Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!xanadu!jeff
From: jeff@xanadu.com (Jeff Crilly N6ZFX)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: American electronics on European power?
Message-ID: <1990Aug23.180153.28801@xanadu.com>
Date: 23 Aug 90 18:01:53 GMT
References: <1990Jul31.154929.27950@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <8798@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> <1990Aug1.215056.1316@bellcore-2.bellcore.com> <1272@bio73.unsw.oz>
Organization: Xanadu Operating Company, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 24

In article <1272@bio73.unsw.oz> root@bio73.unsw.oz (Karl Redell ) writes:
>I would be surprised if a 240/120 power converter used just a 1/2 wave
>rectifier.  It is much more likely to use a triac or sometthing similar.
>
>I tried to convert a 120V hot air corn popper to run on 240V.  It was not
>easy.  First I bunged a diode in series with the thing - thinking that
>half of 240 was going to be 120.  

When I lived overseas we had 220 and 110 wiring in the house.  The funny
thing is that all the outlets used the same type of plug: standard 110v
type.  So you really had to know which were which.  Anyhow, our
solution to running 110v stuff off of the 240v outlets was to use
a transformer.  They were real cheap and in great abudance.  This was
in the Phillippines.  BTW, everything was 60hz, but the voltages
ranged +/- 5%.  When we moved back to the states the our TV had a 
larger picture.

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Jeff Crilly (N6ZFX)
AMIX Corporation
2345 Yale Street
Palo Alto, CA  94306
jeff@amix.com, {uunet,sun}!markets!jeff
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