I was glad that I caught Jim's remark about blowing the 723 by being connected to a battery with the PS off. And also Myron's answer.

Back in the tube TV days, I purchased a bare circuit board at Radio Shack, (I think). The board was similar to an Astron circuit board, but simpler. I rewound a heavy transformer from a color TV and made my first 13.8 Volt power supply to use for a Heathkit HW-104. Years later, the 723 went bad. It may have been due to the stated reason, I can't remember now. I did some repair work on it and still have it.

Someone on the reflector provided the following link one time, which I think is a good idea for an extra measure of over-voltage protection or accidental reversal in polarity. I remember discussion about a reversal that happened to someone on the reflector not long ago.

I hope the link still works on here. If it doesn't, it is on ad5x dot com website. Look for a Vprotect pdf file.
http://ad5x.com/images/Articles/Vprotect.pdf

Dick, n0ce


On 7/21/2016 7:41 AM, Myron Schaffer wrote:
Jim and Clay,

It used to be that way....the RS linear models could not tolerate external 
voltage present when unpowered, not anymore. Astron has incorporated 
back-voltage protection through incorporation of some diodes installed in key 
locations to prevent this.

You can verify if your supply has this modification by looking at the circuit 
board and see a 1N4001 type diode soldered across 2-pins (can't remember which 
ones off the top of my head) of the IC voltage regulator LM-723 chip and others 
hung in various places to protect the pass transistor as well. Usually soldered 
to the solder side of the circuit board so they are easy to spot. I can't 
remember is there were some small capacitors added as well.

Any newer (like newer than 1990) linear Astron will have these installed.

Myron WVØH
Printed on Recycled Data

-

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