Cold Cathodes

tidusjar

tidusjar

tidusjar

Soldato
Joined
11 May 2011
Posts
2,901
Location
Farnborough
Hey, i recently bought some Cold cathodes. It uses a molex to power. It came with a switch and when i use the switch to turn it on/off 1 out of 5 times it turns my PC off... I don't understand... A bit of help?
 
BeQuiet L7 530W PSU running 2 HDD's, HD 5770, 1 Fan, Phenom II x4 840 with stick cooler. So you think my PSU is maxed out?!
 
When switching it on I could understand if it caused the power to spike and the PSU had a sensitive safety cut off. But are you saying sometimes when you turn the cathode off it shuts the computer down? :confused: Also I doubt that setup would stress that PSU too much unless you were running furmark and prime95 at the same time.
 
Ok so i'm guessing it's the switch? so either let them stay on or keep them off. At the moment i have them outside my case until i get my Zalman Z9+ Case. Will i damage them if i keep them when my pc is on?

EDIT: Same case as Andy :D
 
If it's powered by a molex connector surely they'd turn off when the computer is off? I swear I've had fans plugged into a molex connector and they shut off when the computer did.
 
Yeah it shuts off when the pc is off but the CCFL's came with a switch. The switch is connected to the molex power. When i flick the switch to turn my CCFL' on or off most of the time my pc shuts off.
 
I have no experience with them myself but I don't see any reason you couldn't leave them on for that long. I know that in traditional florescent tubes it's actually turning them on and off that wears them down, but not sure about cold cathodes.
 
The cathodes I use on my desk are on for hours and hours at a time, it does them no harm :)

No idea where the name 'cold' cathode comes from though, they're far from that :)
 
Sounds like a startup surge. If they are on when the PSU is switched on it will limit startup surges but after that it may treat the surge as a short circuit and shut down to protect itself.
Try leaving the switch on and let the PSU deal with the startup.
 
andy_mk3 said:
The cathodes I use on my desk are on for hours and hours at a time, it does them no harm :)

No idea where the name 'cold' cathode comes from though, they're far from that :)
Click to expand...

Because they don't have heater filaments inside, they rely on the arc being struck in cold mercury vapour to get things going.
 
Trollslayer said:
Sounds like a startup surge. If they are on when the PSU is switched on it will limit startup surges but after that it may treat the surge as a short circuit and shut down to protect itself.
Try leaving the switch on and let the PSU deal with the startup.
Click to expand...

Thats what i was thinking, They are fine when i just leave them on, but flick the switch and most of the time it shuts down.
 
You could always power the cathodes with a 12v power brick or something and take your PC's PSU completely out of the equation. Sounds like the switch is faulty though. Might be worth changing the switch or installing it on the 12v power molex line so the faulty switch is ignored and you will still have control.

I use a simple rocker LED switch on my rig to switch on some 100 LEDs of various types and that causes me no issues.
 
I have another switch, but I know NOTHING about eletronics. Someone draw me up a quick guide?

Heres a small diagram of just the power.
Untitled-2-1.png
 
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