They may want to keep the production costs down, not that they cannot design a good power supply.
I don't see the implication.
Power conditioners Snake oil?
- Thread starter Carbsandcaps
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I don't see the implication.
Hi Bill Ferris,
Unfortunately, the LED comes off the relay coil rail - directly soldered to the tracks. But I can solder a series resistor to keep it lasting longer, but why do it since they last a long time anyway (and I'd like to keep it shining bright - looks cool besides the red and green LEDs).
Assuming that a Blue LED is nearly the same as half of a NPN transistor (its a p-type doping of GaN), it should last as long as a transistor. That explains why they slowly "fade" - the doping zone is gradually depleted. My HTS 3500 has been continuously on for over 10 years so approximately, 100,000 hours. I can live with changing out a LED every 10 years. I was more worried (until I found the solution) that there was something else going on with the HTS 3500.
PS: Why do people pronounce "solder" as "soder"? It's like people dropping the "t" in dentist (denist) or internet (inner-net), etc.
Thanks for your advice. Makes a lot of sense.
John Graham.
Hi Bill Ferris,
Your reference to "intense lightning strikes" sparked (no pun intended) memories of experiencing lightning strikes to the grid. Part of my design work was for power plants. When there was a lightning strike on the grid (usually in the mountains), by the time the MOVs in each substation yard absorbed the energy on the UHV transmission lines, the whole power house would shake for the ultra brief second that the tiny amount of energy passed through. Made me understand in real terms of the Mega Joules of energy in a lightning bolt! In hydroelectric power houses, the generators would actually slow down (they became motors for that brief second).
Boulder, CO is the lightning capital of the world!
Sincerely,
John Graham.
Don't talk to me about lightning... when I was a much much younger man I used to back pack in wilderness areas, one night in the Gila Wilderness of NM there was a terrible thunderstorm and I had nowhere to hide from it... A lightning bolt hit a pine tree about 40-50 feet in front of me. It felt like hot sand was thrown in my face and my whole body tingled like when you foot falls asleep, and I couldn't see well for at least 5 minutes. I consider it a bit of good fortune though, as the mountain lion that was preparing to have me for dinner let out a horrible scream and ran off... I didn't sleep a wink that night, I just kept my fire going with my left hand and kept my right clutching my Colt Python .357 Magnum. That was the LAST time I went out in the woods alone.
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
I`m very aware of the potential of voltage drop, but smile when I think about all the folks plugging straight into non dedicated circuit outlets that are commonly stab wire connected, especially the ones all connected in a string around the room all wire stabbed, like my house was, until I wire wrapped all my house`s outlets before I moved in.
Talk about impedance restriction effects sponging music dynamics, and then inserting a possibly undersized weak ticket filter!
My I/R drop consideration policy for minimizing any of this was dedicated 10 gage wired 20 amp breaker circuits using quality 20 amp rated AVR/surge/spike/conditioners.
Even my living room`s rewired for 240v Mc. MC-1201 mono block amps now properly fused at 10 amps ea. receive their 240 v via a (2 one for ea. amp) 20 amp continuous rated Panamax industrial surge/spike/filters designed and marketed for use with large high powered laser printers that I tracked down and purchased when I bought the amps in 2006, being they were always plugged in and 12v triggered.
No mains I/R drop sponge effect has ever been detected with those 2 amps driving (4) 12" HP/LD 80 Hertz on down woofers in the tri-amp configured Mc. XRT-30 line array speaker system.
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
I`ve read that about Boulder, CO. lightning label!
Here in FL. we have what is called "Lightning Alley" that I reside at the upper end of its diagonal mid FL. SW. to NE. zone.
And when I received a direct lightning strike in the summer of 1997, I became very serious about becoming very informed about mitigating all destructive surges & spikes, both in power line and signal conductors that might be man made, or lightning created.
Since that event, I only have only lost undersized OEM product`s provided cheap ass SMPS wall warts operating 24/7/365, and after replacing them with up rated in output wattage/current, the inexpensive replacements have continued to function flawlessly for in some cases well over 10 yrs. even being subjected to countless lightning (2020 10 ft. tree struck from my house) and manmade surge/spike events afterwards.
I actually love intense local lightning storms, and usually go out and sit on my back of the house patio that`s covered, but open to the sides and front to watch nature`s free badass energetic light show, and wondering if the grid will go down and my auto switch over whole house genset is going to crank up, as has happened quite a few times since installing it in 1999.
I add ultra-isolators and conditioners to line noise makers—like computers and electrical appliances—to keep noise and hash out of the audio lines.
