I saw this then realized those enamelled copper wires were carrying LINE voltage! Even at only 120... Dayum. Maybe that's how they figured they didn't need a fuse... use the primary winding leadouts as a fuse!!
I'd add a 1 amp fuse in line with the primary, and a Polyfuse to the output of the rectifier so both the rectifier and regulator transistor are protected. I'd also add some binding posts, insulation to those transformer leads and a 3 wire cord to provide a chassis ground.
This appears to be using the old zener diode + power transistor regulation trick and assuming the output isn't overloaded, the circuit is nearly indestructible assuming an adequate heatsink as this circuit runs hot by design.
The transformer _might_ have a thermal fuse built into it. But considering what a cheap POS that supply is I wouldn't count on it. Fix it, and give it to someone you don't like. LOL.
I wonder if they hoped there was not enough base drive to draw crazy current, 2N3055 is a great workhorse transistor but with poor gain, presumably there is a driver transistor?
@g0fvt Worse than that, seemingly. I totally overlooked the fact that a 2N6576 can't really be replaced by a 2N3055 because the 2N6576 has an added driver built in. I was in a hurry, didn't pay attention to the datasheet's information like I should have. When I replaced the transistor, things worked fine for a while and went haywire after several seconds.
@uxwbill A kind of nasty fix would be to use a few 3 legged regulators in parallel, at least that way you would get current limiting and thermal shutdown. You can parallel them by using a low value resistor in the output pin of each one, in practice a foot of thin wire from each to the common point will behave like an "emitter resistor" . You would need to hack the chassis a bit to get them to the heatsink but would work fine.. use 15v regulators with 2 diodes in series with load for 13.8v
The Zener diode attached to the power transistor provides the voltage regulation. The quad contact diode arrangement at the front of the transformer is the bridge diode rectifier package.
I think it is built "unsafe" cause it is very old, and made in the USA way back when there were no safety concerns. And how could a 10+ A transistor fail on a 4A load?!
Yikes, that is one poorly designed "power supply"!
The wiring, no fuses, everything else. Asking for trouble...after tearing into it, Id probably not want to use it. Of course, I probably would still keep it knowing me...
If you think about it.. They socketed that transistor with the idea that it would be the weakest link. And thus if you had to replace it, you could do so with some amount of ease. I do agree that the design does seem simple/cheap and almost crude. But I'm sure that it does perform the function for which it is made. Cool Video as always.
@0Fluxor0 I would totally agree with that observation. I got a replacement 2N3055 transistor (compatible to the Motorola part used, or so its datasheet indicates!) and a fuse holder. I'll put a fuse on the secondary side and that should certainly help.
@uxwbill Okay, I'm not trying to meddle into your business but why do you have eggs(?) on your desk? I'm just wondering, I have a lot of stuff on my desk too.
@uxwbill Heh... I read your comment on the clock radio video about the "easter eggs" you put in some of your videos, and kind of chuckled at this quite literal example. :P
Intentional or not, I thought it was pretty funny. :)
@Fuzy2K Believe it or not, these weren't intentionally placed. :-) I had to put them somewhere while I was working my way through the candy inside each one.
Robertson (square) screws were a Canadian invention, and unlike the inventor or Philips heads, they went to great lengths to protect the patent. Philips screws basically became free to use, but every Robertson screw and screwdriver has to pay for licensing or some royalty back to Robertson. That's why Philips are more commonly used in cheap electronics, products from China, etc., and why cheap screwdriver sets don't come with square heads. Robertson are definitely the best fitting type of screw.
@TOXIXIFY Sure, why not? After all, "real computers have floppy drives (and PS/2 ports)". Floppy diskettes certainly still have their uses, especially when you're dealing with hardware that does not and cannot know USB from a hole in the ground.
I know this isn't what it's made of,but if you pause at :30 it looks like it's made of like, a cardboard box,a cardboard paper roll tube,and two packs of gum stuck on the front side of the "cardboard box" haha
@lobsterbox20 It's a term I usually use to describe an electronic something that failed very suddenly, or "never saw it coming" as might happen with lightning damage. My theory is that the transistor used in this design will do exactly that if the output is shorted--there's nothing to limit the high current dissipation that would be the result of doing so.
