No video :(

Inside a cheap eBay fan controller (with schematic)

Подписаться 1,1 млн

Просмотров 68 тыс.

50% 1

With the current heatwave it seems a good time to take a look inside a fan controller.
As is very predictable with grey imports, it is very basic and lacks any electrical noise suppression. The triac also lacks a basic snubber network, which is usually desirable with inductive loads. Such a simple circuit may have stability issues with some inductive loads.
The spare component positions could have been intended for a couple of things. A crude locator with neon and resistor for finding the controller in the dark, or a snubber network.
If they were intended for a snubber network then it's possible that it was left off because it takes very little current to make a fan rotate, and it may have leaked enough to keep a new fan turning slowly. If it had been on the other side of the switch it would have been less of an issue.
I'm not sure if these are made in 120V versions. It's possible that the simplest fix for timing might be to adjust the capacitor value down so it charged faster on each half cycle.
I specifically avoid using intrusive mid-run video adverts, which means I don't earn as much from my content as other RU-vidrs.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar or two for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
/ bigclive
Patreon supporters get early access to advert-free videos as they are made, and also regular live streams.
This also keeps the channel independent of RU-vid's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
Other contribution options are available at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
#ElectronicsCreators

Опубликовано:

5 июл 2022

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 256

@rak3shpai 2 года назад

Here in India, we've all but phased out (get it?) triac-based dimmer controls for inductive loads like fans. The choppiness it introduces at the lower speeds makes the fan hum noisily, makes the motor coils heat up, and reduces its life. Instead, we now use a 5-position (usually) capacitor bank to switch speeds, and it has the same form-factor as a triac dimmer. Sure we lose out on the smooth step-less speed control, but it's a lot quieter and saves sending fans to the landfill. In fact, now that we're all moving to LED lights, and traic-based dimmers don't work well with LEDs either, the utility of traic-based dimmers has diminished to the point of all but vanishing from home use. It''s amazing - just 10 years ago these dimmers were everywhere. Now they've vanished. The 5-position capacitor bank based dimmers are very interesting in their design too. They usually have only 2 or 3 caps to keep the cost low, and the dial switches them into various series-parallel combinations to give 5-position speed control.

@bigclivedotcom 2 года назад

I'll have to look for one of those cap based ones. I wonder if they're using a binary combination of caps.

@analoghardwaretops3976 2 года назад

@@bigclivedotcom no it's not...binary weighted..just standardized cap values..( 1u3 ; 2u2 ;3u3 ) each with their bleeder across and each with a 2e2 / 3e3 series for inrush prevention@ each step change......but it's permutation combo.{..(2u2) is for the lowest speed...}..is different for each step... switch is a 2 pole 6way..( one pos.is open ckt.as OFF...,last is direct( FULL ON)...caps bypassed)

@ianhosier4042 2 года назад

That's probably a far better way as you are only introducing additional impedance and not sending the motor a nasty spikey waveform.

@rak3shpai 2 года назад

@@bigclivedotcom Let me know if you're unable to find such a cap-based dimmer. Dealing with international shipping could be a pain, but the dimmers are cheap as chips here. Would not mind sending you one to teardown.

@ElTelBaby 2 года назад

@@rak3shpai A link 2 these cheap as chip cap dimmer would B GR8

@Mikes666 2 года назад

Clive are you dabbling with only fans?

@ralphshoop8822 2 года назад

For only £5 you can see Clives "bear" chest

@tncorgi92 2 года назад

I'd pay £5 to see another chocolate rabbit exploded.

@blowingchannel4424 2 года назад

@@tncorgi92 Mee too xd

@weerobot 2 года назад

Good One .lol

@brian1056 2 года назад

For 99p he will attach a rescued lithium battery to his nipples... infact he will do that for free

@philmerrifield1163 2 года назад

Pull the knob off? Sounds painful Clive 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

@chrissavage5966 2 года назад

I made a 24 channel lighting dimmer for my school using a slightly refined version of this circuit many (many) moons ago when I was in the 6th form. Previously all we had was a rack of toasters at the side of the stage. I had the main rack with the dimmers in with the toasters where the power was and a remote control surface. The creative types were so excited that they could stand at the back of the hall and operate the lights from there. I even gave them two banks with a cross fade. Happy days.....

