[Coco] Appliance and Light Controller

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 18 April 2007, Diego Barizo wrote:
>I have an appliance module that I got at the Shack last year
>I never used it to much, because the loud "CLACK" sound when it turns on
>and off.
>Is that expected, or it's just a prof of the product's poor quality ?
>
>Diego
>
The 'appliance modules' I have are all built with mechanical relays so that 
they have solid metal contacts.  The solid state lamp dimmers allow more 
current in one direction than the other, and if this were fed to a magnetic 
device, the unbalanced DC through it would probably obey ohms law and build 
up to destructive levels, killing either the dimmer, or the power transformer 
type devices in the load being controlled.

So the click is un-avoidable, but I've never noticed it as something that 
might wake me up in the night either.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
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