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Sender

Well-known member
Joined
May 17, 2005
Messages
242
Location
USA
I was at a bar that had lights hanging above it, that were barely illuminated, just enough for the filament just to begin to glow and throw off a little light. I was thinking this is something I'd like to reproduce on a smaller scale, one or two bulbs.

I imagine they did something like run them all off of one VariAC. So I thought about buying one, but they are quite expensive.

So my questions are....

1. Can I simply power these bulbs off of a standard power transformer and just loose the flexibility of having the variable voltage?

a. Would I just hook up the bulb across the secondaries?

b. Could I hook up the secondaries in parallel to get the lower voltage, and then in series (not connecting the center tap) to get twice the voltage (and twice the luminance)?

2. If that works, how could I calculate the draw of a bulb? It would be nice to possibly power a couple bulb off of one transformer.


Thanks!
 
[quote author="tomelectro"]Why not just use a dimmer?[/quote]

It's going to be for a desk lamp. There is a wooden base I was going to hide the transformer in.
 
How about turn that A/C sinewave into a squarewave, and adjust the duity cycle. shorter cycle= dimmer, longer cycle=brighter. You may have to run it through a diode to use only the positive half, but I don't think the bulb will mind.
 

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