On 11/16/20 1:50 PM, Chuck wrote:
I've been reading about dimmers here and thought I would try dimming my
outdoor LED lights with one of the Chinese 12-24VDC 30A PWM dimmers
found on eBay and elsewhere.Â* The lights are running at 12VDC and
consume 8.5 A.Â* Dimmer was installed, but noticed right away that it was
very warm.Â* In an hour, almost too hot to touch.Â* Should not have been,
not at the current levels I noted.Â* After several hours, it began to
smoke and burn out.Â* In the meantime, lights went to full brightness and
probably then some.Â* Needless to say, the only way I'll be using any
more of these is with an in line fuse as well.Â* Of course, the dimmer
doesn't have one inside.

That's it, no more Chinese dimmers! I just can't trust them. This
week, I managed to pick up a linear variable voltage and current Astron
12 amp power supply. It won't be as efficient as switching units, but
Astron is apparently a winner with amateur radio folks and reviews tout
its reliability. I looked at the schematic and it seems that all of
their units use the same general design, just different transformers and
components of course as size increases. I like the fact that the
schematics are readily available unlike this Chinese stuff where it is
next to impossible to find one! I have even been able to peek at
several internally online of course, but apparently people often tweak
and modify them and post images and such online. Nice to see the innards.

In article ,
says...

That's it, no more Chinese dimmers! I just can't trust them. This
week, I managed to pick up a linear variable voltage and current Astron
12 amp power supply. It won't be as efficient as switching units, but
Astron is apparently a winner with amateur radio folks and reviews tout
its reliability. I looked at the schematic and it seems that all of
their units use the same general design, just different transformers and
components of course as size increases. I like the fact that the
schematics are readily available unlike this Chinese stuff where it is
next to impossible to find one! I have even been able to peek at
several internally online of course, but apparently people often tweak
and modify them and post images and such online. Nice to see the innards.




Astron has been using the same basic design for many years for their
linear supplies. There is almost no difference in any of them, just
more pass transistors and bigger transformers. That same circit has
been used in many other power supplies with minor variations. All
designed around the 723 voltage regulator. It is almost like a
cockroach and the circuit will not die as it is very reliable.

I have a 50 amp one that has been on 24/7 for around 30 years. Only cut
off when I moved and to rearange the equiipment.

They do have two weakness in that if you push their ratings the
transistor socket pins get loose and do not make good contact.
If the power is cut off and right back on say as can hapen during a
storm the over voltage protection will trip and you have to cut it
off,count to about 10 slow and then turn it back on.

I have another supply of no name that uses the same basic circuit and it
has been on over 40 years.