@RIXRADvidz 2 года назад

As a Time Traveler from the Analog Era before Solid State, popping the back off and revealing the little green card with all the works is an amazing thing to me. Transisters and Capasitors filling in for vacuum tubes was a major advancement in electronics. then came Micro-ware, Nano-tech. WHOOSH

@stevenverhaegen8729 2 года назад

Has one of those hobbyist books explaining all types of semi-conductors and DIY circuits in the late 70s and distinctly remember that typical dimmer circuit. 😂

@ManWithBeard1990 2 года назад

The reason fans need that initial kick, by the way, is that they are usually powered by induction motors. It's not just inertia and static friction; they also generate much, much more torque at their rated speeds. If you turn on a bench grinder or disc sander, or something else with a lot of inertia, you'll notice that it takes a while to build up that first couple of RPM and in fact you could hold it back with one hand (but don't), but once it's at a couple hundred RPM it really picks up and gets to full speed almost instantly.

@PaulSteMarie 2 года назад

Unclear to me what effect, aside from reducing available torque, this sort of control has on an induction motor. Induction motors are frequency locked by their very nature.

@looksirdroids9134 2 года назад

@@PaulSteMarie Does everything need a reason?

@stevecummins324 2 года назад

@@PaulSteMarie rectify, then use a beefed up PUT relaxation oscilator/pulse generator circuit (very similar to this circuit. diac replaced by a PUT etc) to make a adjustable f drive?

@jimcrelm9478 2 года назад

The Technology Connections channel explains this principle quite well in respect to discrete fan switches.

@ManWithBeard1990 2 года назад

@@PaulSteMarie To a degree they are, but they are not synchronous motors. If you reduce torque enough they will slow down. But you're right, there's a limit to how much control you have over this because below a certain speed the amount of torque the motor provides drops faster than the amount of torque the load needs. and the whole thing just stalls. Fans and (centrifugal) pumps are quite good for this because at 0 RPM they don't really require any torque, but that's not true of many other machines.

@KeritechElectronics 2 года назад

"Nothing to see here, move along." A splendid RF noise maker, haha! These can be built into a vacuum cleaner, making the speed, suction power and noise adjustable. Saves a lot of trouble when tinkering at night with family/flatmates and neighbors around.

@stepheneyles2198 2 года назад

Surely the less noise a vacuum is making the less vacuuming it is doing!!

@ralphshoop8822 2 года назад

@@stepheneyles2198 Yes, but maybe you don't need maximum suction to suck some cereal off the carpet after little ones are tucked in bed.

@getyerspn 2 года назад

Mmmmmm variable suction....,

@tactileslut 2 года назад

"Mr. Carlson" would call it an RF fire hose.

@KeritechElectronics 2 года назад

@@tactileslut haha, more like a flamethrower! Or maybe even a nuke :D

@IanSlothieRolfe 2 года назад

When I was a kid my father and I made a drill speed controller with exactly that circuit diagram.... except ours had a snubber network and a neon to show when the power was connected! It worked for years, in fact I'm not sure what happened to it in the end, Dad switched like most people to battery tools and his mains drills got used less and less....

@AshishEmbedd 2 года назад

yeah that old memories of making circuits as per our need is amazing 😌 , nowadays many circuits comes as module buy attach and start working in seconds

@SeanBZA 2 года назад

I had an old B&D drill that had no speed control or reverse. However saw at B&D service ( those were the days, when you could buy spare parts for things and fix them) the reversing speed controller looked exactly like the plain switch, so grabbed one out of the bin of scrapped drills, buying the drill for a fraction of the price of the spare part controller, and swapped it over, including the stator and a new case, as my one was well used. Upgraded to reversing and speed control for a low price, plus now also had a spare chuck, spare chuck key and cord set, plus a spare case.

@PaulSteMarie 2 года назад

That works fine for a drill with a universal motor. Induction motors, not so much

@manwiththestar2305 2 года назад

Nice. In my youth I built both fan controllers and light dimmers in a local company. Thats what made me a lot more interested in electronics. We had a lot more components and probably had the best quality in the world at the time. The companies/vendors that bought products from that company always tried other manufacutrers all over the world because of lower price but always came back because we had the best quality.

@dpmott 2 года назад

Running an induction motor with a triac ensures that the motor incurs an inrush of current at a rate of twice the line frequency. The motor can never get to its full speed, so it is always lagging behind the line frequency, and when the triac activates, the motor will draw extra current to accelerate. Both the motor and triac will run hot (and inefficiently) as a result.

