Neon Sign

[gulf0927]

Have a neon sign at a store eith a 15kv transformer. Owner said light has been out for weeks. I popped it open, and then toggled the exterior switch just for fun. It came on for a few seconds, then turned off. Tried this 7 or 8 more times and now it stays on. Of course I don't trust it to keep working when I leave, but maybe just a bad switch? New to neon, any other thoughts?

Thanks yal

 

[zbang]

Bad switch or bad transformer or bad sign, some transformers have internal GF protection which could be tripping.

 

[hbiss]

If it's something that can be removed, take it to a neon sign shop. If not, they will have to come to it. Neon is a trade all to itself.

-Hal

 

[Moore Power]

It can be a bad transformer, the secondary cabling, or weak glass among other things. Crazy as it sounds you can turn the switch on and touch the individual pieces of glass and hold a non contact voltage tester in the other hand and a good piece of glass will light up the tester and a bad piece will not, maybe not a great idea but the glass should make the hair on your arm stand up when you touch it. It will almost certainly have GFCI protection in the transformer, a tiny nick in the secondaries ( I believe it is called GTO wire ) will shut down the transformer. If you suspect a piece of bad glass you can bypass it with GTO wire. The transformer will shut down if it is working to hard because of the bad glass or arcing GTO cable.