Wow, I would probably be afraid to use that thing after opening it up and seeing that!
I got a NewMar 6A power supply, fused with a 2A cylindrical fuse replaceable right on the exterior of the unit. The output, also screw terminals, are placed closely like that, too, but in between them is a plastic insert. It's a real nice unit.
@themaritimeman I plan to fuse the output side of things, so as to provide at least a little protection for the transistor and diodes. It's very likely that I'll drill a hole and put in a panel mount AGC fuse holder. If I were really, really feeling industrious (and I'm not), I would even go so far as to replace the power switch with one of those combination switch/circuit breaker thingies salvaged from a defunct outlet strip.
@uxwbill well...i was just making a joke...theres nothing wrong with New Jersey, but New Yorker's and other peoples like to 'make fun' of Jersey. It's just a place to make a joke of.
That power supply looks like a fire waiting to happen . I bet if you look around on the web I bet somebody has complained about a small fire on that piece of crap.
I can not believe it was made in the good old USA I though we made better power supplies than that .I have been a electronic tech for over 32 years and have seen even worse built power supplies than that. Nice statck of floppies are they 1.44 or 720?
Hi Bill,Yes It's regulated power supply and that single glass diode directly connected to the big filter capacitor it's a zener and it regulates the voltage on the base of the power transistor and Its problably 12.6 v or so.Its a very basic design but very common before the advent of he IC regulators.(78xx and LM line).
@zk61 It's not the regulation method that I have a problem with--it's the low quality of the construction and total lack of protection circuitry or fuses that is the problem. I'm sure that when the regulation is working, it's "plenty good enough".
@ATCRyderX If you've ever used one, had it fail with some data on it and then got mad at it...you'll know where the "floppy" part comes from. Inside that hard plastic shell is a flexible magnetic disk.
Not that I've ever lost my temper with a bad floppy diskette and done the "one handed crack it in half" maneuver. ;-)
@uxwbill Yes, Bill. I used to tear them apart as a child - for no good reason! I actually managed to somehow break the edge with the security switch (I suppose you'd call it..?) clear off popping out an old Win98 Boot Disk from a lab PC last week. lol
@itscool1968 I'm not so sure of that. I think it's just a poorly designed piece of equipment. A little looking around the web showed that larger and smaller versions were made. I found three, five and ten amp units. Of those, the five and ten amp units were fused.
Probably intended for cb radio use, unless decoupled properly IC regulators can play up in RF environments... the thing is a piece of crap... easy to repair but worth nothing. I have repaired things like this in the past but now my time is worth more.
Transistor is probably a darlington, with about 15v from zener on the base it will output about 13.8v... some similar supplies also had a small npn transistor across the emitter resistor which pulled the base drive of the big transistor down if current limit was exceeded. Pretty crap design and execution, looks like the accountants got involved. Some of these transformers have thermal fuses wrapped in the windings... yours seems to have two 115v primaries in parallel... so it may 2.
Last day of November? Cool. I was born on the 27th of 1989. Anyways. I've seen some pretty crappy designed stuff before, But I believe this takes the cake! I wouldn't even fix it... Even if you do get it working, Theres a chance it'll dry again with no type of circuit protection.
@yamahonkawazuki I do remember some of the styles that people were wearing in the 80s. Funny thing is, to look at them now I say "that looks bad/silly/ridiculous" and yet it didn't seem that way then.
I don't even care that much about clothes and don't see them as a status symbol. (In fact, "branded" clothing is stuff I rigorously avoid.) As long as they're comfortable, I'm happy.
@uxwbill End of Nov 82 I was packing out our household goods in Iceland to come back to the states with wife, 3 yr old, 2 yr old and 1 yr old sons (one born in Iceland in 81).
@mikeluscher159 My camera isn't broken (that's not an invitation to break it, BTW ;-) ) so I don't yet plan to fix it. What I have now works, is paid for and only leaves me wanting in one way--audio quality.
lol, floppy disks
Yaga19 1 week ago
I like your LCD, it lays eggs.
