[sci.electronics] Xenon Flash Tubes

cep4478@ritcv.UUCP (Christopher E. Piggott) (09/04/88)

Greetings, world.

	I am planning on experimenting with a few Xenon flash tubes, mostly
for fun.  (The idea is to get four of them on a ring counter, to flash on
top of my jeep in yellow - for towing my watercraft).  Here are the
specifications on the tube (sold by Radio Shack):

	Maximum anode voltage:		400v
	Minimum anode voltage:		200v
	Operating voltage:		250v
	Flash Energy:			4 watt/sec
	Trigger Voltage:		4kv

My question is: how do I get this to fire off of 12 volts?  I'm planning on
having four tubes, and would like to trigger them by 500v SCR's if possible,
so that I can have one power supply for all four tubes.  The firing pattern
should be such that each tube fires once per second, so the power supply
would have to charge in 1/4sec.

	Could somebody either send me suggestions, or refer me to a good
book or magazine article to check out?

						/Christopher E. Piggott

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