Need a couple more amps out of a PC16 unit?

[LENNY RUEL]

For next year I will have a PC unit on the south side of the garage. 12 channels will each have 700 mini lights on them, 6 per side. At times they will all be up at 100% so that is only leaving me 1 amp per side in reserve. I want to plug smaller drawing elements in to the remaining 4 channels like Strobes and my C7 leds on the roof outline, and C6's on the driveway and street perimeter candy cane line. They take about 3/4 of an amp at about 20 strings each.
Can I get away with just putting a bigger fuse in to take it from 30 to 40 since the spike over the 30 amps is minimal in duration? Also where do you find the fuses? just at the local hardware store? Thanks.

Lenny

[aemnky]

PM Sent

[rgardner518]

LENNY RUEL wrote:

For next year I will have a PC unit on the south side of the garage. 12 channels will each have 700 mini lights on them, 6 per side. At times they will all be up at 100% so that is only leaving me 1 amp per side in reserve. I want to plug smaller drawing elements in to the remaining 4 channels like Strobes and my C7 leds on the roof outline, and C6's on the driveway and street perimeter candy cane line. They take about 3/4 of an amp at about 20 strings each.
Can I get away with just putting a bigger fuse in to take it from 30 to 40 since the spike over the 30 amps is minimal in duration? Also where do you find the fuses? just at the local hardware store? Thanks.

Lenny

LOR sells a 12 pack for $12.99, plus shipping. "NO ONE" needs 100, but for the same price as LOR's 12pk I bought 100 from ebay. Here's were I got mine. http://cgi.ebay.com/100-250V-15A-15AMP-Heavy-Duty-Ceramic-Fuses-Fuse-6x30_W0QQitemZ300372537791QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45ef9931bf


Attached files

[iresq]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102755&numProdsPerPage=60&y=5&x=7&retainProdsInSession=1

You should also upgrade your input cords to 12 gauge.

[Bob VandenBoom]

You may also want to use the heavy duty heat sinks. Depending on the frequency all the channels are on, you may want to mount the controller with the heavy duty heat sinks in a metal box to help dissipate heat even better.

[LENNY RUEL]

It has the HD sinks which I heard are actually good for 16 amps per channel, Dan splits the difference for headroom. Also have heard of putting the guts in a metal box to dissipate the heat qiucker, but some have said as cold as it is here in Wisconsin in December that may not be an issue.

Lenny

[rgardner518]

iresq wrote:

iresq, thats was a nice thought.

Thanks Ray

[rgardner518]

That one seamed to work? I need someone to look at why they keep doing that!


Lets try this again! the dam message never showed up!

What I said was: I tried Radioshack .com too. But I realized that when you times $2.99 by 25 packages, that adds to over $70 plus shipping on top of that! JUST get the ebay ones. I have been happy with no issues, YET! Plus the Radioshack ones do not state on the packages or web site if the fuses are "fast Acting". And thats a must, if you care about your controllers! Because they do make a ceramic fuse, that is not fast acting. So be careful. BUT, iresq, thats was a nice thought.

Thanks Ray

[LightORamaDan]

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

(with respect to fuses) LOR sells a 12 pack for $12.99, plus shipping. "NO ONE" needs 100, but for the same price as LOR's 12pk I bought 100 from ebay. Here's were I got mine. http://cgi.ebay.com/100-250V-15A-15AMP-Heavy-Duty-Ceramic-Fuses-Fuse-6x30_W0QQitemZ300372537791QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45ef9931bf

Light O Rama sells a 12 pack of fuses for $4.99 shipping included (to US customers).

Edit: at one time we did charge shipping on the fuses but the store messed up the shipping charges so badly that we stopped charging shipping on the item. In most cases it was included in another order so it didn't really add to the shipping charges anyway but when purchased separately the shipping charges were silly.

[LightORamaDan]

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

That one seamed to work? I need someone to look at why they keep doing that!


Lets try this again! the %#$ message never showed up!

[snip and edit of message above]

I am not sure why the messages were getting truncated. I deleted some of the posts but left one of them there. Things somehow got messed up... As you can see your response was somehow included in the quote box so the formatting is corrupt somehow.

As I mentioned in replay to your PM. I have had posts mess up a few times although in most cases I can attribute it to operator error on my part. But I have gotten into the habit of selecting my reply and copying so that if something goes wrong I can just do it again and paste what I had already typed into a new message. However I will reiterate that in most cases I contribute the problem to me not the forum software.

Dan

[stanward]

I'm sorry, I read this entire thread thru, but it does not state if it is okay to run 20A per side.

If I do upgrade the fuses to 20A fast-acting, as well as to 12AWG power cords with the appropriate 20A plug, can the PC kit handle 20A continuous per side? Or will components fry (and the pcb get damaged)?