Electronics > Beginners

Transformer newbie, can I use this thing?

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justanothercanuck:
So I've been thinking about building my own bench supply instead of buying one, and after looking at prices for power bricks, I thought I'd possibly take a whack at building my own power circuit.  Anywho, I got these old UPSes that I don't really want to fix, so I ripped out one of the transformers, but I can't seem to find any info on it.

Excuse the bad mspaint...



I'm assuming I can rip out the wires I don't need, but since I can't find any info on it, and the UPS died, I can't just turn it on and measure each set of wires (not to mention, working on live mains is scary)...

Is there another way I can find out what voltages this transformer outputs?

Thanks

alanb:
Provided that you have correctly identified the main input side you could connect this to a low voltage ac source. The output voltages would then be reduced in proportion to the the reduction in the input voltage. For example if you feed in 24 volts instead of 240 all of the measured outputs would be a tenth of the value that you will get when running it off the mains. The danger would be if you have not identified the the input side correctly as applying a voltage to the output side would step up the voltage on the input.

What ever you do I would work on this as if high voltages are present.
     Work with one hand only, keep the other in your pocket
     No metal jewelry (rings etc) on your hands
     Use insulated tools
     Keep your multimeter on the table don't hold it in your hand.

Good luck

justanothercanuck:
Can't seem to find anything laying around to power it with...  I think I'll just buy some coil wire and re-wrap it when I'm ready to use it.  :-//

Thanks

IanB:

--- Quote from: justanothercanuck on January 09, 2013, 03:21:06 am ---I think I'll just buy some coil wire and re-wrap it when I'm ready to use it.
--- End quote ---

If you mean to take it apart and rewind it--don't do that, you'll ruin it.

Much better to leave it intact and figure out its specifications.

planet12:
Depending on what kind of UPS you pulled this out of, and where in the circuit it was, there's a high likelihood that it's a high frequency transformer for switch-mode operation.

What is the core material made of? Is it ferrite (a solid dark gray/black material) or sandwiched steel plates? If the former, it's a high-frequency transformer, and plugging it directly into 50/60Hz AC mains is going to do Bad Things(tm).

Do a Google image search for "SMPS transformer" and see if it looks like those.

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