SajjadBro 1 month ago
I saw this then realized those enamelled copper wires were carrying LINE voltage! Even at only 120... Dayum. Maybe that's how they figured they didn't need a fuse... use the primary winding leadouts as a fuse!!
TheChipmunk2008 3 months ago
I'd add a 1 amp fuse in line with the primary, and a Polyfuse to the output of the rectifier so both the rectifier and regulator transistor are protected. I'd also add some binding posts, insulation to those transformer leads and a 3 wire cord to provide a chassis ground.
This appears to be using the old zener diode + power transistor regulation trick and assuming the output isn't overloaded, the circuit is nearly indestructible assuming an adequate heatsink as this circuit runs hot by design.
LHFmodfest 4 months ago
The transformer _might_ have a thermal fuse built into it. But considering what a cheap POS that supply is I wouldn't count on it. Fix it, and give it to someone you don't like. LOL.
gliderp 8 months ago
I wonder if they hoped there was not enough base drive to draw crazy current, 2N3055 is a great workhorse transistor but with poor gain, presumably there is a driver transistor?
g0fvt 10 months ago
@g0fvt Worse than that, seemingly. I totally overlooked the fact that a 2N6576 can't really be replaced by a 2N3055 because the 2N6576 has an added driver built in. I was in a hurry, didn't pay attention to the datasheet's information like I should have. When I replaced the transistor, things worked fine for a while and went haywire after several seconds.
So now I'm feeling kind of dumb. :-(
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill A kind of nasty fix would be to use a few 3 legged regulators in parallel, at least that way you would get current limiting and thermal shutdown. You can parallel them by using a low value resistor in the output pin of each one, in practice a foot of thin wire from each to the common point will behave like an "emitter resistor" . You would need to hack the chassis a bit to get them to the heatsink but would work fine.. use 15v regulators with 2 diodes in series with load for 13.8v
g0fvt 10 months ago
The Zener diode attached to the power transistor provides the voltage regulation. The quad contact diode arrangement at the front of the transformer is the bridge diode rectifier package.
BatfoxBabe 10 months ago
According to me, yes, it is a hilarious joke
shortwavesam 10 months ago
I think it is built "unsafe" cause it is very old, and made in the USA way back when there were no safety concerns. And how could a 10+ A transistor fail on a 4A load?!
MrGerbilBrain 10 months ago
No FUSE????????? Surely that's ilegal isn't it? What good thing happened in 1982?
Lachlant1984 10 months ago
Yikes, that is one poorly designed "power supply"!
The wiring, no fuses, everything else. Asking for trouble...after tearing into it, Id probably not want to use it. Of course, I probably would still keep it knowing me...
clubcar98 10 months ago
The bad part of american manufacturing. This looks like a Korean piece of equipment!
Motorfordtoyota 10 months ago
If you think about it.. They socketed that transistor with the idea that it would be the weakest link. And thus if you had to replace it, you could do so with some amount of ease. I do agree that the design does seem simple/cheap and almost crude. But I'm sure that it does perform the function for which it is made. Cool Video as always.
0Fluxor0 10 months ago
@0Fluxor0 I would totally agree with that observation. I got a replacement 2N3055 transistor (compatible to the Motorola part used, or so its datasheet indicates!) and a fuse holder. I'll put a fuse on the secondary side and that should certainly help.
uxwbill 10 months ago
Fewer parts, easier for the fire investigators to figure out why the house burned down.
mrRhwalden 10 months ago
What were they thinking? "How cheap can we make it? Not cheap enough."
