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8 amp per channel limit


bwaldrep

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1) what happens if you go over 8 amps? I understand if you go over 15 amp's you would blow a fuse, but what happens is you go over the 8 amp/channel limit?

2) is the 8 amp limit flexible? I have 16 net lights, which use 0.51 amps, for a total of 8.16. Do I need to only use 15 to stay under 8 amps, or is 8.16 amps ok?

Thanks,

Brent

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Chuck

you seam to anwser a lott of electrical questions about these boards. Just for fun i went out and plugged all my c9s on one side of four boards. That was 3 cords on each board, same side for a total of 12 cords. Now i plugged all 4 boards into 1 20amp socket. now doing the math on that it was putting about 26 amps on 1 side of each board. I played my entire show with all my sequences and everything and did not blow a fuse in any of the boards or blow a breaker. I did have 2 times where every c9 came from 100% to 0. This is all on one 20 amp circuit, and nothing blew. just wondering how this happens cause doing the math it is impossible. All 7 watt c9 bulbs. Also Brent i suggest getting a amp/ watt meter that will help out a ton. when i put all the cords back to there real home, I did find one channel of mine has 8.5 amps on it. Now testing it has not blown the triac but im going to leave it just to see if it does. When i ordered my boards i asked for extra triacs so i have some spares that i can solder back in if one goes bad.



I want to stay under the 80% rule and right now i am not so that is why i asked about going to 40 amp on my boards.

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Dan,

From my experience over current devices will respond differently from a overload condition than from a short. A short will naturally draw high current very quickly and the device will open. As I recall in the realm of fuses they can sustain an overload condition for a longer period of time. With 26 amps like you said that is an overload. It could hold for a while. But why risk having some of your display go down when you know you can not have those worries.


What is the difference between the math computation and the actuall current draw. I invested in a Kill-a-watt to best accurately know what my display items draw.


Chuck

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I agree as i was just trying it out to see how fast i could get into a bad situation that i did not want to get in. Also i wanted to see what the boards can do. As on now everything is under the amp limit expect that one channel of mine and i just want to leave it that way just to see. And if it does go bad it would take about 10 mins to fix and that is why i have a technical problems voice over.

Got a new meter today and the math is close but off by a few amps but nothing to bring me under the 80% rule

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Have you checked those 7W C7's? We have two different years of 7W C7's from action lighting with an actual measured draw of 5W each... You might not be actually over, or not as far as you think.

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cmoore60 wrote:

The triacs are rated at 8 amps. Over that you chance blowing it.

That will entale a board repair then.

Chuck


The Triacs are rated at 16 amps but I think Dan halves that to be safe. It's pretty standard to not run any component at full load so that you have some head room.

From the CTB16Kpc manual

Triac, 16A, 600V,
TO-220 case, snubberless,
isolated – center lead prebent
for insertion into the
circuit board
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