RE: What the **** is going on!!!???

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Keith,

You can replace the triac with a higher rated one provided you can find one
with the correct gate sensitivity. If you tell me the number of the triac I
can suggest a possible alternative.

Replacement should be easy enough. the only difficulty I have ever had with
replacing triacs is when they are rivetted to the heatsink instead of
bolted. A rivet is cheaper and quicker from an assembly point of view and
they dont want you to repair things so why worry about disassembly!

I would be looking to actually prevent the triac from blowing in the first
place. what is needed is an ultrafast HRC (High Rupture Capacity) fuse with
the lowest possible rating that will not suffer from nuisance blowing. If
it
is physically the wrong size to fit in the existing fuseholder then fit it
externally. In the case of a DIN module this could be either the incoming
or
outgoing live wire.

For a Lamp Module it is obviously more difficuly but if being used for a
table lamp then there is probably room inside the base of the table lamp
for
an inline fuseholder.

It doesnt really matter where the fuse goes so long as....
1. It is in the LIVE WIRE, not the neutral.
2. It blows quick enough to cut the flow of current before the triac fails.

The same idea could be used to protect a socket rocket if there was enough
space inside the ceiling rose for a fuseholder. A real pain to get up there
and change the fuse each time but less hassle than replacing a triac and a
lot cheaper than a new module.

Hoep that has given you something to work with

Keith

www.diyha.co.uk
www.kat5.tv


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mail [mailto:ksalexander@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 17 August 2003 12:52
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] What the **** is going on!!!???
>
>
> Good points Keith
>
> I have had very poor reliability from several of my X10
> dimmer modules i.e both the Plug in types and the DIN rail
> ones they all eventually fail as you have discribed
>
> are the Triacs the same in all?
>
> Which Triac do you recomend as a better alternative?
>
> rgds
> Keith