Car Xenon light drivers, DC/AC?

• Car Xenon light drivers, DC/AC?
  Posted by firewalker on 01 Sep, 2016 18:54
• The high voltage output of car Xenon lights is usually "DC" or AC?
  
  
  
  Alexander.
• #1 Reply
  Posted by mikeselectricstuff on 01 Sep, 2016 19:09
• Discharge lamps are typically dc, with a high voltage impulse to strike them
• #2 Reply
  Posted by firewalker on 01 Sep, 2016 19:20
• Can someone use it as a high voltage supply (like people use neon lamp drivers)? Or the continuous high voltage output (arching) will destroy it?
  
  Alexander.
• #3 Reply
  Posted by bktemp on 01 Sep, 2016 19:58
• The burning voltage of those discharge lamps is somewhere between 30-100V. I wouldn't call this high voltage. The only high voltage is the striking voltage (>10kV for striking a hot lamp), but this lasts only a couple of microseconds.
  The lamp driver will probably shut down if it does not see the correct load, because those lamps are often driven using constant power regulation.
• #4 Reply
  Posted by firewalker on 01 Sep, 2016 20:03
• I have half a dozen of those. I will test one tomorrow. I will  leave arching away in air. From the sound of the output, the pulse should be in the range of  hundreds of hertz.
  
  Alexander.
• #5 Reply
  Posted by bktemp on 01 Sep, 2016 20:12
• The sound you can hear is the repetition rate of the ignition pulse, but each pulse is very short and has not much power. The actual power delivered to the lamp is the low voltage DC output, after the arc has ignited.