Hello, ALL.

OK, the light bulb finally came on for me (hee) and I now think I
understand the circuit.  The bulb is a circuit breaker, and the two
blown parts were diodes.

Though I offered two "prizes", judges have ruled a tie as to who sent
the replies which were most helpful in getting me to 'see the light'
(hee).

So, Roy, Jasen, and Matt, if you want to pay for the postage for either
a 32MB DIMM or a CDROM drive, drop me an email to
jim.holsonback{at}juno.com and let me know which one to plan on
sending.  Sorry, Jasen, postage to AUS may be more then the thing is
worth, even for "free".

I'm still amazed that those itty bitty now-burned up parts were rated
as 12V 3A diodes.  Maybe I'll put in some stronger replacements.

I think I need two singles to fix it, and I think I'll try to find some
stronger parts. If I bought a bridge, that would end up making 30VDC or
so, wouldn't it?

I did try to use this unit once to test an auto stereo which was still
in the auto - - BIR it somehow blew the fuse in the line to the stereo
unit.

The circuit breaker bulb reads short in both directions, so may be good,
but I don't trust it anymore, as it let both of the diodes get burned
up.  I know I have an in-line fuse holder here, so think I'll add one of
those in the line out from the +12V terminal.

There's an unused screw on the output terminal strip, so I think I'll
try to find something like a 24 Ohm 25W or so resistor to put in there,
as a current limiter (to about 2 AMPs), and if I ever try to use this
thing as a trickle charger again, I'll use that terminal for the +12V
output.

Many thanks to all who responded.

- - -  JimH.



... Jim, I only got 2 things on me still growing - earlobes and belly- Bubba
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