@railgap 2 года назад

On the plus side, vis-a-vis noise suppression, there's a whacking great inductor in series with the triac or whatever which I'd think oughta help a little - same as in a stage lighting dimmer. Granted, there's also a whacking great common-mode antenna, I mean wire, between the motor and the dimmer so unless it's all inside conduit... yeah, it's-a gonna radiate. I like the remote dimmer fan speed controls which can be mounted in the fan box with metal all 'round... or, yanno, variable transformers, since I also happen to like listening to shortwave, ahem...

@SeanBZA 2 года назад

Yes this one will still radiate nicely along the wiring, even with the inductor so far away. The speed controls that basically use 2 large value capacitors in series with the line have no noise.

@TechGorilla1987 2 года назад

Our whole-house fan has a right proper chunky, clunky fan speed controller. Probably from 1984 when the house was originally built.

@RustyorBroken 2 года назад

Technology Connections has a video detailing why most fans have the high speed setting next to off. Clive's explanation is basically the same, but more succinct.

@chrisa2735-h3z 2 года назад

An actual old fashion looking potentiometer in 2022? this is crazy man😮

@brucewhiteside1741 2 месяца назад

"logarithmicly response". Love it!

@acmefixer1 2 года назад

All the incandescent dimmers I've had use the pot that has its minimum brightness at the counterclockwise (anticlockwise) position. And the switch is usually push on, push off, which conveniently leaves the pot at the same brightness, and also minimizes the wear on the pot. I was given several bad dimmers, most likely failed because of a bad TRIAC, which might've been caused by voltage spikes on the power line. BTW It would be interesting and informative if you connected the dimmer to the Hopi to see what the power factors are at different settings. Thanks, Clive.

@phonotical 2 года назад

I found if you leave them at a position rather than all the way down pressing it tto come on again blows the bulb

@lwilton 2 года назад

Its not too unusual for incandescent lightbulbs to fail by going shorted, and then blowing open, making a bright flash just as they go out. Sometimes this can be so violent that it will actually pop the glass envelope off the base. If there is a dimmer in the circuit when this happens the triac will find itself directly across the line and blow.

@railgap 2 года назад

yeah, you want back to back SCRs instead of triacs, SCRs have significantly higher surge current ratings than triacs (for a given current rating) because there are fewer junctions in series. ;) Don't expect to find that outside of a professional grade dimmer or speed control, tho. :/

@electroshed 2 года назад

I've an industrial blower called a "fan deck", twin squirrel cage with motor in the middle type, in my bedroom that's on a dimmer/fan speed controller, has been working fine for many years - I should really attach some air filters to it, while it's cooling me most nights, it might as well be cleaning the air too!

@MichaelFlatman 2 года назад

seems interesting, i've just looked onto your channel and notice the IBM blower... is that your fan deck or something else.. i'd love to see a video

@electroshed 2 года назад

@@MichaelFlatman Ahh the IBM Bladecenter H fan, I think a rack had TWO of those, one going full tilt was nuts enough, but two... damn rack would blow itself across the room! Mains powered, VFD board inside that appears to drive a 3ph fan motor with feedback sensors etc, check out the wattage...!

@William_Hada 2 года назад

Another good reason to start some fans on high speed is that some have louvered grills on the front of them. The louvers are closed when fan is off. There is usually not enough air flow to open up the louvers on low speed so it starts at high speed to quickly open the louvers and then one can back down to the desired air flow. I have a ceiling fan installed in my 2nd floor ceiling and this is how it seems to work.

@Xoron 2 года назад

The "volume" schematic on the knob is reversed to the actual rotation switching and adjusting the speed.

@markiangooley 2 года назад

When as a boy I learned to read schematics here in the USA I was tickled that the symbol for a resistor is a zigzag line. It made sense! Then later I saw that that isn’t universal…

@stupot_64 2 года назад

The rectangle as the resistor symbol is the IEC standard. The zigzag symbol is the NEMA (US) standard.

@cedricpod 2 года назад

Clive…… I love you and your content

@Lion_McLionhead 2 года назад

Had a triac not turn off until it had a pulldown resistor between gate & neutral & the snubber was disconnected. It was perplexing.

@Geniusinventor 2 года назад

Man, I always wondered how those fan controllers work we have them in our house with every fan.

