Non bike electrical question

I have this cheap little fluorescent light fixture that quit working. I opened it up and found this weirdness. As you can see there is a resistor and small light bulb wired inline between the transformer and switch . What the heck are these for?

 

It looks like a small inductiv coil with a ferrit core ( periodic element Fe = pure iron with no carbon) that excited the glow bulb.

We skip the florescent tube and replace them with LED tubes and junk the ballast for direct wire. It's way brighter and will use a fraction of the power. We wire in a 1 amp fuse for each pair of LED tubes.

My shop has ten 8' two tube florescent fixtures with two 4' two tube fixtures over tools plus two more 4' two tube fixtures for the wife's garage. We have converted all of them to LED tubes. The shop is much brighter now and the wife doesn't scream about the power bill anymore.

I have done several of those conversions and changed  a fair few bulbs, but never seen that setup before.

I would just cover it back up and call it good..

How old of a light is it? I think the little bulb is filled with a gas and works as a preheater so to speak and start the bulb glowing.

gd4now wrote:

How old of a light is it? I think the little bulb is filled with a gas and works as a preheater so to speak and start the bulb glowing.
 

Have to concur with that.  The neon bulb & other components likely mimic the circuitry of the old-style two-pin 'can' starters that are easily replaced in older fluorescent fixtures.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

It is an old fixture to be sure, but I do not know how old. That those two parts once performed the function of a can starter seems like a reasonable theory. I may look into converting to led, but I suspect the cost may well exceed a new fixture.

TexasKZ wrote:

It is an old fixture to be sure, but I do not know how old. That those two parts once performed the function of a can starter seems like a reasonable theory. I may look into converting to led, but I suspect the cost may well exceed a new fixture.

They aren't expensive at all (or don't have to be) I have the below in my shop which have been up for over 2 yeamrs without issue and they cost penny's to run