The stereo and guitar amp stuff goes into an unfiltered, dedicated 20-amp line. If needed, I spend extra on good power supplies for the phono preamps and turntables.
Yep, some people like to fix what's not broken.
Audioerotica
New Member
Sounds like the lair of a mad scientist or at the very least a well educated electronics tech
Your UPS have shown great reliability, do you have a brand you believe to be better than all the others? I have mostly stuck by APC thru the years with reasonable results, though we have many outages where we are and its really hard on the UPSs so I end up doing batteries every couple of years on much of my equipment and the UPS itself is not a long life item. The most I expect to get is around 5 years.
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
APC has served me very well, and I think plugging them into a quality surge/spike protector along with the meter can and circuit breaker panel whole house protection devices greatly extends their life, at least that`s my intuitive reasoning.Sounds like the lair of a mad scientist or at the very least a well educated electronics tech
More likely labeled a self taught and seasoned tech, been practicing since 1975.
The Shunyata Gemini (and power cords) have made a "night & day" difference in my digital sources. Both the Oppo 203 and, especially, the Hifi Rose RS150B. Am sure it would do the same for my digital TV if I had a spare outlet to try it in.
Audioerotica
New Member
Good story Kmaster, I like hearing stories of people who suddenly stopped doing things because of a sketchy experience. I like to call these events "darwinian." In the case where someone tells one of these stories in the second person and it results in the death of the animal or human being observed, I call these "darwinian mistakes." Because we are lucky enough to see an event for what it is and decide that continuing to do such things is a serious risk to our life is why Old age and treachery always truimphs over youth and skill.
(wry smile) I like hearing these stories because it gives us, for each story we hear, one more thing we should add to our "do not do" list. Each one added reminds me that while getting old is necessary, acquiring wisdom is entirely optional and I need to be paying attention.Audioerotica
New Member
Well Bill that puts us in similar company. I got out of Tech school in 1974 and have been a practicing audio nut since before that. Schooling helped me get to where I am today but it was only a start. To put it in perspective, I came thru school just as integrated circuits were coming into common usage and slide rules were required for all tests and exams. We were allowed to use calculators for labwork. I was fortunate enough to have a Texas Instruments SR-50 calculator for my last year, the first serious scientific calculator that was actually affordable. Battery life was 4 hours or less. They were also teaching tubes at the time and discrete solid state, so I was exposed to the innards of the great trifecta of electronics. From the standpoint of circuit analysis, I still prefer tubes.
Audioerotica
New Member
And while I prefer tubes because they are easier to understand, I am solidly in the solid state camp as far as what I prefer sonically. Mosfets are the greatest thing since sliced bread in my opinion because of their relatively high impedance and tubelike behavior. I'll never forget my two hafler dh-200 amps that I have owned. Sweeet sounding and fairly powerful, and built like a boat anchor. Out of all the amps I have owned they were up near the top of the list. Part of their sweet sonics was due in part I believe to the mosfets in the output stage.
Audioerotica
New Member
Now back to our regularly scheduled program, lest I be accused fairly of hijacking the thread. I discovered computer UPSs as a solution in part to a problem we wrestled with for years in my current home. Every time there would be a thunderstorm, a spike would come into the house and wipe out a piece of equipment or sometimes a lot more. additionally, there was often an accompanying power outage. I had several computers at the time each running some version of windows and given the reliability or lack thereof I often had to reinstall windows because of what happened from a random shutdown. At the time we were using DSL from verizon for internet service and so we had a standard land line connected to verizon and of course a power connection to Appalachian Power. Due to the transient nature of lightning surges it was difficult to isolate where the surges were coming from. Our initial thoughts were from the power line and so we started trying to protect equipment via UPS. As the years went by, we came to realize that the problem was not the power company but the phone company. The final piece in solving the mystery of the source of our ongoing equipment loss came one day when we had an electrical storm very close by and when the spike came thru on the phone line it was sufficient in magnitude to completely explode two DSL filters. These filters were a clamshell plastic housing with a small circuit board inside, one 1/2 of the clamshell had been blown completely across the room, and none of the components on the now exposed circuit board could be identified due to the high current thru the device. In that one event we lost the DSL modem, two dsl filters, two computers, a cat 5 router and a tv.
