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Components and Circuits For discussions about component types, alternatives and availability, circuit configurations and modifications etc. Discussions here should be of a general nature and not about specific sets.

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Old 11th Aug 2018, 12:47 pm   #1
ronbryan
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Default Lamp Flasher

I have just found this in-line bayonet fitting lamp flasher in a box of components I was given recently. With a 60W filament bulb it gives an 'on' time of around 2 seconds and an 'off time of around 3 seconds. Some contact bounce is evident when the lamp is switched on.


What would it have been used for - shop displays, Christmas?


Ron
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Old 11th Aug 2018, 12:54 pm   #2
paulsherwin
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

Most likely Christmas lights. I think shop display flashers were permanently wired in.

60W may be stressing it a bit, which may explain the contact bounce, though I see it's marked as rated for 60W.
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Old 11th Aug 2018, 2:31 pm   #3
phut bang
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

Yes, I have one. My parents used it for Xmas tree lights. It used interfere with 405 line VHF TV reception if i remember rightly.
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Old 11th Aug 2018, 2:55 pm   #4
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

https://youtu.be/bFV6GcbqTnw

Electrician John 'JW' Ward examines one of these on his YouTube channel
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Old 11th Aug 2018, 7:16 pm   #5
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

Think they were a bimetallic strip with a heater winding wrapped around it that was in series with the load, hence the rating of 60 watts, anything much higher or lower would cause a timing error or if overloaded be self destructive.
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Old 11th Aug 2018, 7:27 pm   #6
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

If the heater was in series with the load (thus limiting the current and taking the lion's share of the voltage) and shorted out by the bi-metallic strip (thus applying full mains to the load) when hot, it would be more critical of wattage than if the heater was in parallel with the load and both were disconnected by the bi-metallic strip when hot.
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Old 11th Aug 2018, 9:09 pm   #7
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

I still have one of those that used to be used with our Christmas tree lights in the 1950's and 60's. It still works, despite my having once overloaded it using a 100w GLS bulb. It gave one flash and stopped working with the lamp out and a smell of burning, but worked OK with a 40W bulb once it had cooled down.
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Old 11th Aug 2018, 9:55 pm   #8
vidjoman
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

We used one with Christmas lights. Think they had 20 x12 volt lamps each rated at 3 watts so total load 60 Watts. Flashed the lights on/off about once per second. Guess it was late 1940s or early 50s. Probably came from Woolworths.
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Old 12th Aug 2018, 12:59 am   #9
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

I've got one. It's been in the family since before I was born and was used for Christmas tree lights.

The lower the wattage bulb or bulbs you connect to it, the longer it takes to start flashing, and then when it does, the longer it takes to get up to speed. As an evil teenager I soon saw the potential in this. I had a younger brother, who being twelve years younger, was probably only 5 or 6 years old at the time, although he could have been younger. He had a 40 watt bulb in his bedroom light, and one day I fitted the flasher to the lamp fitting. He was told by parents to go to bed and the delay of the flasher gave just enough time for him to go into his bedroom, switch the light on, close the door and start getting ready for bed, only for the light to suddenly go out - you should have heard him scream! Of course, as he tried to find his way to the door in complete darkness, the light came back on again, only to then go off almost immediately - he thought his room was haunted!

Hope I haven't given anyone any ideas for 'trickery'
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Old 12th Aug 2018, 12:43 pm   #10
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

IIRC these were also used in the very first Belisha beacons at pedestrian crossings to flash the lamps in the orange spheres.
The advantage was that any failure did not need an electrician, but that the plug in flasher could be changed by whoever changed the lamps.

Later Belisha crossings had a common flasher unit to flash all the lamps at a crossing together, this being considered more eye catching.
When existing crossings had the plug in flasher unit removed, the lamp would now be near the bottom of the orange globe, rather than being central. To rectify this, ES* lamps were used in the BC* holders by means of an adapter, the length of which approximated to the flasher unit and restored the lamp to the proper location.

Some later units had the bimetallic flasher shunted by a small silicon power diode, such that the orange beacon flashed dim/bright rather than on/off.
These were used until recently and may remain in use.

*or the other way round if the original lamp holder was ES. The plug in flashers came in both types.

Last edited by broadgage; 12th Aug 2018 at 12:47 pm. Reason: to add last bit, for clarity.
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Old 12th Aug 2018, 2:02 pm   #11
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

There are 2 ways for these to work.

Either the heater is in series with the (normally closed) bimetal contacts and heating causes the contacts to open, or it's in parallel with the (normally open) contacts and heating causes the contacts to close.

The first type - bulb comes on immediately power is applied; the second type, there's a delay between applying power and the bulb lighting.

I remember such a thing being used with a strange tubular BC bulb (about 3 feet long!) in the red-and-white-spiral-striped 'pole' at my local barber's in the late-1960s. It caused a noticeable 'click' on the little cheap transistor radio that was inevitably playing while I got my regular schoolboy-issue buzzcut.
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Old 13th Aug 2018, 11:35 pm   #12
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

The last one of those I saw was used to flash the "light" on a model lighthouse, made by some of the masters at my boarding school.
I was curious how it worked and what it was even in those days, and I think one of them explained to me what it was and how it worked.
I left there when I was 11, (in 1978), and remember something silly like that. Isn't it funny how the mind works.
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Old 14th Aug 2018, 1:16 pm   #13
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

I remember having a low voltage (12V ?) flashing lamp in an E10 socket. You could see the little bimetallic strip inside the envelope which caused the lamp to flash. Simple yet effective. I though it was pretty neat as a child.
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Old 14th Aug 2018, 6:56 pm   #14
dseymo1
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

That was the type used in Pifco lanterns and the like.
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Old 15th Aug 2018, 12:41 am   #15
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Default Re: Lamp Flasher

The Pifco lanterns I remember were 6 volts with a PPJ996 in them.
They did indeed have a flashing bulb in the red lens at the top.
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