Cheap Fix For Landy's Cheapowatt?

Well at least you got you some inductors and transistors and a phan. I'd feel bad except the price of the gizmo equaled 7 gallons of gasoline. Can you reeeeeeech under your bench and do a fast continuity on the full wave bridge? Easy to spot. The Cheapo-crew bent it to a 45 degree angle and there is nothing else on that board that even remotely resembles it. If it ain't blown then that will change things a lot on my end.

You'd love my 24-volt charging system. Over a thousand amps total charging potential which sucks the guts right out of the Kubota / Kato. No, I don't slap the batteries around with Al Capone grade force-feeding. Over here, I am limited to the BORG, some more Megas, some Meanwells and an assortment of Cheapos. The Cheapos are designated for LED duty. But I don't want the 22 dollar gizmos breaking when all that would be needed is a heat sink on the rectifier. They are doomed to play low voltage LED lighting on the house to gen shed trail of tears. Inside fruit jars no less. With IR sensing.

I used the cheapowatt's PCB to learn how to desolder with a vaccuum gun, I used its casing to make feet for my Meanwell.

It resides in my spare parts bin, never to pass another electron.

Last night I paralleled my Psychoschumacher and my MEanwell into my AGM-27. 62.4 amps for about 35 minutes before amps began tapering. It was the Meanwell whose amps started tapering first. Schumacher was still going for it with maximum output of 25.4 amps once 14.6v was reached. Once amps tapered to under 40 I disconnected the Schumacher and let the Meanwell finish it off.

Pop six screws. Then use the "Diode" scale of a meter to test the four inline leads. If the bridge rectifier tests "good" turn out the lights the party's over.

The lack of -any- heatsink on the Cheapo is glaring. So was the first degree burn on my index fingertip. The Cheapo was powering 7-ten watt LEDs at 10 volts. This is stupid beyond reasoning, that the bridge rectifier was that hot. Silicon rectifiers operate all the time at 300F in an automotive alternator. But the Cheapo's bridge rectifier is one size smaller dimension wise than the bridge rectifiers in both the Mega and the Meanwell.

Nefertiti's Barge operational testing of Landys Cheapo must have had that bridge darned near glowing. I must have missed reading Landy's troubleshooting and testing of the bridge rectifier after it went through it's Nevada Test Site exercise. ALL MY CHEAPOS are getting upgraded. Even though they are for mostly low voltage LED power supplies. 10-watt LED cip ma requirements seem to love 10.2 vdc. And the Cheapo shines as a power supply. The Cheapo's walls are dead flat versus the indentations for the power transistors on the Mega and Meanwell. Heatsinking is going to be a snap. My "heliarcer" came up with the idea of fishplate welding full length heatsinks onto the Cheapo. Sixty bucks difference in price to the Mega and a lot more than that to the Meanwell. Lots of $$$ room for a higher capacity bridge rectifier, big heat sinks, and full length heat sinks for the port and aft sides.

I hate to think what a pair of shorted full wave bridge rectifier diodes does to down circuit components ---

cheapowatt thread.


A refresher on the Smoking of the cheapowatt.

4 stud mount diodes that I plan on using in my welder would make a indestructible full wave bridge rectifier. Mite be a bit of overkill I guess.

Unproven fix, until proven.

Get the part, get it installed, give 'er hell, balls to the wall on voltage and amps, and see if she blows blue smoke again.