Re: Voters...the LDG Relay
> Adam Feuer <feu...@...> wrote: > All of the recent chat about voters and a recent trip to > my site has reminded me of a question regarding the LDG. > Mine has been in service for about 8 years now and just > recently hearing the relay clicking has got me wondering: > Has anyone had a relay failure in the LDG? If so, were you > able to get an exact replacement or did you opt for an > alternate method? > Any thoughts or experiences would be greatly appreciated. > Adam N2ACF If you review the relay data sheet to see it has a very impressive expected life span based on number of actuator cycles. I had seen some calculations showing X-number of actuation cycles in regular Amateur Service would expect 10 plus years of operation. So I was confident my commercial and amateur radio installations wouldn't have a problem with the relay failing anytime soon and I boasted that others shouldn't be concerned with their installations. Indeed, I've had two relay equipped voters running for at least 5 years and they work just wonderful. But then an Email from Jeff arrived with pictures of his Voter "Hit Counter" display and all I could say (to myself) was wow... The display indicated an incredible number of hits/cycles well in excess of the rated relay life cycle value. Jeff had replaced his relay with solid state switching as a preventative measure. Jeff simply proved that a super busy voter can take a large number of hits faster than the 10 year time span I'd seen used in earlier estimates. So... you can leave the relay and parallel a simple FET or opto isolator circuit/connection... even a bipolar transistor would work. Depending on the "load" connected to the relay contacts one could use a 2N7000 or one of the IRF Fets to replace the relay. Lots of options are available if you fear your system operation will have a more than average busy life past say 10 years. Replace the relay or parallel it with something else. And of course relays are cheap and easy... especially if you put it on a socket. cheers, s.
