https://stream.echo6.co/videos/watch/e9ba7cc7-efff-416d-872d-366a4888a68c The current pandemic has caused some very retro technology to become popular again, but with a new twist. In this case it's a really clever little power supply for driving a low voltage gas discharge tube with current limited AC from a 12V DC supply. The load is a classic GTL3-style UVC lamp that I featured in another video. It's very odd in that it uses a filament with emissive coating at each end to allow a mercury vapour discharge at low power and voltage. Literally just 10V RMS. (RMS means Root Mean Square and means an average.) Traditionally these lamps were used in older style laundry equipment for air path sanitation, and usually used a 24V AC transformer with a beefy resistor in series to limit the current. There are sellers on eBay selling kits with just a PHAT capacitor in series, which may potentially cause sputtering (electrode damage) in the lamp. It's notable that people have been buying these lamps and screwing them straight into lamp holders with fuse popping results. They must have a current limited supply. This circuit seems to be custom made specifically for this one task. I've never seen a low voltage configuration like this before. If buying one of the lamps to play with, keep in mind that they do emit harmful UVC light that will cause eye and skin damage like a welding arc. There are two types - plain UVC and the more useful UVC and ozone. What actually turns up tends to be totally random. If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- http://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. Mon, 13 Apr 2026 23:01:19 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://stream.echo6.co https://stream.echo6.co/client/assets/images/icons/icon-512x512.png https://stream.echo6.co/videos/watch/e9ba7cc7-efff-416d-872d-366a4888a68c All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://stream.echo6.co/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.