Measuring Transformer Specs...

[harry]

hey Guys....

its time for me to make some D.Is.....

and i have a heap of those Astor and no name Rick transformers....

can anyone point me to some info on how to measure the transformers i have?

i got the feeling most of what i have are 1:1 isolation transformers but good to check in case some can be used in the bo hansen di...


cheers


harryarvanitis

[EvLoutonian]

I'd love to hear a reply on this too!
Do you have to run a voltage through, to get the ratio, or just use a meter, no voltage?

[rob]

The article in Audio Technology iss 55 may provide some info.

copy here : http://www.proharmonic.com/articles.htm

fundamentally you need a meter of some sort and a signal generator of some sort. Reference your meter to the generator so you know what 0dB is. Then apply the generator to one side of the transformer and see what size signal level pops out the other. A mulitmeter on ohms range can be used to sort out which wires / solder lugs belong to which winding. Things become more complicated with transformers with multiple windings and / or windings with taps.

Then there is more detailed performace measurements .. freq response, distortion, max level before saturation at different frequencies, affect on response with various loading impedences, insertion loss, etc. For these aspects you need "real" test equipment and the expertise to drive it. Then again, at this point you can just suck it and see.

[waitup]

at this point you can just suck it and see.

I've got some different trafos here and I was sucking on them. I couldn't taste the difference between the primary and secondary so I thought maybe I had the wrong part in my mouth? They all just kind of tasted metallic?!

[rob]

you just need to suck harder!