One of my clients who is a hairdresser bought one of these cheap chinese sterilizers for sterilizing her scissors etc.which is actually a plastic box with a fluorescent lamp sans phosphor that emits UV light.It goes without saying that the electronic ballast failed after a couple of months and it is minimalistically engineered. So I got a surplus 5 W Ballast (a regular one made of iron and copper) from a friend who has a shop, made all the necessary surgery, installed a starter and voila!I'm still at awe that a PCB with a part count of 20 is cheaper to manufacture than a real ballast and starter!(the lamp is 4W and costs 10 euros or something.the ballast plus parts cost 5 euros).
- posted
2 years ago