They have the same function and every other type of light refers to them as a ballast, even the newer electronic power supplies for Neon and Argon are called Ballasts with no Iron core transformers needed.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍English
    471·
    11 months ago

    The way that it was explained to me it that “driver” is shorthand for “constant voltage driver” and ballasts provide an initial startup voltage that is different from the constant one they go on to provide.

    • EatYouWell@lemmy.world
      101·
      11 months ago

      Sounds kinda like how your car will draw a few hundred amps to start but it’s fairly low after that.

      • towerful@programming.dev
        8·
        11 months ago

        Yeh, except the battery will provide 12v throughout. So that’s essentially just an inrush current.

        A ballast is actually the opposite. It limits the current.
        From wiki:

        A familiar and widely used example is the inductive ballast used in fluorescent lamps to limit the current through the tube, which would otherwise rise to a destructive level due to the negative differential resistance of the tube’s voltage-current characteristic.

        And later…

        In operation, an increase in current through the fluorescent tube causes a drop in voltage across it. If the tube were connected directly to the power line, the falling tube voltage would cause more and more current to flow, until it destroyed itself. To prevent this, fluorescent tubes are connected to the power line through a ballast. The ballast adds positive impedance (AC resistance) to the circuit to counteract the negative resistance of the tube, limiting the current.

        https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_ballast