@nomusicrc 2 года назад

This was FANtastic

@GannDolph 2 года назад

I suspect the solder is for beefing up the TRIAC's heat dissipation, since they seem to have not implemented any heat sink.

@demef758 2 года назад

There will be some of that, but the purpose in switching power supply designs is to reduce I*R voltage drops across the PCB traces. I don't think it makes a lick of difference either way in this case.

@GannDolph 2 года назад

@@demef758 Yes usually it's beefing up current. Even high quality Hi power smps from Meanwell employ the solder 'beefing up' technique. However in this case, I believe it is solely about heat dissipation. There is no heatsink on the TRIAC tab, it's not even riveted to a bit of metal. I've never seen a TRIAC floating in the breeze like this in any phase control device or AC solid state relay. In this case they build a beefy metal conduction path to the metal assembly of a switch contact, and the other lead over toward one of the metal AC mains terminals. Since that is the only heat dissipation in town in this particular instance, it's actually probably quite important - well at least when operating at/near the device's maximum rating.

@chrisa2735-h3z 2 года назад

And being cheap.

@primech-128bit 2 года назад

@@chrisa2735-h3z That's even cheaper than aliexpress dimmer._

@dcallan812 2 года назад

East fix, I had a few switches that used buttons to fade the light on-off and aslo dimming too. But they just went loopy with LED light bulbs, I went back to the normal switch for the UK . 2x👍

@MattyEngland 2 года назад

These kind of things make fans hum terribly. A 'Control Freak, 3amp Dynamic Frequency Fan Controller' is what you need 👍 Keep those tomato plants well ventilated, while not disturbing the neighbours 😉 👍

@argylekennethdobbinsiii1565 2 года назад

Before I seen the video you had put up (I also seen one with youtuber "The Guitologist") (If you have not caught any of his vids he does a lot of old tube amp repair) Both you did reviews on the Knockoff Hakko 936 Solder stations. (It seems they are pretty much all the same on the inside and easily rebranded in China to what ever name suits their fancy at the time). But like I said in another comment. You convinced me to grab one instead of going the traditional route of just keep using a solder iron or pin type that lacked any temp control. As such I had been looking into Dimmer Switches on Amazon and had several picked out to make a dimmer box to control the heat on a standard non-temp controlled iron. I was looking at a Westek 6077B 200-Watt Manual Dimmer or HiLetgo 2000W PWM AC Motor Speed Control Module Dimmer Speed Regulator 50-220V to put into a box along with a outlet and such to make a Temp select type thing. (Very similar in design and function I suspect as this dimmer in your video break down.) I am glad I did not go the dimmer box route but dimmers do fascinate me a bit still. I wonder what projects one could put a dimmer like this into. The 936 knock offs are the way to go.

@jim4556 2 года назад

Most fans or motors really hate the tryac version of speed control. They will make lots of noise. I think the more commercial versions for like large ceiling fans use large inductors to try to round off the high frequency aspect of a instantaneous switching midway through a sine wave.

@mikecummings7054 2 года назад

Works like a rheostat Clive. The older ones had wire wound windings inside. Some older components except for those old wax paper capacitors were of excellent quality and build, sadly fast forward to modern times in some cases quality is not there. They used to use large rheostats in cinemas in the old days to dim the lights.

@aaronbrandenburg2441 2 года назад

One thing I do agree with with big Clive is that in cases where something like this is used for fan speed control versus lighting that the starting with high gets the motor going because it would be harder on a motor to start on low this is much better reason why and some other people say about about how I being used the most I'm sure their differences of opinions but I'm sticking with this one since probably most accurate

@Weissenschenkel 2 года назад

I have 3 units of an electric fan with the same kind of control, but they need to be turned on and immediately cranked up because the controller starts with a late triggering point. I think I'd have to flip the potentiometer physically or rewire the circuit board to make it work as yours does (which makes more sense to me.) Thanks for sharing! EDIT: Brazilian suicidal showerheads have also TRIAC controlled heating elements in some models.

@Theutmostgeek 2 года назад

One of these came with my ceiling orbit fan. Unfortunetly the plastic stick where the knob grips onto broke and it used to get quite warm to the touch

@colingeer479 2 года назад

We've got one of these exact which was advertised as a light dimmer. It works well enough but the on-full turn-to-dim took a bit of getting used to.

@rikardlalic7275 2 года назад

I prefer solutions with RC snubber network over coil suppressor in series with load and capacitor accross dimmer. They work very smooth, cover almost all range of lamp brightness and do not exhibit power on/off hysteresis, allowing so for very smooth start out from darkness and back.

