Why won't my cold cathodes work?

DC will only work with neg rails of the same voltage.....
So a shared neg technically should not work.....

reply to post by polarwarrior


Sorry my brain didn't kick in sooner, the picture you posted finally kicked it into gear!,

Single grounds are quite normal on external PSUs as ground is the same for all voltages both negative & positive. If you were to take the computer power supply apart you'd find all those black wires go back to one large solder pad.

The positive (or negative) voltages are created by regulators inside the PSU's all using the same ground point internally.

Separately running 2 grounds in a PC reduces cable size more than anything.

Here is a typical schematic for what's inside the box:





Typical lazy manufacturer, wouldn't be hard for them just to link the 2 central pins & provide both eh!

Originally posted by supradupradotcom
reply to post by polarwarrior

 

Sorry my brain didn't kick in sooner, the picture you posted finally kicked it into gear!,

Single grounds are quite normal on external PSUs as ground is the same for all voltages both negative & positive. If you were to take the computer power supply apart you'd find all those black wires go back to one large solder pad.

Typical lazy manufacturer, wouldn't be hard for them just to link the 2 central pins & provide both eh!

Yeah, I noticed the pic but just didn't think anything of it. Good to know that some only have one ground so I'll keep that in mind in future. Cheers for the help, appreciate it.

Originally posted by supradupradotcom
Typical lazy manufacturer, wouldn't be hard for them just to link the 2 central pins & provide both eh!

Yeah I don't see how the slight amount of money saved is worth it, It was just a cheap one as its only for a couple of lights, but still they probably get people like me complaining to them a lot because of it lol.

reply to post by polarwarrior


If I was cynical (which I am ..very) I'd say they probably sell a separate adapter to convert it to a standard dual ground pinned plug - I call it the apple way of thinking.

Produce a product that's basically sub standard such as the itampon with no USB then, sell punters the dongles & adapters to make it standard...