Moto VT71: a better ballast?

[Reece]

Use of capacitors for filament string voltage dropping does result in a very soft start. I have seen about twenty seconds before voltage came from an initial approximately 60 up to just below line voltage on a string, so in such cases a CL90 wouldn't be needed. CL90's are good where you don't need to drop voltage (although they do drop a couple of volts) but want to just give a soft start. It's also a good idea to put a high value resistor across the dropper capacitors, around 100K, to quickly discharge them at shutdown. A quick turn off/turn on could send a surge through the string so a quick discharge helps.