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Re: [Amps] SCR to adjust 240v to 200v

To: amps@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] SCR to adjust 240v to 200v
From: "Roger (K8RI)" <k8ri@rogerhalstead.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2016 06:21:02 -0400
List-post: <amps@contesting.com">mailto:amps@contesting.com>
In the early days, we just used a Diac in a simple circuit. No big pulse and no series of pulses. Once the threshold was reached, the SCR was in control of the rest including how fast it turned on. We weren't interested in noise there, but we did have some sensitive measuring circuits on the "other side of the creek"

For most hams, building a circuit using SCRs, or Triacs to control voltage is a great way to do a step start. It easily ramps up the voltage. My amp does that, but any receiver in the room sounds like someone zipping up a ski jacket. As it's less than 2 seconds. Who cares. OTOH running all the time to control the input to a transformer? No Thanks. Getting them quiet? It's well beyond most hams, either in knowledge, or patience.

73

Roger (K8RI)


On 8/20/2016 Saturday 6:35 PM, Manfred Mornhinweg wrote:
Paul, and all,

The gates of SCR's need to be pulse fired for reliable phase control. Commercial units have pulse train burst applied to the gates through a pulse transformer. The phase angle of the burst is derived any number of ways which can be very precise and repeatable.

It just takes some op amps and in some cases a few logic ICs, or a special function IC, to obtain to control signals.

Back in the age when SCRs were high in fashion, unijunction transistors were also fashionable, and many SCR circuits of the day used UJTs to generate the gate trigger pulses.

In my own SCR and TRIAC circuits I never used UJTs, though. Instead I either generate a nice trigger pulse using a DIAC behind a capacitor, or I trigger the devices with a long pulse, often as long as 1ms, generated by logic ICs, op amps, or more commonly a microcontroller. Reasonably modern SCRs have trigger currents below 50mA, often far below, which is low enough that 1ms pulse length isn't a big waste of energy. When one has to trigger a device at the zero crossing, such a long pulse is very useful, because one can start the pulse right at the zero crossing, it will turn on the device, AND hold it on until the current has risen enough to keep the device on for the remainder of the semicycle. With old SCRs that required several amperes to trigger, a similar effect was achieved with a train of narrow pulses.

When the load is inductive, current will ramp up at a certain (possibly low) rate even when the device is triggered in the middle of a semicycle, so the long trigger pulse, or train of short pulses, is often required anyway, with the single long pulse being safer.

Manfred

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