That just takes four diodes, in a bridge. Should double efficiency as far as amount of AC consumed per unit of light output goes.
Speaking of black boxes, most medical equipment still has recognizable components with numbers on them, etc, but almost all are soldered in place on a multi-layer board that would be impossible to unsolder, remove and replace with any hope of it still working. And what discrete components remain are microscopic surface mount resistors, diodes, capacitors and the odd transistor.
More and more medical devices are PC based - our newest generation of ICU monitors runs Windows XP.
I used to use my soldering station quite regularly, but it mostly gathers dust these days except for some connector repairs and the occasional low-tech circiut board repair. The amount of equipment and time needed to do component level repair on most things is prohibitive, so it's a board swap game.
But the other parts of the job get more involved and closer to the actual patients, so that's ok by me.
Geek Speak » in reply to I don't do a lot of basic electronics any more.
Using both halves
The whole thread (23 posts)
- Question on LEDs
- Is it AC or DC?
- Flicker