Congrats to Andrew Carroll, or why my landlord is going to hate me!

nbabmf · August 28, 2009, 04:30:06 AM

In the new issue of MAKE, Andrew has an article about tearing apart those compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and scavenging the parts for building quirky little stompboxes.

http://makezine.com/19/diycircuits_cflreuse/

I love it! Tomorrow, I'm going to dig through the garage for my landlord's stash of CFL's and take a couple apart to build a fuzz.

anchovie · August 28, 2009, 05:33:31 AM

I think Andrew's original idea was to make use of light bulbs that had blown, in a recycle/save-the-planet way.

Breaking open a new, perfectly-functioning bulb would defeat that purpose!

nbabmf · August 28, 2009, 06:43:20 AM

He's got some dead ones. He doesn't throw anything away haha.

Paul Marossy · August 28, 2009, 09:41:44 AM

Quote from: anchovie on August 28, 2009, 05:33:31 AM
I think Andrew's original idea was to make use of light bulbs that had blown, in a recycle/save-the-planet way.

Breaking open a new, perfectly-functioning bulb would defeat that purpose!

Yeah, it's a good thing they don't break in the process of getting to the landfill.

nbabmf · August 30, 2009, 11:36:13 PM

I salvaged, or rather-- scavenged the parts from two bulbs. There were a lot of little components crammed onto those 2 inch diameter circles. I managed to get 2 pairs of transistors, 8-10 caps (2 electros, the rest film), 6-8 diodes, and a few useless resistors (1 ohm? seriously?). I'm doing the "Fluorescent Fuzz" on perf right now.

nbabmf · August 31, 2009, 01:48:59 AM

I just finished constructing the Fluorescent Fuzz with the components I had yanked from the lights. I have no clue what the transistors were because they weren't really marked at all (Si 122DL... doesn't come up on Google). Anyways, IT WORKS!!! but it's so quiet... way way way way below unity. I had to push it with an overdrive (set clean) to get any volume out of it. There were some cool overtones to be had, but I can't get them without increasing the gain.

Now, I'm thinking that 100k to ground before the first transistor has a lot to do with the amount of signal getting to it... since if there's not a lot of signal going in, there's not going to be a lot coming out. There's also the 1k to ground after the second stage, which will give away even more of the potential output. Should I swap these two resistors with something smaller? If so, how small?

oliphaunt · August 31, 2009, 02:05:11 AM

Could the transistors be backwards in your build?

nbabmf · August 31, 2009, 02:16:21 AM

I don't think they're backwards. The PCB in the CFL bulbs listed the pinout. Is there a way I can test them without desoldering?

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Congrats to Andrew Carroll, or why my landlord is going to hate me!