@MrDbone75 2 года назад

A very good Wednesday evening you all from Wellington Somerset

@d00dEEE 2 года назад

Strangely similar, our gas stove has burner controls that behave the same as that rotary dial. Turn the stove knob past the click, and it's at full gas flow (so it ignites via piezo sparker), then as you turn the knob closer to its limit, the flame goes lower and lower.

@alanpatterson2384 2 года назад

That is standard in Spain - and I would guess elsewhere in Europe

@static-san 2 года назад

I'm not surprised it came apart so easily. I would've though it really needs to to be installable. :-)

@richardbriansmith8562 2 года назад

Awesome Video big clive

@michaelwebber4033 2 года назад

I had a project a couple of weeks ago involving some variable speed drives. The boys had come up with a very complex relay system to control the drives and I said we don't need any of that, Anyway I adjusted the programming of the drive and totally eliminated the realy's. I was intrigued they didn't know how to do it

@m2mm4m 2 года назад

Speaking of fans I see you have lots already, I'm number one!! £-D

@whitesapphire5865 2 года назад

Apart from noise suppression, that has all the hallmarks of a 1970s light dimmer. Not that the suppression was all that good even then. I had a dimmer, along these lines, in my bedroom, and what a noisy thing it was. If I wanted to listen to my radio, I had to turn the light off, so I installed standard light switch in parallel with the dimmer. I'm surprised these things are still available in this crude form. I wonder just exactly what fan motors it can control - I have an assortment of fans with an array of different motor types.

@soupflood 2 года назад

It can control regular fan motors and brushed motors, but motor torque cannot be adjusted with these types of dimmers. So if you set it to a low-medium speed and actually use your angle grinder, you'll notice it doesn't maintain speed well.

@MichaelFlatman 2 года назад

PSC motors won't be too happy on them, but squirrel cage / shaded pole motors will do alright.

@edquin8 2 года назад

I really want to try out that pen!

@d.t.4523 2 года назад

Good luck. 👍 Note to self... don't grab the high voltage parts.

@stevecummins324 2 года назад

thought you might be doing a teardown of DC motor controller. simple one I know of is similar to this circuit, but with diac replaced by PUT(or Complimentary Feedback Pair of transistors) & potential divider to program it's trigger voltage. SCR's usually AC devices... but can work fine switching DC into inductive loads. a massive refinement I found for PUT relaxation oscillators is is to use a constant current into timing capacitor. and a larger constant current into a trigger voltage programming resistor...that way after PUT fires and dumps the charge of the timing capacitor, the programing voltage will *always* rise quicker than voltage on the timing capacitor... ie no PUT latching on. voltage on the timing cap follows a fairly decent sawtooth/timing also becomes fairly linear wrt to value of trigger voltage programming resistor value. I've been able to get PUT's to operate reliably, way above their stated max f using such. may work OK to replace arduino on your Ev charger idea

@analoghardwaretops3976 2 года назад

A P.U.T. or U.J.T. ...is mostly used on lower voltages ( & dc or unfiltered / ripple dc..but not ac!..),else E1,E2 may breakdown /( fail shorted)..whereas DIACS are specially designed for AC triggering..and are available in many trigger thresholds...18/22/33 etc...as pre one requirements..one adv. of ujt's is one can design a " Power On " ( voltage controlled/ ramped ) soft start ckt. into it when the ujt is operated from ripple dc.. another advantage is as you mentioned... multiple trigger pulses that repeatedly will attempt to trigger the triac in each half cycle ..as opposed to diac single trigger pulse..this helps as a single diac pulse may not trigger the triac the next half cycle.. especially on low loads at low speeds.. ( jerky motion observed in motor )

@Globaltalentgt 2 года назад

Friend love it

@albanana683 2 года назад

Technology Connections has a whole video devoted to electric fans and why the rotary switch is the counter intuitive: OFF-High-Medium-Low.

@zh84 2 года назад

Yes, it's excellent. I had wondered about that for a long time.

@martinbalmforth2665 2 года назад

Good luck in Embra Clive. Take care

@FLCollection620 2 года назад

Nice one!

@Slikx666 2 года назад

My brain is thinking that it was just a variable resistor that has a switch at the end of the travel, it'll do. 😀 Reality, more things to do stuff. 🤔 nope! I'm going back to sleep. 😆👍

@qwertykeyboard5901 2 года назад

MW listeners HATE this simple device!

