I recently obtained a few NE-30 neon glow lamps and would like to know more about them. A Google search revealed this page (http://www.escape.ca/~williams/library/minilamp.htm) with the info quoted below, but it seems to conflict with what the seller told me.
Starting
Volts Watts
or Series or
Lamp Circuit Resistor Design
Number Bulb Base Volts Ohms Amps
=============================================================
NE-30 S-11 MIDS 110-125 7.5K 1
I'm not sure if this means that a 7.5K ohm resistor is incorporated into the bulb, or needs to be provided externally for 110-125 VAC operation. Can anyone provide me with a scan of an original data page with full specs on these bulbs?
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TIA
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Alan "A.J." Franzman
Email: a.j.franzman at verizon dot net
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From what I can gather from that page, your NE-30 lamps have inbuilt series resistances. The reason I say this is because the NE-34 is listed there, and I have one of those- it is a 120 volt lamp with an inbuilt reistance, and quoted on that page for the NE-34 is
Number Bulb Base Volts Ohms Amps
--------------------------------------------
NE-34 S-14 MIDS 110-125 3.5K 2
just like the NE-30.
Whereas, for example, a NE-2AS is listed as
Number Bulb Base Volts Ohms Amps
--------------------------------------------
NE-2AS T-2 UNBASED 55-90 --- 0.3 mA
which I`m fairly sure is the plain wire-ended ones that get incorporated into all sorts of equipment as power-on indicators.
So (but please don`t blame me if it goes up in smoke (http://www.bulbcollector.com/ubb/eek.gif) ) I`d say that you can safely screw the NE30 into a 120 volt socket.
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