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Old 3rd Jun 2020, 8:31 am   #4
Radio Wrangler
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
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Default Re: 12V 20A PSU Crowbar Cct

That should do the job, but you probably should try it out somehow, just to feel confident it will save your bacon if it ever has to.

Motorola did a crowbar trigger IC that you programmed with the ratio of two resistor values, but I can't remember the type number. It's academic if they aren't available anyway.

If you're designing a complete power supply, you can integrate the crowbar into it in ways that make it a lot less dramatic. In the one I did, I have the crowbar do two things. It opens the relay used for mains on/off, and it uses its thyristor to dump the charge in the reservoir capacitors directly. If I trigger it, there is a little click and I hear the mains switch relay release. It does mean that this supply needs a push on a start button to turn it on, but the whole lot integrates with a soft-start arrangement. When I next come across the circuit diagrams, I'll post them in this group.

David
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