Rheostat ?

Charles Davis spake thus:

Wrong, actually; I've got a garden-variety hardward-store/home-improvement-store-type dimmer running a transformer being used for resistance soldering, and it works just fine, thank you. No sparks, no magic smoke escaping, just smooth voltage control.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl
Loading thread data ...

Laid a hand on the transformer recently? The problem is that the power out of the 'dimmer' is 'chopped' AC, not a smooth sine wave (like transformers are designed to operate with.) This 'ragged wave form' quasi AC, creates a LOT of waste heat as it tries to drive the magnetic field of the transformer back and forth (the 'back & forth' is what makes the 'transformer' do it's thing.)

If your happy with your usage, fine, more power to you. But it's a situation just crying for a smoking transformer & possibly fire problems.

Chuck Davis

Reply to
Charles Davis

Charles Davis spake thus:

Yes, I think I know how transformers, electromagnetism and sinusiodal waveforms work, thank you.

I am happy, and it works just fine.

By the way, transformers aren't "designed" to work with sine waves only; for instance, the output transformers in audio amplifiers (or in the horizontal output circuit in a TV for that matter) handle everything from square waves to sawtooth waves to whatever else the signal happens to contain.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

7 of those puppies will make your control panel pretty toasty. Are these things to control trains? It's a really archaic control method that doesn't move trains very well anyway. You'd do much better with some kind of transistor throttle, if you choose not to go with DCC.
Reply to
John Purbrick

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.