The Lamp Room

SRS gear isn't something I have a huge amount of experience with so I've got a few questions if anyone can assist.

Capacitors - how essential is it that they are on their rated value, say for a 5ft 65W needing an 8.4uF capacitor, would it matter is the cap was only measuring say 8uF.
What would happen if a capacitor that was drastically lower in value was used, or the 8.4uF one had failed, say something like 4 or 5uF? Would it just fail or struggle to strike?
What would happen if a much higher value capacitor than the one specified was fitted say if someone stuck a 12 or 15uF cap in place of the 8.4uF?

Tube EOL - what happens? Do they just rectify and eventually go out? Like any magnetic ballast I assume they wouldn't appreciate a rectifying lamp being left in place long term.

CAP:

So, the capacitor used is essentisal for the tube to be able to strike. If the capacitance drops as it ages, the tube becomes harder to strike. I've never tried using an 8mfd cap where an 8.4 is required (mostly cos I have enough 8.4's that I've never needed to). I guess an 8 would probably still work, but other factors such as the age of the tube, the conditions in which it's being operated would be variables that would also affect it's operation. If you wanted to test this, you'd be best ensuring that everything else remains a constant if you want any kind of meaningful result.

Presumably, if you go OVER the required value, it'd work also, but again, going too far might have unintended consequences. I guess they picked the very specific value of 8.4mfd for good reason.

I've never tried using other caps, but now I'm intrigues enough to try it and as I run SRS in the workshop anyway, it;s easy enough to do.

It should be noted that the 8.4 will work on those Parmar ballasts that list 5, 6 & 8' tubes, but if you're using a 4' SRS ballast, the cap drops to 5.5mfd. I have a 3' SRS batten somewhere and I *think* this is also 5.5mfd, but I'd need to check that (which means I'd need to find it first).


EOL:

At EOL, the tube generally rectifies, you get a fantastic black sock at one end and assuming therte's no fuse or other protective measure to cut the tube out, you can get to the point of a rather spectacular failure where the cathode melts, the tube continues to rectify, using the metal cathode stem until the end of the tube gets so hot it either cracks, or the glass stem melts, vacuum is lost and it finally burns out. This can cause damage to the lampholder if it gets hot enough, especially if its made from one of the later, soft plastics, it'll literally melt! The ballast wonlt rerally appreciate this for very long either and gets HOT. Thorn especially, used to include a fuse in a little holder (either a loose barrel type fuse carrier, or within the terminal strip itself) designed to blow if the tube began to rectify. A rectifying tube will draw more current, hence why the fuse was a cheap and simple solution. They could be a VERY specific value - I have some here branded 'Churchouse' that are 1.25A and came out of something or other Thorn from back in the day.

It's quite cool to watch, you get a nice orange light show at one end of the tube, right as it finally fails. Just need to be in the right place at the right time.