[Amps] Semtech?

[W0UN -- John Brosnahan]

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At 09:46 AM 10/25/2004, you wrote:
>Hi Richard,
>
>Can you tell me the technical explanation (in an "Idiot's guide to" method) as
>to why a conventional diode tester (that shows .6xx voltage across an ordinary
>silicon diode) will not show any indication across these diodes? Are they not
>just plain old standard diodes? What's inside the modules? Just curious... and
>I bet you've "been there, done that"?
>
>Thanks, -Web

It is a large stack of diodes--each with a .6 or .7 volt drop.  So the SUM
of the drops can end up being anywhere from about 6 to 10 volts.  So
a normal VOM does not have enough battery voltage to overcome
the total drop and shows "open" in both directions.   Some of the older
VTVMs had more voltage and could possibly test these "string-of-diode"
modules.  But current, low-power, VOMs will usually not.

--John