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Is it *really* a max of 8 amps per channel?


Charles Sharp

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Greetings All,

This is my first season of running a LOR display and I am incredibly impressed and pleased with what I was able to do with 80 channels. What a great system.

But why stop when incredibly pleased?

So I bought Frosty. He's got a fan I can turn on to inflate him when I want him up and I can deflate him when done (the song is "Frosty, the Blues Man" in case you wonder). Except the inflation process is waaaay too slow.

But! I have another, bigger fan and it blows up Frosty really, really fast. Perfect.

Except the big fan draws around 8.5A for about 1.8 seconds when first powered on. Then it drops to around 2A for the rest of the time. (I don't have any problem with keeping everything else off on that side for the 20 seconds it takes to inflate the big guy.)

I've searched the forums on max amps and everyone, and I mean everyone, states 8 amps as a hard limit.

So you see my question. Is it?

Has anyone already spent the $219.95 it would take me to find out if 8 amps is really a hard limit?

Meanwhile, ol' Frosty is just laying in the box.

Thanks for any help.

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This maybe all depends on exactly which board and heatsink you have. And then what box and if you've added any extra cooling. If I remeber correctly, the triacs are actually 16amp triacs. BUT the connections, the board, and it's ability to disapate heat are it's most limiting factor. 8.5 amps may not ruin the triac, but it may overheat the board or ruin something else. Keeping the 80% rule in mind, it may just handle 8.5 amps for a brief moment, but why even try? Why risk it?

I'd be looking into using a relay if I were you. That's a safer option.

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I agree with the relay



if only the LOR had contact closures to easily work the relay... BRILLIANT!!! hire me LOR

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a while back

LOR produced a High Amperage triac board

As I recall it was part of the DIY line

Maybe we can convince them to make them again or to produce kits;)

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High current SSR's and relays are both in the list of daughter cards for the IO-32 card once it is released.

- Kevin

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Hopefully I don't upset anyone, but 8.5a for 1.8s? I wouldn't even blink about that load for that amount of time. 1.8s really isn't enough time to heat up the traces or connections. As long as you aren't doing that every 5 to 10 seconds I don't see how you could damage anything.

-Jeff

p.s. That's just in my own opinion so take it for what it's worth. :(

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There have been posts about people exceeding the 8amp. I agree with both thoughts. The board can probably handle it. For $9 you can get a relay from Rat Shack that will take the guess work out of it.

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You're not talking an 8.5A static load, but just a small startup surge. It should be fine.

But don't shoot me if I'm wrong :D

-Tim

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Being a very software-oriented guy (that means they don't let me touch anything that looks a tool), I didn't even consider a relay. Great suggestion.

It is indeed a very short startup load that will occur about every 15 minutes.

Talking to the other folk involved, the vote is to try it and see. I'll post in a day or two and let you know what happened.

Thanks for all the quick responses -- I appreciate and am impressed by the LOR community assistance.

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I am a newbie and you say only 8 amps per channel????

I have blown the fuses in the LOR box at 15amps per bank, and Have now replaced them with 20amp cermaic fuses per bank, have the box at 20amp per channel, and each on 20amp GFI protected circuts......You know its the c-9, c-7 and the icicle lights that are killing me, I am Looking FOR alot of LED lights for a good price, but I have been unsuccess full

I don't know if I am doing is right, I had another guy that has LOR box, come look at it and he put a KILL-A_watt meter on the each plug of the 16 channels running and I was at 58 amps, now I am down to 23.2 and 21.8 on the banks, Not all the lights run at the same time, But when I play TSO I had to cut some lights out and I can get wild like most of you do...

any good suggestions, I know get another box

thanks Jason

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Under the build your own boards LOR has a 40 amp option. I am a newbie so I have not tried going over the 8 amp limit. If you are only drawing power for a short time I do not think it will blow the system.

However why risk it. As other have stated there are other options. Relays as well as just wiring the light up separately are some excellent suggestions.

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