PCB based "Soviet" neon fairy lights

They look nice, I don't want any neon Christmas lights thou. Still in the process of converting my neon lights to LED's. I do a couple of sets a year!

Alan King

Lovely colour, very vintage looking. And the shutter speed is making a nice flicker.

Mike Page

Thank you! The pcbs were 15 usd shipped for 100... jlc... snail mail

That's limited only by the cable rating. Each neon uses about 1mA, so potentially one thousand neons per Amp rating. The voltage drop is insignificant.

Big Clive

The heatshrink is sold as 12.7mm, and laid flat is 20mm wide (40mm circumference). The cable is this 0.5mm test lead cable:- https://cpc.farnell.com/concordia-technologies/6009285/test-lead-blk-0-5mm-csa-133-0/dp/CB19456

Big Clive

just ordered enough stuff to make 100 kits, can you recommend the diameter of heat shrink tubing, and gauge of wire used? thanks

How many of these could you link together?

John Carr

Ah, but wait until I'm on my 100,000th. The production line would have other people doing the cropping and tinning ready for my high speed neon placement.

Big Clive

Thanks. I've added it to the description.

Big Clive

I didn't have high hopes for the cables due to their thin wire and resistance. It appears I was right.

Big Clive

Little PCBs with flashing circuitry on them could be nice. I show a neon supercomputer style panel in this video:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lph5zAdcwi8

Big Clive

Water could get in the ends, so I wouldn't class it as waterproof.

Big Clive

It's for the area of the cables that may have some copper exposed. There is roughly a 4mm gap between live and neutral at the sides, including the thickness of the PCB.

Big Clive

Nice. Thanks Big Clive.

Dave Frederick

Big Clive you hit the big time on LTT video with this title. I bought tech at the dollar store and maybe you should too

DC Allan

How about extending it to do a ring-counter or random trigger circuit in small groups of neons ? Or perhaps a neon supercomputer ?

adrian

Nice looking result. Wonder if it's really waterproof. I have clear heatshrink from Isolatech (German company) and the adhesive in it would produce a different looking result than in your example (glue oozes out while shrinking)

I am going to have to try some smd's- trouble is clumsy hands. Great video- those neons give off a nice glow- not as harsh as led's.

Mike Hughes

Great video as always, but I have a question. You made a point of mentioning the empty space at the bottom of the board providing isolation. Shouldn't there be the same space on the sides of the solder pad to provide adequate protection?

Great video Clive! But you have to telling yourself that yes, we love watching you solder ALL the connections, and stripping the wire!!! And love listening to you ramble on about shit.

Mike Wynne

I recommend PCBWay - great PCBs from just $5! And as we all know, PCB stands for: Prototype Clive Board - doesn’t it?

Gadgetman

Calling SMD resistors "big" and "chunky" made me laugh.

Barry Ducote

Should have been a perfect Q nd A video.

Charles Bruckner

I think those would look really nice as a flicker flame on some candles. Great job on them.

Robert Woodzell

Some Chinese factory worker is laughing at your pace.

Lostngone

You forgot to put a link up for the PCB files. Just a reminder for you.

TopEndSpoonie