1974Alfa5Spd 10 months ago
@uxwbill Okay, I'm not trying to meddle into your business but why do you have eggs(?) on your desk? I'm just wondering, I have a lot of stuff on my desk too.
guineaphinea 10 months ago
@guineaphinea They're Easter eggs, full of candy. I hadn't finished with all of the candy yet.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill Haha alright, hope it was good! :D
guineaphinea 10 months ago
@uxwbill Heh... I read your comment on the clock radio video about the "easter eggs" you put in some of your videos, and kind of chuckled at this quite literal example. :P
Intentional or not, I thought it was pretty funny. :)
Fuzy2K 9 months ago
@Fuzy2K Believe it or not, these weren't intentionally placed. :-) I had to put them somewhere while I was working my way through the candy inside each one.
uxwbill 9 months ago
Robertson (square) screws were a Canadian invention, and unlike the inventor or Philips heads, they went to great lengths to protect the patent. Philips screws basically became free to use, but every Robertson screw and screwdriver has to pay for licensing or some royalty back to Robertson. That's why Philips are more commonly used in cheap electronics, products from China, etc., and why cheap screwdriver sets don't come with square heads. Robertson are definitely the best fitting type of screw.
mtlmikeh 10 months ago
Floppies?
TOXIXIFY 10 months ago
@TOXIXIFY Sure, why not? After all, "real computers have floppy drives (and PS/2 ports)". Floppy diskettes certainly still have their uses, especially when you're dealing with hardware that does not and cannot know USB from a hole in the ground.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill Oh, I guess I was think of my own applications for floppies, I don't even have a computer with a floppy drive anymore.
TOXIXIFY 10 months ago
I know this isn't what it's made of,but if you pause at :30 it looks like it's made of like, a cardboard box,a cardboard paper roll tube,and two packs of gum stuck on the front side of the "cardboard box" haha
The18Jake 10 months ago
zorched...
lobsterbox20 10 months ago
@lobsterbox20 It's a term I usually use to describe an electronic something that failed very suddenly, or "never saw it coming" as might happen with lightning damage. My theory is that the transistor used in this design will do exactly that if the output is shorted--there's nothing to limit the high current dissipation that would be the result of doing so.
uxwbill 10 months ago
I think your output transistor is toasted.
THEtechknight 10 months ago
@THEtechknight You are absolutely right. One of the junctions tests bad.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill Yup, years of hard abuse has done it in. :-)
THEtechknight 10 months ago
Wow, I would probably be afraid to use that thing after opening it up and seeing that!
I got a NewMar 6A power supply, fused with a 2A cylindrical fuse replaceable right on the exterior of the unit. The output, also screw terminals, are placed closely like that, too, but in between them is a plastic insert. It's a real nice unit.
themaritimeman 10 months ago
@themaritimeman I plan to fuse the output side of things, so as to provide at least a little protection for the transistor and diodes. It's very likely that I'll drill a hole and put in a panel mount AGC fuse holder. If I were really, really feeling industrious (and I'm not), I would even go so far as to replace the power switch with one of those combination switch/circuit breaker thingies salvaged from a defunct outlet strip.
uxwbill 10 months ago
i bet its was engineered and assembled in New Jersey XD
ElisVlog 10 months ago
@ElisVlog I'm afraid I don't understand the nature of your comment.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill well...i was just making a joke...theres nothing wrong with New Jersey, but New Yorker's and other peoples like to 'make fun' of Jersey. It's just a place to make a joke of.
ElisVlog 10 months ago
@ElisVlog Are you hinting at the iq of the people on on Jersy Shore?
TOXIXIFY 10 months ago
@TOXIXIFY
sure...
ElisVlog 10 months ago
is it fixable?
naterade21 10 months ago
@naterade21 Yes, and I can improve the design by adding a fuse or maybe two.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill I think you should save the transformer and start over. That thing is a menace!
mrRhwalden 10 months ago
Bill are you getting ready to egg your computer monitor by first attempting to intimidate it by putting eggs near it?
gta4life55 10 months ago
@gta4life55 Those are Easter eggs with candy in them. I have no complaints with the performance of this monitor since I fixed it.
uxwbill 10 months ago
That power supply looks like a fire waiting to happen . I bet if you look around on the web I bet somebody has complained about a small fire on that piece of crap.
