Osborne Vixen - Zenith 7" display t-shooting issues

[drlegendre .]

Not to hijack my own thread..

On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 11:51 PM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> > I can't repair CFLs of course--although there was a time when the tube
> > could be purchased separately to plug into the ballast unit.  I wish we
> > still had those.
>
> I found the old ones with the iron-cored choke ballast to be a lot
> more reliable than the modern ones with the SMPSU-type thing...
>
> No surprise there!
>
> A few weeks ago, I had to put a new AC cord on a Luxo magnifier lamp, the
type with the 20W circular fluorescent tube. I was really surprised to find
nothing but an iron-core choke in the base.. no starter device, nada.. just
a choke in series with the line cord (and the lamp) I assume. It +is+ the
type where you must hold down the power button for a moment to light it, so
perhaps that's a (manual?) starting mechanism. But in any case, I was a
little puzzled that's all there was to it, so to speak.