@samuelfellows6923 2 года назад

Those that have analog radios and vintage boom boxes 📻

@GrrDraxin1 2 года назад

You should see if you can get a hold of one of those dimmers that has the sine wave cut in the other direction. Those as I understand it make motors sound a lot less buzzy when you use them, as the sine wave is cut off instead of cut on for the dimming function.

@eDoc2020 2 года назад

I would predict those would be more likely to blow up if used on fans. If the switching component cuts off when there is nonzero current flowing the coil will produce a huge inductive spike.

@jmackmcneill 2 года назад

I've been trying to get my head wrapped around Triac since I accidentally bought a single speed drill off ebay, and then ripped apart a couple of worn out vacuum cleaners and saved the speed controllers. I had got most of the way there... I thought it was a variable resistor rather than a potentiometer, and I thought it controled the Triac switching directly, I didn't know about the Diac at all.

@m.s.8112 2 года назад

Odd that the marking on the knob wants to make the user think that turning clockwise will increase rpm/brightness but in fact, it's the other way around. Your light bulb is a special model to create grey light, right?

@10lauset 2 года назад

.. Cheers to you.

@stepheneyles2198 2 года назад

In days of old When men were bold and battery tools weren't invented We used a triac drill controller Made by my Dad But until this day I Never understood how it worked! Sorry but poetry isn't my field!

@ianhelsbyservices 2 года назад

I'm currently looking into components needed to soft start a cheap reciprocating saw (sawzall for USA). The power switch gives you full whack causing the blade to move around the workpiece.

@BlondieSL 2 года назад

I have to address a problem with an over-the-stove fan. It was brand new, but from day one, while it adjusts the speed nicely, except for highest and lowest, any other setting, the fan will start to speed up and slow down, or slow down and speed up. It's not stable. I haven't taken the controller out as yet to see why it's doing that, but I suspect that there's no snubber or perhaps the cap that's in it is either failing or not the best size for it.

@devttyUSB0 2 года назад

My floor fan that has three speeds in and of itself and really did not like being put on such a dimmer circuit. It made a lot more 50hz mains humming noise during operation. Probably because of the chopped up mains input? My plan was to have it spin more slowly, even the slowest speed setting is like a mild storm. :)

@bigclivedotcom 2 года назад

It's common to use capacitors in series to control fan speed silently

@111000100101001 2 года назад

That’s what we have in our home over the pond. Three position speed switch on the wall that has internal capacitors. It works perfectly and is dead silent:)

@idjtoal 2 года назад

Try putting it in series with an incandescent light bulb. I'm using a 60w bulb on a floor fan, and it's slowed down enough to be silent on the highest setting. Lower wattage bulbs made it spin even slower, hardly turned with a 25w bulb. Not sure how the math works out, the bulb must be dropping a big chunk of the voltage? Series, not parallel, just saying that again to be clear.

@carlosarques 2 года назад

The graph in the button is just reversed, isn't it? When you rotate the button clockwise it dimms and the graphic line grows thicker instead of thinner.

@nigeljohnson9820 2 года назад

One must assume a lot depends on the type of a.c. motor is used by the fan.

@davestech6357 2 года назад

I bought some dimmers from China and had to put a resistor across the pots to use on 60hz. for full control.

@justme5384 2 года назад

Main difference between lamp dimmer and motor controller is that the lamp dimmer begins from low and goes to fill while motor controller begins from full and down. EDIT: oh you mentioned that at 8:20

@ehsanshahzad4971 2 года назад

0:54 I just found that screwdriver , bought it at Maplin a few years back , sadly its closed in Bradford now :(

@ianm1470 2 года назад

FANtastic tear down 👍🏻 ……………………………..Sorry I will get my coat and leave now 😳

@alex_stanley 2 года назад

IMO, the absolute best fan speed controller is a variac.

@atmel9077 2 года назад

Nice radio transmitter, in case of internet outage you can send messages to all the radio amateurs in the area.

@Sydney268 2 года назад

I'd imagine it would cause the internet outage

@Jamesnebula 2 года назад

Hi informative vid thanks. I would be very interested to see one attached to your fan. How about a new update to your air filter projects? All the best 👍

@bigclivedotcom 2 года назад

The last update to my air filter projects was the hepa one and is perfect. I have two running here 24/7.

