Anyone with Interior Neon, please read!!

[ravenp]

I'm trying to get twin 9" neon tubes made by Nite Moves Accessories working in my car.

They are the type that have the 'pulsing' action reacting to bass vibrations... and the control box seems to be pooched. I get power to it(ie the indicator light illuminates), but no power to the tubes. They worked out of the box but through the process of wiring it up to the accessory power source it has degraded to the point where I cannot get the lights to light.

What I want to do is cut the control box out and wire up a simple on/off switch, but am concerned the control box may reduce the voltage from 12v to something less and thus would end up frying the bulbs.

Does anybody have this type of neon tube and would know if they run on straight 12v?????

Thanks!

[youngcamarokid]

woah.....

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say.

Are you talking a central control box that hooks up to the power input of two tubes? Can the tubes be used standalone? If they can be used without the control box, then it'll work fine. It's probably 12V.

You should be okay =\

Can't say for sure tho unless I knew exactly what you're talking about.

[awesomeame]

i think what he wants to do is eliminate this "control box," and replace it with a normal on/off switch, but will hooking up 12vdc to the neons blow up the neons?

--matt

[ravenp]

Yeah, Matt has it.

The 'control box' is a little black plastic thing with afunky circuit board inside. It has an on/off switch and a pulse sensitivity dial for the 'dancing neon' effect(ie, pulses with music).

That is the part that's not working...no longer will the tubes light up, however the control box has power(there's red indicator light).

I want to cut the lines going in and out of the box and wire up a simple on/off switch but am afraid of frying the tubes with the 12v raw current....

[dmiller_2005]

It wont work... Because if those neons came connected to that box the transformer is most likely in the box too.. So the neons WILL NOT light is the box its tookin out.. It sucks I know. Thats why you would have to get the more expensive neon that dont come with the box and and the Music Interface later like I did.. A great brand is Streetglow, check those out!

[EternalVertigo]

dmiller is right, i think the transformer is in that box. if you eliminate the transformer, it wont work at all. i say dont worry about frying the neons though, they seem dead already. get some quality neons like street glow or OPTX like dmiller said.

[awesomeame]

just outta curiousity...anyone know what voltage it takes to run the neons?

i mean you're talking about a transformer, so what does the transformer do, boost the voltage or lower the voltage? and to what voltage?

--matt

[dmiller_2005]

To make a neon glow it needs 12v power source.

I think it might boost the voltage.. Because on underbody neons that transformer boosts the volts to 9500v.

[ September 28, 2003: Message edited by: dmiller_2005 ]</p>

[awesomeame]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by dmiller_2005:
Because on underbody neons that transformer boosts the volts to 9500v.

[ September 28, 2003: Message edited by: dmiller_2005 ]<hr></blockquote>

9500 volts.....that transformer must take up the whole trunk :D

--matt

[dmiller_2005]

No! "Each Gold Series undercar kit comes with 2-51" bulbs for the sides, 2-30" bulbs for the front & rear, a powerful 9500V transformer"
Thats from the street glow site..

[Lon]

yes the lights will work of of straight 12 volts.
Simple electronics theory. The light works by the electrons exciting the phospherus in the bulb. For example. 12 volts will light you at like 30 watts brightness, where as 50 volts will light you at around 100 watts, the brightness is directly proportionate to the wattage. I know this because i had the same problem where my lights would not work with the sensor for the base, so i cut the wires and took one of the wires to the negative of my amp, and one wire to the positive. and viola, lights that came on and pulsed with the base.

If you want lights that pulse with the base you can do the same thing, and i assure you, the light can take much more than your amp can put out. Or you can put a switch on it and hook it up to your cig lighter or any other power point and have no problems at all.

[EternalVertigo]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Lon:
yes the lights will work of of straight 12 volts.
Simple electronics theory. The light works by the electrons exciting the phospherus in the bulb. For example. 12 volts will light you at like 30 watts brightness, where as 50 volts will light you at around 100 watts, the brightness is directly proportionate to the wattage. I know this because i had the same problem where my lights would not work with the sensor for the base, so i cut the wires and took one of the wires to the negative of my amp, and one wire to the positive. and viola, lights that came on and pulsed with the base.

If you want lights that pulse with the base you can do the same thing, and i assure you, the light can take much more than your amp can put out. Or you can put a switch on it and hook it up to your cig lighter or any other power point and have no problems at all.<hr></blockquote>


youve been lucky your neons still work. i know peopel that have hooked neons off of speakers and amp and have blown them. they arent meant to run the same was as speakers.

[Lon]

i have been doing it for almost a year now. I put the light in my box, with silver speakers, Pioneer imps, and the light reflected off of them nicely.

[ravenp]

wow....there's a lot of variance in replies... i'm not sure what to do yet [img]smile.gif[/img]

[slow]

very simple...

Neon lights needs MORE than 12VDC to work.

you need at least 500 volts for them to work, if not way more.

you can delete the "controller" box, if it sends out 12 volts to the neons, and they have a transformet built inside them.

BUT most likely the "controller" box, is also the transformer, so you are out of luck.

Ryan.