There's a cold cathode fluorescent lamp supply about the size of a pencil but that is for ~1 watt.
There are high frequency high voltage supplies used for neon tubes that aren't, strictly speaking, transformers. They are small and light but not the size of a pencil.
I think you are probably mistaken about the size - the 12 KV wire used is about the size of a pencil.
Some time ago I saw an advertisement, or thought that I did, for a neon transformer, a high voltage transformer about half the size of a pencil. Do these things exist and where might they be found? Google offers no help.
"Roger Dewhurst"
** So this " neon" transformer was about 60mm long & 8 mm in diameter - right ??Go pull the other one - wanker.
...... Phil
Rude bastard are you not?
R"Roger Dopehurst"
** F*ck off - you pathetic HALF WITT !!!....... Phil
Perhaps that is the thing. Is it a step-up transformer?
R
How small? My recollection is of a small black cylinder with four wires coming out of it.
R
Small circuit board with an inverter similar to the things used to charge photo flash caps on cameras.
I do remember seeing one power supply in a catalog that was quite a bit smaller and long and narrow. But it too was a bare circuit board not a cylindrical device - and not in the current issue of my Jameco catalog.
Electro luminescent "Wires" work on similar type supplies >90V high frequency and low current.
Cold Cathode lamps are cylindrical and long like a pencil from about
3/16" diameter to 3/8" and 4" long to >12" long - wire on either end
Nope. Rectangular (the only ones I've seen) More like the size of an duplex receptacle box with wires the size of pencils coming out of it.
These things work at an open circuit voltage of 12,000 volts at 100 KHZ - for that voltage and frequency you need a fairly thick dielectric to prevent corona losses even if the dielectric doesn't break down - so thick wire insulation, sturdy enclosures and potting compound is the norm.
Don't know what else to offer. Search on power supplies for cold cathode fluorescent lamps, electro luminescent wires, or solid state neon tube drivers. All similar types of HV supplies.
In the case of neon tubes the things have to be able to drive ~300 + watts at high voltage and frequency - can't be but so small . . .
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