@rafaelgsbr 2 года назад

I have a similar unit hooked up to my ceiling fan. It causes the fan to make a terrible humming noise at pretty much any position other than full speed, so it's basically useless.

@PaulSteMarie 2 года назад

No idea what effect, if any, that would have on an AC motor. As far as the parallel resistor goes, if you plot the effective resistance, it's pretty close to being linear over the range. It has a slight downward curve, but not much. Perhaps a 300k pot was unavailable or too expensive?

@FrontSideBus 2 года назад

I wonder just how well these work since induction motor's speed is linked to frequency?

@BensWorkshop 2 года назад

Interesting. I went looking for DIACs to make a speed controller (for a controller for a universal motor) and found I could but 5 complete controllers for less than £10 so gave up and did that.

@tinkerbot4148 2 года назад

Has anyone noticed the gradient marking on the knob is the wrong way round for this application?

@abousamah1967 Год назад

جزاك الله خيرا انت مدرسه هل لديك محاضره حول AVR منظمات الجهد او stabilizer

@bigclivedotcom Год назад

لدي فيديو واحد و AVRs. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uKEB0-hw4QY.html

@trevann8213 2 года назад

I wonder what kind of antics you would get up to with one of the huge 40volt batteries that says it pushes out 4 amps. We have a ryobi one around and it feels massive for a battery pack, could probably pull out a good chunk of battery from a damaged pack

@trevann8213 2 года назад

It would also be lovely if there were any janky as sh*t ones online

@phs125 2 года назад

I made the mistake of using a dimmer as a fan regulator. It was terrible. Unless I had it at full speed, fan would make a terrible whining noise. And the first half of dimmer wouldn't even give enough power for the fan to turn, fan would just whine. The normal fan regulators have a set of 3 capacitors of varying capacitance. And the five numbers in it connect it through them with increasing capacitance, with number 5 being a bypass. Only problem with them is, after a year or two, capacitors slowly deteriorate, and fan runs way too slow even at number 4, but it goes full speed at number 5.

@richardkaz2336 2 года назад

The snubber circuit would not appear where you have shown. It would be on the other side of the switch for two reasons 1/ safety 2/ power wastage.

@JendaLinda 2 года назад

As most fans use induction motors and not brushed motors, I'm not sure if using a dimmer is even appropriate to control the fan speed. Ideally an induction motor should be controlled by varying the frequency.

@Sydney268 2 года назад

Phase angle controllers work well with induction motors if the load is variable torque, ie. pumps and fans but with constant torque loads yes you need a variable frequency drive. Thyristors and triacs don't usually work very well in phase control of inductive load applications without being hard fired ie. the firing pulse lasts until the end of the half-cycle, which this diac based dimmer is not

@eby6114 2 года назад

When I turn on my ceiling fan it takes my computer out of sleep mode lol

@m101ist 4 месяца назад

What's the difference between diac, triac, thyristor and silicon control rectifier ?? Comes to mind !

@erikdenhouter 2 года назад

On the knob there's a grey bar that grows while the light dims.... That's not right ?

@zh84 2 года назад

The filament of a tungsten lamp is a complicated coil. Does it have a measurable inductance?

@bigclivedotcom 2 года назад

There's definitely inductance. Not much though as it's effectively an air core inductor.

@alexoja2918 Год назад

I had to make a 170v power supply for a project quickly. I took a dimmer, connected it to a bridge rectifier and capacitor, and turned the dimmer to a position where I ended up with 170v. Is this wise?

@thrillscience 2 года назад

I have lots of RFI problems with devices loke this. Ham radio operators who like to work HF (1.8 - 30 MHz) spend a lot of time hunting down devices like this in their neighbor's homes.

@nigel-matthews 2 года назад

Do you think using a triac based dimmer on a ceiling fan will reduce its lifespan? (Assuming it’s an induction motor.)

@bigclivedotcom 2 года назад

I doubt it, although it will be noisier with the typical dimmer buzz, and it could shorten the life of phase shift capacitors.

@analoghardwaretops3976 2 года назад

@@bigclivedotcom well! I have a C.F. that's older than me...65y... I'm 62.......used to work on a resistive speed regulator till about 1995..after which I put in a Triac speed (stepless) regulator....have had no trouble from either ...till date..no humming either.....the fan's now into our 3rd generation..& haven't even opened/ oiled/done any maintenance on it..even once..( no caps or other parts changed....).except for external cleaning & got it repainted 3-4 times...(b.t.w. those were made with " self- lubricating bearings "(dual))...

