17 Mar
2005
17 Mar
'05
9:33 a.m.
> I do not own a variac, so I will need to get one
of these to
> properly reform the TU56 capacitors. I see several different varieties
> on eBay. What would I need exactly?
There is the issue of how to know something is getting
cranky during the
turn-up process - the simplest method is probably to wire a common lamp of
about 100 watts in *series* with one of the wires to the unit. If the lamp
glows brightly right away, probably there's a short and you should
investigate further. If the supply comes up with no problems (and is not
loaded) then the 100W lamp should not glow very brightly, if at all.
NOW- all that being said - if you get yourself a
10-amp Variac, it will
serve you well in the future for Stuff like this. There are several
designs out there that are 'packaged' - they have the Variac itself
mounted in some kind of box with a nice cord and usually outlets to
connect your load device to it. Some also have voltage and current meters
- these are *very* handy and if you can find one that would be the best
for this kind of work, IMHO. Here is the eBay listing of such a unit:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50968&item=3…
and right now it's at a decent price, too!!
Thanks for all the good info and the lessons on how to use this stuff.
I looked at the one on ebay and it appears that the Watt meter does
not work. Will that be a problem? Also, I did not see any place where
I could plug a supply directly into this variac. I don't know if I'll need
to do that. Based on all the info that you and others have provided,
it looks like an option is to remove the capacitors from the unit and hook
them up directly to the variac. Or is that not the right thing to do?
Excuse me if I'm asking dumb questions, it's because I'm learning as I go.
Ashley