At that point it was obvious beyond any doubt what the source of the trouble was and that was the day I went totally wireless. I lost a few routers after that but never again did a computer bite the dust. The ups kept the power on long enough to do a proper shutdown thus avoiding OS corruption and the wireless router kept the incoming spikes out of the computers. Naturally I had kept track of all the equipment lost over the years by keeping each piece that was fried. I called verizon out on a service call, they knew me by first name due to our many encounters and flat out told me they were not responsible for all the equipment connected and lost to their faulty service. It amounted to well over $10,000 worth that had been ruined. It was at that moment I declared war on Verizon and their shoddy service. It was about 18 months later I found an alternate source for my internet and had acceptable but poor cellphone service and I dropped em like a hot potato.
At that point it was obvious beyond any doubt what the source of the trouble was and that was the day I went totally wireless. I lost a few routers after that but never again did a computer bite the dust. The ups kept the power on long enough to do a proper shutdown thus avoiding OS corruption and the wireless router kept the incoming spikes out of the computers. Naturally I had kept track of all the equipment lost over the years by keeping each piece that was fried. I called verizon out on a service call, they knew me by first name due to our many encounters and flat out told me they were not responsible for all the equipment connected and lost to their faulty service. It amounted to well over $10,000 worth that had been ruined. It was at that moment I declared war on Verizon and their shoddy service. It was about 18 months later I found an alternate source for my internet and had acceptable but poor cellphone service and I dropped em like a hot potato.
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
When I received my house`s lightning strike in 1997, I was using a dedicated (separate from the original land line) dialup land line feeding my expensive because of the high amount of memory for that era.
That computer dialup only phone line fed by me into this room where the computer resided straight from the outside phone box into a Panamax "All Path" modular based power/telephone (RJ-11 surge/spike protector that I purchased from Crutchfield at the time I had the computer built for me in 1995.
The lightning strike hit a ~30 ft. in elevation VHF/UHF scanner antenna on the same side of my house where all (power. both telco lines) my outside drop wires fed into my house.
The intensity of that EMP from the strike ~15 ft. from the elevated phone lines destroyed the telephone companies dialup line`s outside interface box surge/spike protector, but not the regular phone line protector located in the same box.
The computer was on and connected on line at that moment, but suffered zero power supply damage to it, it`s dialup modem, the HQ NEC monitor connected to it!
That was the second Panamax surge/spike protector purchased by me since 1991 when the A/V installers were installing my Barco brand very HQ projector, strongly encouraged me to purchase and have them connect it to the Barco`s dedicated circuit input power to the $9,000 three tube projector.
I`m a big fan of Panamax, and Tripp-Lite power and signal cable`s surge/spike protectors, as they have both been subjected to countless intense surges/spikes since installation from both manmade and lightning based events with only cheap SMPS wall wart failures.
I learned a strong lesson from that 1996 lightning strike event, that "every single signal type wire/cable" brought from outside into my house, and also those audio and video signals distributed in the attic from my living rooms master source A/V rack to the house`s other room`s A/V systems has to have surge/spike protectors at both ends, or like you experienced, lightning`s destructive energy will destroy everything in its path surging through the wires looking for ground from a direct or nearby lightning strike`s EMP!
IMO/E, Well worth every dollar spent and effort to implement, so I can continue to enjoy my A/V equipment instead of trying to repair or replace them after a intense surge/spike "event"!
Audioerotica
New Member
Well you certainly have taken the solution to those kinds of problems to a high level of double redundancy and since I no longer have a land line the only way anything gets in the house now is via APCO. And they recently upgraded their equipment with a car sized surge absorber on the power line about 200 yards from my house, in fact the pole that supports it is on my property. I probably will never know how effective their installation is due to the precautions I have taken myself. But I have had few overvoltage surges in recent times, mostly what we experience now is voltage sags and of course the UPS equipment helps with that too. I knew there were other people out there that had taken steps to deal with these kinds of problems, but until today had never encountered one. It seems that ignorance is bliss for many people.
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
Until an "event" destroys their prized A/V equipment !
I`ve recommended tried and true, from multi decades of direct experience protection methods on this A/K site since joining since the last day of July 2016, and have come to not giving a rat`s ass whether any of it`s members choose to implement them or not, its their electrical/electronic gear not mine ! Throw the dice and take your chances !
My tying to help conscience is clean !
My homeowner insurance Co. have been quite happy with my surge/spike minimal risk coverages mitigation techniques as reflected in my internal contents policy renewal discounts, being the risks of detailed covered high 10`s of thousands of dollar valued electrical/electronic equipment replacement costs.
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
I`ve converted over to laptops for my daily computer uses, with their built in monitor and inherent internal battery backup UPS`, with my wired security camera system`s NVR the only computer like setup requiring an external UPS with it`s built in AVR, as indicated earlier to carry it until the backup auto switch over genset kicks in after less than several minutes after the grid goes down.