:55 2000