I can not believe it was made in the good old USA I though we made better power supplies than that .I have been a electronic tech for over 32 years and have seen even worse built power supplies than that. Nice statck of floppies are they 1.44 or 720?
ncrdisabled 10 months ago
@ncrdisabled Those are 1.44MB floppy diskettes. I have some 720K and even brand new 2.88MB ones as well.
uxwbill 10 months ago
peel the made in usa sticker off it will say made in china
xander900 10 months ago
Hi Bill,Yes It's regulated power supply and that single glass diode directly connected to the big filter capacitor it's a zener and it regulates the voltage on the base of the power transistor and Its problably 12.6 v or so.Its a very basic design but very common before the advent of he IC regulators.(78xx and LM line).
zk61 10 months ago
@zk61 It's not the regulation method that I have a problem with--it's the low quality of the construction and total lack of protection circuitry or fuses that is the problem. I'm sure that when the regulation is working, it's "plenty good enough".
uxwbill 10 months ago
Wow.
A child could build a better inverter than that!
Jerkwad152 10 months ago
Bill, what in the WORLD are those colored things to the right of your monitor?! LOL
ATCRyderX 10 months ago
@ATCRyderX
Those are sacred, ancient devices known as floppy disks.
Jerkwad152 10 months ago 10
@Jerkwad152 But they aren't even FLOPPY! Doesn't make any damn sense! =D
ATCRyderX 10 months ago
@ATCRyderX If you've ever used one, had it fail with some data on it and then got mad at it...you'll know where the "floppy" part comes from. Inside that hard plastic shell is a flexible magnetic disk.
Not that I've ever lost my temper with a bad floppy diskette and done the "one handed crack it in half" maneuver. ;-)
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill Yes, Bill. I used to tear them apart as a child - for no good reason! I actually managed to somehow break the edge with the security switch (I suppose you'd call it..?) clear off popping out an old Win98 Boot Disk from a lab PC last week. lol
ATCRyderX 10 months ago
The point about the fuses just further proves how superior the British plug design is.
Every regular plug in the UK has a fuse in it.
But damn thats a cheap design.
nipperoid 10 months ago
Are those eggs underneath your monitor? haha
peculiarmadman 10 months ago
@peculiarmadman They certainly are. It's a long-running tradition.
uxwbill 10 months ago
Not a very good example of American craftsmanship.
MAG315 10 months ago
Wow how did that pass certification to be built. I hope you add a fuse before you use it.
BlueFoxTV 10 months ago 6
@BlueFoxTV (ah CRAP...went to reply and voted your comment down...$&#!)
I will definitely be adding a fuse to this unit.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill It's all good i don't care about the YT voting system.
BlueFoxTV 10 months ago 2
those easter eggs under your samsung monitor? lol
randomrazr 10 months ago
@randomrazr Yes, they are.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill better return them to the easter bunner :o
randomrazr 10 months ago
I was born during the Video Game crash of 1983. Or as I like to call it: The Great Depression.
Jeffmorgan83 10 months ago
its a cheap no name copy of a good known brand.
any one can print made in the usa on it:)
itscool1968 10 months ago
@itscool1968 I'm not so sure of that. I think it's just a poorly designed piece of equipment. A little looking around the web showed that larger and smaller versions were made. I found three, five and ten amp units. Of those, the five and ten amp units were fused.
uxwbill 10 months ago
ACME manufacturing, lol !!!
fixitdude74 10 months ago
@fixitdude74 Hmmm...you think this might have been Wile E. Coyote's power supply? Interesting thought, anyway! :-D
uxwbill 10 months ago
Is it UL listed?
dwayne0t 10 months ago
@dwayne0t There's no sticker on it stating such. I've got my doubts that it was. Still, anything like that could have fallen off.
uxwbill 10 months ago
Probably intended for cb radio use, unless decoupled properly IC regulators can play up in RF environments... the thing is a piece of crap... easy to repair but worth nothing. I have repaired things like this in the past but now my time is worth more.
g0fvt 10 months ago
@g0fvt I probably will fix it (and add a fuse on the output side!), although I have no particularly good reasoning behind that decision.
uxwbill 10 months ago
Transistor is probably a darlington, with about 15v from zener on the base it will output about 13.8v... some similar supplies also had a small npn transistor across the emitter resistor which pulled the base drive of the big transistor down if current limit was exceeded. Pretty crap design and execution, looks like the accountants got involved. Some of these transformers have thermal fuses wrapped in the windings... yours seems to have two 115v primaries in parallel... so it may 2.
g0fvt 10 months ago
Did you get the message I sent you a couple days ago?
