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I am having strobe disc problems.
I got my turntable to close to correct speed by the "count the revolutions" method.
The lines of the strobe disc are totally unreadable under the compact fluorescent light. Usually the lines go backward or forward, under this light they are a blur. Don't compact fluorescents flicker like the old school types.
What can I use as light source instead?

Problem Solved!! I got a neon plugin nitelite- Now the lines are readable and they stay still.(Make sure you use the 60 cycle side of the disc-my duh moment.)
Thanks for all the help.

howardpgh wrote:I am having strobe disc problems.
I got my turntable to close to correct speed by the "count the revolutions" method.
The lines of the strobe disc are totally unreadable under the compact fluorescent light. Usually the lines go backward or forward, under this light they are a blur. Don't compact fluorescents flicker like the old school types.
What can I use as light source instead?

You don't need a fluorescent light to use a strobe disc. A regular incandescent light works fine, as long as it's plugged into the normal A/C house current.

A small neon lamp is also very useful for use with strobes. Neons were often included inside those turntables that had built-in strobes. Small neons can often be found offered by surplus electronics suppliers.

Compact fluorescent lamps usually operate with high-frequency switching-type electronic ballasts. They operate at a frequency much higher than the 60Hz (or 50Hz in Europe) line frequency that is necessary for use with a strobe. This will make the strobe appear to be a blur. An ordinary large fluorescent lamp tube ceiling fixture with an old-style magnetic ballast will work properly with a strobe because it works on 60Hz. The modern electronic ballasts used in the newer fixtures probably work at a higher frequency and are no good with strobes.

Yes that's right. Get a small neon bulb such
as an NE-2. Put a ½ Watt, 100K ohm resistor
in series with it and run it on regular 120 volt
60 cycle AC wall current.

That makes a very nice viewing lamp for strobe
disks.

Incandescent is not so good because the variation
in brightness of the lamp filament is very slight
because the thing can't cool much in a 120th of
a second.

And, I would not put it past the designers
of those compact fluorescent lamps to have
put some kind of a chopper circuit in there
that operates the lamp at some other frequency
than 60 cycles. Why not, right? Anything to
make the lamp cost more and not last very long...

The neon lamp, on the other hand, shuts completely off and goes 100% dark each time
the AC sine wave crosses zero volts, which it
does 120 times every second.

I could go in to how to make your own strobe
disks for any speed cylinder or record.
I could tell about how to calculate that, and then how to lay them out and make them.
But about around last time I mentioned this
I was accused of hijacking threads here so
I deleted it.

Anyone wanting to know about making strobe disks can PM me and ask.

Chuck

For the non-technical among us, which I include myself, an ordinary incandescent bulb will do. 40 or 60 Watt, even 15W or 25W if you can find them.

I've tried strobes, and find them generally so hard to read anyway, that I prefer to rely on the old-fashioned method: sticking one finger under the turntable and counting off the revolutions on my watch…

Bill

Better yet, just get a digital read out counter. They are easy to use, accurate, and inexpensive. I have this one and like it. http://tinyurl.com/dywghhv

Clay

Previous thread on stobes.

(using the search function on the forum is really quite easy, folks should try it sometime)

Ok folks, argue with me if you must about
incandescent vs neon lamp for viewing strobe
disk.

All I will say is this:

If you ever do the experiment of viewing your
strobe disk alternatively testing incandescent
and neon illumination, that little test will
say it all. I do not need to say any more about it.

Argue if you must. But, if you are still arguing about this, it is painfully obvious that you have never bothered to do the above simple comparison test.

Because if you do this test, you will see
the answer immediately.

Complain about the strobe being hard to read?
Yes!!! They are darn near IMPOSSIBLE to
read when using INCANDESCENT illumination.

The use of a simple little gas-tube lamp
(i.e. an NE-2 neon lamp) makes them so
easy and clear to read that it just is not
even funny. But, you've got to try it
in order to see these results!

Chuck, I believe you, but I don't have a problem with incandescent, and the light source is handy, so that's what I use. But I'll try the neon on your say-so.