Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
This video covers the construction and testing of a low-pressure sodium lamp ignitor for small wattage lamps.
Although low pressure sodium lamps are now mostly out of production their control gear has become even harder to find than the lamps themselves. It is possible to run some of the smallest lamps on fluorescent magnetic ballasts but staring the lamps is not reliably achievable with fluorescent glow starters. After dismantling an ignitor for use with 10w and 18w lamps I found it was actually easy to reproduce ignitors for these wattages.
Note: It's worth using a capacitor of 400V or higher for a permanent repair. The capacitor will experience pulse voltages high enough to strike the lamp. If the circuit runs with no lamp the voltage could be high and repeated enough to breakdown the dialectic. This may have been why the donor ignitor had failed.
Content:
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Ignitor
01:10 - Inside
01:50 - Alternative experiments
02:30 - Replica
03:30 - Testing
04:22 - circuit diagram
This video covers the construction and testing of a low-pressure sodium lamp ignitor for small wattage lamps.
Although low pressure sodium lamps are now mostly out of production their control gear has become even harder to find than the lamps themselves. It is possible to run some of the smallest lamps on fluorescent magnetic ballasts but staring the lamps is not reliably achievable with fluorescent glow starters. After dismantling an ignitor for use with 10w and 18w lamps I found it was actually easy to reproduce ignitors for these wattages.
Note: It's worth using a capacitor of 400V or higher for a permanent repair. The capacitor will experience pulse voltages high enough to strike the lamp. If the circuit runs with no lamp the voltage could be high and repeated enough to breakdown the dialectic. This may have been why the donor ignitor had failed.
Content:
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Ignitor
01:10 - Inside
01:50 - Alternative experiments
02:30 - Replica
03:30 - Testing
04:22 - circuit diagram