BonhommeRichard91 10 months ago
@BonhommeRichard91 Yes I did. To be perfectly honest, it kind of fell off the end. I'll see if I can come up with anything here in a little while.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill No problem. I just wanted to make sure youtube didn't eat it.
BonhommeRichard91 10 months ago
What were the designers thinking? Apparently not much on the day this was designed! Must have been designed on a Friday at around 4. :)
ngtflyer 10 months ago
lol 83 was a good year
gmcnewlook 10 months ago
So, are you gonna "fix" it, or rebuild it correctly?
Qwakkeddup 10 months ago
@Qwakkeddup I probably will. A new transistor is fairly cheap.
uxwbill 10 months ago
Last day of November? Cool. I was born on the 27th of 1989. Anyways. I've seen some pretty crappy designed stuff before, But I believe this takes the cake! I wouldn't even fix it... Even if you do get it working, Theres a chance it'll dry again with no type of circuit protection.
dana44s 10 months ago
That Motorola 'transistor' located on the heat sink looks an awful lot like a therma-disc limit swith.
PutSome5tankOnIt 10 months ago
@PutSome5tankOnIt I was thinking something along the same lines!
uxwbill 10 months ago
could always wire a fuse holder into the contacts, well one of them anyways
yamahonkawazuki 10 months ago
Oh wow that looks like a joke to mee lol I would put a fuze If I had it I have fuzes on every thing dc in my house
MrRedneckjosh 10 months ago
and whay good thing happened in '82, im only 14 so idk?
mikeluscher159 10 months ago
@mikeluscher159 I was born on the last day of November 1982. To me, that's a good thing!
uxwbill 10 months ago 6
@uxwbill ah, beat me quite a bit, November '69
mikeluscher159 10 months ago
@mikeluscher159 january of 1975 here. got to watch teh dress/clothing evolve thru then, the 80's and beyond lol
yamahonkawazuki 10 months ago
@yamahonkawazuki i see :-)
mikeluscher159 10 months ago
@mikeluscher159 some of it was good, some, not so much, and nowadays alot of it is going BACK in time lol.
yamahonkawazuki 10 months ago
@yamahonkawazuki I do remember some of the styles that people were wearing in the 80s. Funny thing is, to look at them now I say "that looks bad/silly/ridiculous" and yet it didn't seem that way then.
I don't even care that much about clothes and don't see them as a status symbol. (In fact, "branded" clothing is stuff I rigorously avoid.) As long as they're comfortable, I'm happy.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill EXACTLY, hell i bought 6 pairs of duckhead pants at a garage sale for work 50 cents each. 11 years later, they FINALLY died lol
yamahonkawazuki 10 months ago
No sry way WAYY Wrong , november of "96, eehh, ok yr i guess, u were my age when i was born, was "96 a good yr?
mikeluscher159 10 months ago
@uxwbill End of Nov 82 I was packing out our household goods in Iceland to come back to the states with wife, 3 yr old, 2 yr old and 1 yr old sons (one born in Iceland in 81).
rhblakeman 10 months ago
Looks like a hobbyist with very basic knowledge put that together, like a kit job or something to that effect. To think it came from a manufacturer.
CenTexVideo 10 months ago 2
mr, uxwbill, how come u havnt gone hd yet, and could u make a video of why, also i sent u a pm and u never replied, could u look, thanks :)
mikeluscher159 10 months ago
@mikeluscher159 My camera isn't broken (that's not an invitation to break it, BTW ;-) ) so I don't yet plan to fix it. What I have now works, is paid for and only leaves me wanting in one way--audio quality.
uxwbill 10 months ago
@uxwbill i understand, the audio isnt "THAT' bad but ur right it could be better, does it have a port for external mic?
mikeluscher159 10 months ago
@mikeluscher159 No. If it did, I'd consider using one.
uxwbill 10 months ago
good ol' USA made crap
tjv323 10 months ago