Making a set of retro neon fairy lights. (100 year anniversary.)

This turned out really well. It's a set of fairy lights / Christmas lights that are based on neons that run in a parallel circuit with two resistors per neon. It could have been a single resistor per neon, but by using two it spreads the heat dissipation, packs out the base nicely and adds a layer of safety and reliability.
I didn't realise until I started writing this video description that the humble neon indicator lamp is 100 years old this year (2019) having been patented in 1919. Happy 100th birthday lil' neon lamp.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_lamp
If you build a string of these then please remember that they operate at mains voltage and extra care must be taken to sleeve and secure connections. I actually missed a heatshrink sleeve from one of the lights leaving live contacts exposed, so take care to double check before powering the string up. The wire should be rated for mains use and ideally would have been double insulated, but it's quite tricky to find double insulated single cores.
A suitable fuse should be used in case of an incident, and a humble 1A fuse will theoretically handle 1000 lights or more if run at less than 1mA per lamp.
I used standard NE2 indicator lamps which I bought from a local mail order electronic supplier, and used two 100K resistors for our 240V supply. If making a set for 120V you can use a lower value resistor like two 47K, but the neons will light fine with higher value resistors. The intensity will reduce with higher value resistors and the glow may become unstable and shimmer about inside (which is a really nice effect). The life of these little neon lamps is rated in tens of thousands of hours of continuous use, with lower currents giving longer life.
This is definitely a project for seasoned electronics tinkerers, since it does involve a lot of mains connections. But it's also a very therapeutic project to build a set as long as you want. You could use green, blue and white (if you can get them) neon indicators too, but they will be a bit dimmer and you definitely want to run them at reduced current to avoid blackening.
The supplier I got the neon lamps from was Rapid Electronics in the UK:-
www.rapidonline.com/electroni...
You can also get them on eBay if you search for things like 100pcs neon indicator with the option of blue and green too. I recommend the 6mm diameter lamps as they are stronger, brighter and longer lasting. If the ones you get have a spot welded resistor on them I recommend replacing it with a higher value one for cooler running and longer lamp life.
The slight alternating of the glow from side to side in the video is due to the way each electrode illuminates alternately at mains frequency. The camera shutter speed makes that visible.
You can deliberately make the glow discharge unstable in the lamps by adding a capacitor in series with the whole string. It causes a slight interaction between the lamps and can make some of them shimmer like little neon flicker-flame lamps. With this short string of 13 lamps I got a good effect with a 47nF or 100nF suppression capacitor. Remember to add a 470K discharge resistor across the capacitor to avoid getting a plug-tingle from residual charge.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of KZbin's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.

[@jimlagraff4989]

Congratulations Clive, I can't believe you have been doing these videos for 100 years!

[@empathicallyyours4937]

"Sinister phosphor glow," that's why i am addicted to your channel and your pro-jacked collection.

[@calebbell5018]

My dad brought home an old Cash register once from a friend's lumber supply shop. This was one of the best things I got as a child. I remember tinkering with it to no end and sometimes forgetting to unplug it first. To this day I think I shocked myself somehow and made myself pass out, but never told my parents so they wouldn't take the thing away. I was also gifted a reel-to-reel (not working), and other things like printer tape calculators, tape players etc. I still love tearing gear down, and fixing it a lot of the time. Thanks for the great video Clive

[@jamesvandamme7786]

I had a bunch of ten neons in an infinity mirror type box. Started off the mains with a diode and small cap, then resistors to each neon. Each neon had a small cap across it. So it was a relaxation oscillator with each neon firing randomly compared to its neighbor. The effect was kinda cute. I think I threw it out 20 years ago but I might still come across it if I move.

[@jschwenker1]

I used this project to make a set of Christmas lights for my mother. She absolutely loves them :)

[@BrianKarmo]

I'm that tinkerer like you said and life so makes sense now, ever since my diy'er has came out although I've been mechanically and technically enclosed all my life but just recently got more into pcbs,circuits and what not. I'm learning and I know that in no time everything will come together As u mentioned, I love soldering as well, I find that very therepuotic, I'm happy that someone out there is into this stuff just as I am and not feel like a weirdo I guess lol, thanks for your services God Bless

[@olegvelichko1659]

“...get a battery. THAT has potential...” You, sir, are GENIUS!

[@jamesharris8110]

The project videos are my personal favorites. I live with depression and they inspire me to spend time at my work bench. Thanks Clive.

[@edlakota]

Man, this is like the best talk radio with soothing electronic construction imagery added in.. Keep it up Big Clive

[@mindovermatter3988]

If your house is spotless, you need to get a hoard😂😂 that made me feel alot better about my work station😂

[@therealchayd]

As a teenager, I remember borrowing a HeNe laser from my part time job, and a friend and I having great fun entertaining the neighbourhood cats. Interesting side note; chickens also like to chase lasers.

[@devttyUSB0]

As a kid, i wired a mains voltage lamp to a plug myself, because i've seen my dad do it, but i used very thin wire. Plugged it in and the wire 'exploded'. Gave me a good scare, but i survived. :)

[@johno186]

16:00

[@TurboTel68]

Those are really sweet! Neon and low pressure sodium lamps have to be my favourites

[@BonrekTheOrc]

I remember growing up in the 1960s the Christmas lights we had were just a string of twenty 12v lamps in series on a twisted wire. The colour of the bulbs was just from the manufacturer dipping them in some sort colouring to colour the outside of the glass. Whenever a lamp blew the whole string of lights went out and you had to get a spare lamp and replace the first bulb in the string to see if they lit up again, if not you would take the bulb that you removed from the first bulb holder and replace the second bulb with it, and so on until the string of lights lit up again.

[@dm9449]

anyone else stop breathing in as the solder smoke travels towards the camera out of habit???? haha great video Clive as always

[@28YorkshireRose12]

I remember playing around with neons, 90v batteries, resistors and capacitors, and building a novelty light set. The basics were, the battery charged the capacitor via the resistor. The neon was in parallel with the capacitor, and would only strike once the voltage across the cap was high enough to ignite the neon, this discharged the cap, and the neon would extinguish. Because the resistor was of sufficiently high value, the neon wasn't able to light directly from the battery, and so the cycle repeated ad infinitum, so the end effect was a flashing neon. Connect several of these simple flasher circuits in parallel, and you had the basis of a novelty 'light field' that flashed/flickered in a random manner. In a box, in a fireplace, it gave the impression of a fire slowly shimmering. However, if you were to run them out in a string, you would have a random flashing chain of neon lights. You could run them from a 90v radio battery (these were still easily available in the early '70s) or could build a simple PSU to deliver the required voltage. The true subtlety was in the random variance of component value tolerances - this gave rise to the random flashing of the neons, and you could fiddle around with component values to fine tune the rate of flash to suit your own preference.

[@WindraX]

The fourth light from the end of your strip has no heat-shrink insulation!

[@twocvbloke]

Well, you just 100% justified my, ahem, "collecting" of electronic & electrical stuff that really is not junk at all because it still has a use, as I do just that, because it's all fascinating and interesting... :D

[@stevenbirch]

In case anyone was wondering, 6.4mm heatshrink sleeving is a thing because that's approximately 1/4" and our USA cousins like things imperial :-)