I just bought two 10" red neon tubes, made by Pilot, and a 15" red LED strip also made by Pilot. I have them wired all together to one of the switches that came on the tubes. They are 12volt plug ins that go into the cigarette lighter place. All of the wires are hooked up right. The problem is that when I turn them on, sometimes they all come on instantly. Other times only one comes on then 5 minutes later they all come on.

All of the wires are twisted good together, and electrical taped up, so I don't know what the problem could be.
Also, I upgraded the glass fuse that goes in the plug in. Its not too big, just big enough not to be blown by the three lights.

 

Cathodes > Neons

 

They aren't sold at any store I've been to I don't suppose.

I don't buy anything offline. I've always received the part damaged, or didn't get it at all. So I just make do with what I can.

 

the thing is, the gas in the neon tube takes a while longer sometimes in order to build up enough energy to illuminate. so the time it takes to power on varies quite a bit. a better choice would have been either cathodes or led tubes.

 

also try squeezing where you twisted the wires together. I had problems with my neons after the cops cut the wires. i twisted them together but they didnt work that great. (they did work if i squeezed the wire where it was cut)

 

or you could solder instead of just twist. But i'd prolly cut the cig adapater off and wire it right to the fuse box; alot more incon****uous

 

Flip, that's what I've wanted to do for a long time, but I'm not sure how to or where to do it.

I would use the fuse box under the dash right? The one under the steering wheel to the left.

I'm not sure which fuse to do it to. Also, do I just need to use the negative and positive part of the wire, I wouldn't have to make any kind of ground would I?

*edit* I didnt see the other posts here on my Blackberry.

[:@]I didnt know that they had to build up energy to light up. I guess Ill have to find somebody around here to buy this set up I made, and switch to some LED tubes. Thanks for the help.

 

Oznium Neon lights

best thing is flexable led strips, 2nd best is cold cathodes. downfall with the cathodes is the bulbs can break just like neons if kicked, and the transformer is kinda big and only so much wire from the transformer and the bulb and no you really cannt extend those wires! but they are bright and cheap if you can hide the transformers and keep from kicking the cathodes themselves...

but the led flexstrips... THE BEST!!!!!!!! you can beat on them with a hammer in a bucket of water and they will not fail!!!!!!!! only way to hurt them is way to much power like high voltage over anything your car would put out.
these things just rule! only downfall with them is the wires that come off them are so small they can be tuff to splice and wire up. i typicaly splice the wires and solder larger wires to them. easier to instal them that way....
best of all they have all different sizes and can be flexed in just about any shape! just like a rope. they really do kick @ss!

 

I've saw you use them. Your stuff looks really nice BTW.

I'd like to make some stuff with the strips like you did but I'm not sure how good I could be at it. The one LED strip I have in my gauges is just as bright as my neon tubes. I love that thing, but they only had one in red or I would have bought three of them instead of having the neon tubes.