Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, September 28 2012 @ 10:53 PM EDT |
Sorry - I don't (was author of above) The days of selenium
rectifiers was a story told to us by our teachers. Upon
hearing it, I recalled a smell that may have, or may not
have, been the smell of a selenium rectifier frying.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, September 28 2012 @ 10:54 PM EDT |
I have an old 1960's battery charger with big (3 inch square) finned rectifier.
Is that selenium? Would replacing with modern silicon give better output
voltage? Seems to be a bit low these days.
I recall the "stick" type of Selenium rectifiers - they STUNK!!![ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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- Selenium? - Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, September 28 2012 @ 11:24 PM EDT
- Selenium? - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, September 29 2012 @ 02:51 AM EDT
- Selenium? - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, September 29 2012 @ 02:12 PM EDT
- Selenium? - Authored by: bprice on Saturday, September 29 2012 @ 08:02 PM EDT
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Authored by: moz1959 on Friday, September 28 2012 @ 11:46 PM EDT |
They were not an uncommon sight when I were a lad here in Australia in the late
1960's.
As electronics was a hobby of mine, I played with them fairly often. They were
safer and more efficient than the thermonic valves they replaced mainly because
they would work at much lower voltages. (Yes, I worked with those as well.) They
certainly had a distinctive smell though when they overheated (by accident or
intent ;-). The real winners though in the memorable odour stakes at the time
and to this very day is the aluminium enclosed paper dielectric electrolytic
capacitor!
(Fellow students found it amusing to plug small electrolytics into the 240VAC
mains socket then throw the switch.)
Early in my years of employment, a couple of workmates and I were testing a
bench grinder that had been getting too hot found out to our surprise that it
was a stuck centrifugal switch that powered the starter winding that was the
cause of the problem. The clue came when the starter capacitor blew out in a big
way. The smell in the room lingered for several weeks! It was a definite
"brown trousers" moment, as we were standing in front of the safety
blowout port of the capacitor at the time.
Regards,
Morrie.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, September 29 2012 @ 01:47 AM EDT |
Selenium, or was it selenium sulphide, and IIRC it wasn't a diode,
and even if it was the term photodiode hadn't come into popular use.
That device stretched our apprentice mechanical skills to keep
ambient light out of the insensitive beast.
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Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, September 29 2012 @ 02:36 AM EDT |
N/T [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: MadTom1999 on Saturday, September 29 2012 @ 03:32 AM EDT |
Those lovely old mercury in a bell jar inverters..
It lives... It lives...[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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