[Amps] Shorting Sticks

[Will Matney]

Perzactly! My reasoning on the discharger was to allow the caps to discharge through some resistance at first to limit the current, and after a short time, say 2 seconds, a dead short by a relay would finish it off. To me, the quick discharge of a capacitor is really hard on it and can ruining the dialectric.

Another thing I dont trust are those safety latches on most amps which mostly short the caps to ground if the lid is opened. Lets say the contact was made once under a full charge, or worse, while the amp was running. Then an arc would burn the contact surface maybe to a complete open. This then could make a high resistance there or even make it fail in the future to where it wouldn't discharge them at all. Next, some poor un-assuming soul went ahead and put his hands on a fully charged capacitor bank (providing the resistors was bad).

One rule I always do on a charged capacitor bank or a running amp is to keep one hand behind my back and use the other to do any measurements. This way if I slip, the worse case would be to just get it maybe from a finger to the wrist, across the fingers, etc., and not through my body. Just that shock to the hand is enough to knock the dickens outta ya really quick! One trough the body though could stop your heart! I've been bit before it it sure aint no fun.......

Best,

Will

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 4/24/05 at 10:20 AM R at contesting.com;Measures wrote:

>A 0½ (zero-ohm) shorting stick can damage an amplifier since there is 
>virtually nothing to limit peak discharge current.  If a 1000-ohm or 
>so, 100 to 225 watt resistor is added in series with the shorting stick 
>to limit current, there is less chance of damage.
>
>
>Rich Measures, 805.386.3734, AG6K, www.somis.org
>
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