How Do You Mount A Toroidal Transformer?

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could please tell me how to mound a toroidal transformer.

From looking at pictures here it seems like people use a bolt. How do you get it to be flush on the underside? Do I need the steel washers?
I was wondering the same about PCBs. How do you mount them and still keeping the underside of the chassis flush?

Thanks a lot.

If you want it flush, then you'll have to countersink a hole and use a countersunk screw.
Alternatively, if using a case larger than 1U, you can mount the transformer to the back or the sides.

peter

Peter likes to mount from behind.
Makes for better flux.

:shock:

Now he's gonna tell me to flux off!
:razz:

One up the bum
No harm done... :green:

LMAO !!! I just started laughing out loud here in my office cubicle... but seriously, I'm working :razz: !

As Peter said, for 2U or larger, I mount the toroid on the side. As for PCB, I use flat panhead type screws. They stick out but not very much.

lordy, 2001 vca retro driven.
those cans are flood proof!

2001 :? ... that's a 202 can :shock: :!:

I think he was referring to the retro driven robots in da flick, 2001, righ CJ :grin:

Jeez Greg, get with the times, man!

As to torroid mounting, I use part of a straw and strong epoxy, fill in the center, so that I can use a regular screw and nut.

ju

Hey, wait a minute, the guy selling the side chain boards has no side chain board?

Oh crap, I just found a package for Greg that I forgot to ship.


2503's on the way.
Ran out of channel brackets, so I slipped on a couple of orders, JRE, your buddy is one of them.
Ram is sending me some as soon as the check clears.

CJ you have good eyes, my friend, and caught me red handed with no sidechain board. :evil: But I made that GSSL pre-sidechain HPF, but I do have another GSSL and the sidechain board is in that one :green: .

Yea, man, I've been wondering what happened to those 2503 pieces parts... it's like a puppy waiting for his balls to drop, so he can become a "real" dog and get rid of that wimpy puppy title. I will be expecting.

I've been writing my thesis for 4 days now. I've had enough of this image processing software shit (even though it is fun and interesting)... time to get back to some hardware !!! I defend next week... First thing I'll do after that is attempt one of those trannies.

on many chasis, depending upon the front panel, you dont need to mount the screws flush. The front panel rarely will be flush with the bottom panel, it extends below it, so your screw heads will have room to protrude out the bottom of the chasis. If you need to mount the torroid to the bottom panel, place the bolt through the panel, put the torroid on the bolt and then put the nut on top of the torroid. If you mount the torroid horizontally like this you *MUST* be sure that the bolt DOES NOT touch the top panel of the chasis otherwise you will melt your torroid. I learned that the hard way and it was a fucking mess and a half. I had a bolt that was short enough, but I carelessly put something heavy on top of the unit in the rack and it sagged the top panel down enough to touch the bolt, shorting the torroid. Bad times. I try to use the shortest bolt possible when mounting torroids now to avoid that.

dave

[quote author="soundguy"]on many chasis, depending upon the front panel, you dont need to mount the screws flush. The front panel rarely will be flush with the bottom panel, it extends below it, so your screw heads will have room to protrude out the bottom of the chasis. If you need to mount the torroid to the bottom panel, place the bolt through the panel, put the torroid on the bolt and then put the nut on top of the torroid. If you mount the torroid horizontally like this you *MUST* be sure that the bolt DOES NOT touch the top panel of the chasis otherwise you will melt your torroid. I learned that the hard way and it was a fucking mess and a half. I had a bolt that was short enough, but I carelessly put something heavy on top of the unit in the rack and it sagged the top panel down enough to touch the bolt, shorting the torroid. Bad times. I try to use the shortest bolt possible when mounting torroids now to avoid that.

dave[/quote]

To paraphrase Thucydides, A shorted toroid turn can ruin your entire day.

I had always thought that was from Admiral Nimitz, but the internet straightened me out. The first half in the original is "A collision at sea..."

OK, who wrote this one?

"The great tragedy of Science -
the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact"

So how would two toroids react if you stacked them and mounted them with a steel bolt? I suppose it depends on how they are hooked up, paralleled, in or out of phase, secondaries connected and so on.

adam

I think thats what the Gyraf builders have been doing for quite some time. The flux is supposed to stay inside the torroid, so hopefully, no magnetic linkage will show up.

Is it OK to stack two toroids?

Click to expand...

My understanding is it's OK. The G9's are like that...at least mine is and I haven't had any problems with it...[/quote]

[quote author="CJ"]OK, who wrote this one?

"The great tragedy of Science -
the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact"[/quote]

Yow---19,100 Google hits on a truncated version of that quote. The author is the late great biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, father of Aldous and Julian.

ROOFING SILICONE!

YUP! Selley's roofing silicone. I just put enough on the bottom of the toroid and squooosh it down. It's absolutely ridiculous that manufacturers STILL haven't come up with a better mounting system than a steel bolt through the middle.
Anyone who knows anything about electromagnetism/inductors will realise this is bad news.

BTW, The clear stuff doesn't have the adhesive properties of the black stuff, so always buy black.

[quote author="Mbira"]

Is it OK to stack two toroids?

Click to expand...

My understanding is it's OK. The G9's are like that...at least mine is and I haven't had any problems with it...[/quote]

No problem with that.

What you want to avoid is a _closed_ loop of conducting material
that goes thru the inside of the toroid, and is closed outside.
Why? Because then you create a (single turn) winding on your
transformer that is shortened. Low voltage, high current - just
what you need for melting (or welding) something.

And, without this forbidden closed loop, just from sticking your
mounting bolt from the lower lid thru the toroid, you should still be
able to measure a voltage between the upper end of the bolt and
the top lid of your enclosure.
Why? Because it's still a (single turn) winding - gladly
not shortended, but left open.
This is perfectly ok, of course.
Just treat it as the thing it is: An open secondary winding.
I usually insulate the end of the bolt with a nylon nut.

When you stack two toroidals, using one bolt, you have
two transformers's single-turn secondaries, connected
in series. No problem either, as long as it's left _open_.

JH.

Careful on the RTV, the non electronic grade can be corrosive if it hits metal.