Thread: Fluro lights

Art the 50Hz is associated with the power supply not the light fitting. Not sure where the 400Hz comes from or what it has to do with the operation of the light. Sounds wrong to me.

From what I could gather it is something to do with the electrical trickery
in the ballast.

A very brief search suggests it might be an aero industry thing ...

A 60 Hz to 400 Hz power converter: I may have this resolved, pending successful modification of a 5 KW converter I recently acquired: Input: Either 120 or 240 Vrms, 60 Hz. Output: Almost any voltage, 400 Hz, 1.25 KW minimum. (28, 115, 200 and 450* Vrms are all necessary, but I can easily acquire transformers to provide voltage conversion). 400 Hz power is needed for all the fluorescent lights, the landing lights, the oscillating nav lights and rotating beacons, and other lights and motors. *The final ballast transformers for the fluorescent interior lights require a 450 Vrms 400 Hz input. But I hope to recover the first stage ballasts which were originally installed in the aircraft's electronics bay, but removed during the parts salvage work, and if so the 450 Vrms requirement would be eliminated. (I was able to modify an extra, inexpensive, uninterruptible power converter [aka UPS, for computers], to operate at 400 Hz rather than its usual 60 Hz, but it doesn't have enough capacity to power all the fluorescent lights. It makes a handy test fixture though.)

from here: http://www.airplanehome.com/ItemsNeeded.html

Bejesus! ... I went up a level to see what it was all about ...

AirplaneHome.com - A Boeing 727-200 Home Project

Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

I knew they used 400Hz for aircraft instrumentation and controls but I didn't realise they ran the lights at that frequency Certainly wouldn't get any flicker from those fluoros. Not really an option for the lathe artme. LEDs won't cause strobing. See Fletty's thread https://www.woodworkforums.com/f245/p...t-team-163950/