The Super Hiper Highly Ultimated electronic component... and you forgot it

[destroyer X]

Super Ultra Hiper Highly ultimated advance electronics

Do not laugh, but the ultimate component to install in amplifier Kits and
in diy audio amplifiers and electronics is the DIODE.

This old and cheap component is something everybody use to forget to
avoid component burnings because of polarity inversion.

Oh!...do not say that this never happened to you…or at least, observe
yourself in front of the mirror and observe your nose growing because
of this lye…you may not remember, but you did!

The more you indicate with plus sign, and negative sign…. People use
to invert, since the young beginner into the oldest experienced guys, this
is something that may have more than 50 percent of chances of happening.

You may think the one that makes this mistake is stupid!.... please, look at
yourself in front of the mirror and observe ho could be stupid someday.

Many times we construct supplies, and the more experienced you are do not
help you to solder the Red Hot wire into the negative…this happens everyday.

So, Red wire being negative will be soldered in the plus sign….as usually plus
is coded as red.

Result is pooof….plaft….psssssssssss!

Wonderfull designers, almost all of them, can use small diodes that will burn
the fuses if you invert voltage by accident…but they do not install… I could see
that Aksa has, but it is not because of the invertion possibility, it is there because of
other technical reasons.

Those diodes are very inexpensive, and Kit designers could include them without
expend too much money, and this will not represent significant over price to their
kits.

Also DIYers need those diodes, as they use to install, remove, install again, trying
other capacitors, replacing some transistor to other with higher speed…and the diode
can avoid many parts burned.

Because of that…. The counter invertion diodes are the most highly technological thing
to our days, as kits buyers have not the obligation to have an Electronic degree…they
need to know how to use soldering iron and to read the resistor strip of colors….some
Kits factories already provide the code list translation to check up….but they are not
asked, in advance, if the one that will buy the Kit has the adequated technological
know how needed to avoid invertions.

The diode is something that is so difficult to see over Kits boards that I think
that they are highly technological devices, and the good Enginneers didn`t have
that class in the University.

Other thing that Enginners seems not to know, is that fuses do not protect nothing,
They just inform you that your amplifier is already burned.

Regards

Carlos

[kevinkr]

Hey Carlos,
Haven't you heard the engineering maxim that a $10 transistor will blow to save a 10 cent fuse??

Seriously you do make a good point and the diodes generally only make it into designs to aid start up of voltage regulators in bipolar monolithic supplies.

I used to be chief engineer at a small musical instrument electronics company nearby. We always used a diode in our battery operated pre-amps, cheap insurance against accidental momentary reverse insertion, it was shunted connected to avoid unnecessary voltage drop when the battery was inserted and was robust enough to survive a few seconds of wrong way insertion without failure..

[destroyer X]

Kennedy audio....very good....John Fitzgerald Kennedy was someone that my country loved deeply...and i remember when he was murdered.... was one of the most sad days of my life.

Pretty amplifier in your company home page.

Thank you to show us your link.

regards,

Carlos

[kevinkr]

Hi Carlos,
Alas my little company came and went long ago, my gig as Chief EE (in name only) at that so called "company" was what I did while I was picking up the pieces. What a lousy place to work.. As a clue they supply piezo pickups and electronics to a lot of major acoustic guitar manufacturers.

I've moved on and am designing ATE for testing semiconductors these days - might be a more secure job and/or career path..

I still sell books and do a little consulting here and there and have licensed a couple of designs to a local outfit. Nothing very exciting I'm afraid, and not much money..

I just barely remember the JFK presidency, I was very small when he was assassinated. Huge loss of innocence, and a lot of sadness ensued.

[davidallancole]

Other thing that Enginners seems not to know, is that fuses do not protect nothing,

Thats funny Carlos. I have never heard it that way before.

[Christer]

Originally posted by destroyer X

Other thing that Enginners seems not to know, is that fuses do not protect nothing,
They just inform you that your amplifier is already burned.

Fuses are not always suitable to protect electronic components, but the primary reason for fuses is often not to protect the components but to prevent the components from starting a fire or cause some other hazard when they burn.


Don't skip out on fuses just becuase they are not sufficient to protect your precious transistors, or whatever, from blowing. Fuses should be used, and be used properly, to prevent your equipment from causing further damage like fires. You do after all prefer that just your amp blows up than that also your house burns down because of it.

[destroyer X]

It is interesting to beginners...reason why i decided to write some, and you are cooperating in a nice form...thanks.

It is sad that your company was not that one you dream Kevin,
not good to have work when not really feel happy…it is a torture.

I remember, as I sitted imediattelly in the place I was…as legs turns loosen without too much strength when Kennedy died…many people was crying in the streets..we could see clearly the help he was giving to South American farmers…of course this could return with lower price for brazilian fruits as increasing production with machinery, price would reduce…but he sent tons and tons of agricultural machines to Brazil, all them completely free of charge under the sign of the Alliance for Progress.

The first Made in USA products I could see, was in those days, when only cheap Japanese products entered my country..they were alike the cheap Chinese things we see today…But the American tools were wonderfull products, very well constructed machines, well painted precision machinery and very nice tools…that time I was also studying agronomy at same time I was preparing myself to face the High School.

In my Country there`s a say…I think you may have something alike inyour country too:
- That money do not brings happiness..just order happiness to come!
-
if money, itself ,and only, could bring happiness, Mr Pass where just traveling around the world…. Enjoying his family and good friends and not producing Kits, being with our forum, or only listening his stuff…I suppose to be happy to him is to do what he does…. Well Pass is here..because he is one of the examples we
have or well succeeded man.

Well…in my point of view, money brings more problem than happiness,as happiness born and leave inside ourselves, do not depends from external factors…it depends how much long we let problems bother us.

Davidallaconde

Was funny when CB radios arrived my country …and almost everybody had one Cobra inside their automobiles….was from Dynascan Corporation,but people used to remove them to avoid lost them because of thieves..when inserting them they used to invert sometimes…I was tired to replace fuses and to repair output transistors burned, as I use to work helping CBers,
i installed series diodes internally the radio…loosing 0.6 volts but nothing happened anymore in my surroundings.

Christer

You are right not to suppress them to avoid fire, boards damaged or carbonized because of circuit overheating.

But I have to say, as you know certainly (but there are beginners that do not know) that some fuses presents resistance, and they create problems to supply energy to amplifiers, destructing the supply voltage stability..as resistance in series with the supply will reduce voltage depending the current…because of that I used
to construct my own fuses with outside thin copper wire soldered in the fuse poles, extremes, terminals…. Also I use to fix them using solder into the fuse holders too.

Regards friends

Thank you by your comments.

Carlos