Box "o" speaker line matching transformers
 

I have a job to run about 35 speakers including cameras and security
through a building. The building is a sprawling 200 year old Behemoth
of a place that I don't want to try to fish wire through. The building
was part of a now defunct college and as luck would have it almost
every room is home run wired back to a closet with at least 4 CAT5
wires. This closet seems like a good place to install our equipment
and so we plan to run the alarm system as well as the cameras off
these CAT 5's. In addition there will be a background music system.
The music will be very soft and so I would like to go with 70V lines
with speakers tapped at .25 to .50 W each. The runs would be no more
than say 100 to 125 feet and so I don't think that the 24 gauge wire
should be a problem with each CAT5 cable handling one or even two
speakers apiece. So anyhow that's the job and I'd appreciate any
comments on that but my other question is this: I have boxes of
unidentified line to voice transformers. I don't know if they're 70 or
25 volt units. Is there an easy way to determine this? I don't have an
impedance bridge. Thanks, Lenny

Box "o" speaker line matching transformers
 

klem kedidelhopper wrote in news:5637a840-
:

I have a job to run about 35 speakers including cameras and security
through a building. The building is a sprawling 200 year old Behemoth
of a place that I don't want to try to fish wire through. The building
was part of a now defunct college and as luck would have it almost
every room is home run wired back to a closet with at least 4 CAT5
wires. This closet seems like a good place to install our equipment
and so we plan to run the alarm system as well as the cameras off
these CAT 5's. In addition there will be a background music system.
The music will be very soft and so I would like to go with 70V lines
with speakers tapped at .25 to .50 W each. The runs would be no more
than say 100 to 125 feet and so I don't think that the 24 gauge wire
should be a problem with each CAT5 cable handling one or even two
speakers apiece. So anyhow that's the job and I'd appreciate any
comments on that but my other question is this: I have boxes of
unidentified line to voice transformers. I don't know if they're 70 or
25 volt units. Is there an easy way to determine this? I don't have an
impedance bridge. Thanks, Lenny

Try to find the saturation voltage of the trannies.
Put a variable 50(or 60) hz voltage on one, measuring the
current.
When that current suddenly starts to increase, you are over
the saturation voltage.
Subtract about 30 % to grade the trannie.

Box "o" speaker line matching transformers
 

klem kedidelhopper wrote in
:

On Dec 19, 3:58*pm, Sjouke Burry s@b wrote:
klem kedidelhopper wrote in
news:5637a840-
:









I have a job to run about 35 speakers including cameras and
security through *a building. The building is a sprawling 200 year
old Behemot
h
of a place that I don't want to try to fish wire through. The
building was part of a now defunct college and as luck would have
it almost every room is home run wired back to a closet with at
least 4 CAT5 wires. This closet seems like a good place to install
our equipment and so we plan to run the alarm system as well as the
cameras off these CAT 5's. In addition there will be a background
music system. The music will be very soft and so I would like to go
with 70V lines with speakers tapped at .25 to .50 W each. The runs
would be no more than say 100 to 125 feet and so I don't think that
the 24 gauge wire should be a problem with each CAT5 cable handling
one or even two speakers apiece. So anyhow that's the job and I'd
appreciate any comments on that but my other question is this: I
have boxes of unidentified line to voice transformers. I don't know
if they're 70 or 25 volt units. Is there an easy way to determine
this? I don't have an impedance bridge. Thanks, Lenny

Try to find the saturation voltage of the trannies.
Put a variable 50(or 60) hz voltage on one, measuring the
current.
When that current suddenly starts to increase, you are over
the saturation voltage.
Subtract about 30 % to grade the trannie.

So then assuming the UUT is in fact an unknown 70V transformer, I
might have the supply cranked up to almost 100V before I see this
increase in current? Can I feed this transformer off my bench variac?
Will this current increase be a sudden or very gradual increase? Lenny


A small lightbulb in series(5-15W) should act as a suitable series
limit resistor.
And the current will go sharply up with only a few volt increase.
The reason is, that the core becomes saturated, and the inductance
of the primary will drop to almost zero, leaving only copper
wire resistance as limiter.
With the right bulb in series, you might not even need a
current measurement, the bulb will uddenly start shining.
Most transformers will be designed such, that at the design
voltage, and low frequency, the core is almost saturated.

Box "o" speaker line matching transformers
 

On Dec 19, 3:58*pm, Sjouke Burry s@b wrote:
klem kedidelhopper wrote in news:5637a840-
:









I have a job to run about 35 speakers including cameras and security
through *a building. The building is a sprawling 200 year old Behemoth
of a place that I don't want to try to fish wire through. The building
was part of a now defunct college and as luck would have it almost
every room is home run wired back to a closet with at least 4 CAT5
wires. This closet seems like a good place to install our equipment
and so we plan to run the alarm system as well as the cameras off
these CAT 5's. In addition there will be a background music system.
The music will be very soft and so I would like to go with 70V lines
with speakers tapped at .25 to .50 W each. The runs would be no more
than say 100 to 125 feet and so I don't think that the 24 gauge wire
should be a problem with each CAT5 cable handling one or even two
speakers apiece. So anyhow that's the job and I'd appreciate any
comments on that but my other question is this: I have boxes of
unidentified line to voice transformers. I don't know if they're 70 or
25 volt units. Is there an easy way to determine this? I don't have an
impedance bridge. Thanks, Lenny

Try to find the saturation voltage of the trannies.
Put a variable 50(or 60) hz voltage on one, measuring the
current.
When that current suddenly starts to increase, you are over
the saturation voltage.
Subtract about 30 % to grade the trannie.

So then assuming the UUT is in fact an unknown 70V transformer, I
might have the supply cranked up to almost 100V before I see this
increase in current? Can I feed this transformer off my bench variac?
Will this current increase be a sudden or very gradual increase? Lenny

Box "o" speaker line matching transformers
 

klem kedidelhopper wrote:

So then assuming the UUT is in fact an unknown 70V transformer, I
might have the supply cranked up to almost 100V before I see this
increase in current? Can I feed this transformer off my bench variac?
Will this current increase be a sudden or very gradual increase? Lenny


Yes, if you are careful but you need a current limiting resistor in
series to protect the transformer. They are not designed to be
impedance protected. It's still not an ideal test, because the 25 or 70
volts is nominal, not an absolute upper limit. That's why I use the 1
volt to the secondary method. Then square the voltages you read on each
primary tap and multiply by the speaker impedance to get the impedance
for that tap. It only takes a minute or so per transformer, and is less
likely to kill you if you're careless.