@makantahi3731 2 года назад

would it be good to use it to control power on primary coil on transformer. i remade microwave transformer: replaced secondary coil with 20-25 winds of thick wire but i have to have possibility to adjust voltage from 12-16 v in corelation of current(car battery charger)

@MostlyInteresting 2 года назад

Before I even see the video.... I have run into these before. The more sophisticated read the back EMF of the motor. And make some attempt at speed control

@sludgieslures2572 2 года назад

Hey mate, great videos. I have a question for you please. If I wanted to have a speed controller for an Australian AC 240v single phase electric induction motor, 0.9A, 0.12hp, would my only option be a VFD or can you please point me in the right/better direction? Any advice is much appreciated. Cheers mate. 🍻

@sludgieslures2572 2 года назад

Or could I use a simple fan controller like you have in this video?

@chimrichalds5205 2 года назад

Anything that relies on lowering the voltage and/or current like this thing will only lower the torque of an induction motor (I think..). Therefor, with a load, you could theoretically reduce the speed by limiting the torque, but it may not be able to start, may stall and may overheat by running too slowly. I've wanted similar control for small induction air compressors but as you noted VFDs are really the only option that isn't terrible.

@madmanmapper 2 года назад

The low-to-high marking on the knob is backwards lol

@Fishbait075 2 года назад

Clive, Don't think I've ever knowingly come across DIACs and TRIACs in my schooling on electronics, and I dont think you covered it in your component breakdown videos. Any chance or a brief video explaining them in more detail, specifically? Maybe in the classic "water" analogy? Thanks in advance :)

@eDoc2020 2 года назад

Nonlinear components don't fit the water analogy well. If I were to try I would say a DIAC is a glass plate in a pipe. It blocks the flow but once the pressure gets high enough the glass breaks and lets water flow freely. Then once the water stops flowing it magically fixes itself. A TRIAC is like a remotely-controlled self-healing glass plate.

@Fishbait075 2 года назад

@@eDoc2020 So, it's kind of like a buffer so the upstream component gets hit with the power it needs to operate, then turns off again? Kinda like those japanese water tipper features ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xjuFXlFI2PA.html ) ?

@eDoc2020 2 года назад

@@Fishbait075 I guess it's kind of like that.

@markiangooley 2 года назад

I hear “diac” and sometimes I think Dyak and imagine a tribesman from Borneo. But not usually.

@ianhosier4042 2 года назад

No heatsink, no earth, no fuse, no noise suppression, what could possibly go wrong?

@pipercessna3827 2 года назад

Just wondering if the chinesium manufcturers could really get any dimmer? 🤷‍♂

@muzikman2008 2 года назад

Cool!...I'll get me coat!..... >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pew!

@j2ballybatty 2 года назад

Can you take a look at emisar d4v2 flashlight?

@McTroyd 2 года назад

So THAT'S how you manage all your fans. 🤪

@keithjurena9319 2 года назад

Noisy as all, not to mention power factor skew. Not that the typical shaded pole fan motor has much draw. But put a few thousand such motors on a branch and now that becomes measurable power apparent the generator must swing. I fear the future is dim with many brown outs due to poor power factor. The proliferation of cheap SMPS with the market penetration of electric vehicles.. Converting to all electric vehicle fleet will require an increase of 15 to 25% base load generation. This doesn't bode well for industries like aluminium smelting and electric arc furnaces.

@StubbyPhillips 2 года назад

Hello dear Mr. Big Clive sir. How do "cold spark" special effect machines work? Thank you dear Mr. Big Clive sir. Have a swell day!

@bigclivedotcom 2 года назад

They often blow finely powdered titanium through something resembling a hot air gun that ignites it on the way through. The mass of the tiny burning specs of metal is so low that it feels cool to the touch.

@StubbyPhillips 2 года назад

@@bigclivedotcom Fascinating. Thank you dear Mr. Big Clive sir!

@avada0 2 года назад

Would this work with every fan? I have an Ardes 5A120L. It only has 3 speeds (not well chosen) obviously with capacitive current limiters in the rotary switch.

@ElTelBaby 2 года назад

Um... I'm having trouble locating this on eBay Search Fan Speed Controller;... Fan Controller