I wasn't so much questioning as clarifying. Nothing wrong with that if
I wasn't grasping the concepts.
I know my questions probably weren't worded the best.... I understand
that it would be more helpful and less confusing if I spoke with the
correct terminology (I was hoping a group like this would help). Due to
my less than ideal wording I think some people have made assumptions
about my electrical know how. I have a firm grasp on the basics (ohms
law, serial vs parallel, 120 vs 240, types of switches, what
resistors/capacitors/diodes do, how to work safely around electricity,
etc...)....I'm just looking to learn more.
Its' too bad this thread had to degrade, sorry, if its' not to late to
get it back on track can someone clarify the following:
Comment: Bill said: "The neon indicator bulb should have a 100K
resistor in series for 120VAC operation. Some are built in, others are
not." John said: "it's to keep the current which is making the lamp
light up from getting large enough to hurt
the lamp."...
Question: Is the resistor to protect the bulb from voltage spikes by
the device(s) plugged into the outlet?
---
No, the resistor is there because when the gas in the lamp ionizes at
somewhere between about 90 to 140 volts, the resistance of the lamp
goes from essentially an open circuit to a fairly low value which,
without the series resistor will seriously shorten the lifetime of the
lamp by allowing currents large enough to flow through the lamp to
damage it.
Check:
http://www.gilway.com/pdf/appl-neonlamps.pdf
Using a fixed-pitch font like Courier to view the following, if you
have a neutral wire coming into the switchbox and you want to locate
the lamp in the same box with the switch, you'll need to hook it up
like this:
SWITCHBOX
+----------------------+
| |
ACHOT>--------------------> | |
| | |
| O |
| | |
ACNEUT>-----[LAMP]--[220K]--+ |
| | |
+-------------------|--+
|
|
ACNEUT>---------[LOAD]------+
However, if your switchbox has no neutral wire in it, then you won't
be able to put the lamp in the same switchbox with the switch and
you'll either have to put it in parallel with the load or find another
neutral wire somewhere else, like this:
SWITCHBOX
+-------+
| |
ACHOT>--------------------> | |
| | |
| O |
+----|--+
|
|
ACNEUT>---------[LOAD]------+
|
|
ACNEUT>-----[LAMP]--[220K]--+
Again, if you don't understand what you're getting into you could kill
yourself, so if you do, don't come back complaining that you weren't
warned!^)