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Unread 01-13-2003, 09:42 AM   #2
bigben2k
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas, U.S.A.
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I added a comment, in their forum, about discharging the capacitors:

"120 Vac is actually 340 Volts, peak to peak.

To discharge a cap, use a resistor.

Selecting a resistor, note that typical resistors are rated 1/4 Watt, use this equation:

P=VI
V=RI (aka I=V/R)
so
P=V^2/R (aka P/V^2=R)
where P is power (in Watts), R is resistance (in Ohms), and V is the voltage.

Assuming a 1/4 Watt resistor, V=340, this will give you an R of 462K Ohm, which will release a current of 0.002 milliamps (if my calculations are correct!). It could take a while... then you'd have to switch to a smaller resistor, as the voltage drops...

This would be much easier with a 5 Watt pot."
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