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Good Article

I had come across and read this article in my research, and it is the best single article I had seen. However, it advocates using a dropping resistor, and I'd like to use a circuit that better models the behavior (except failure modes!) of the original selenium rectifier.

Also in my research, I came across one article that said seleniums gradually increase their forward resistance for about a year (though the article didn't say whether that was under continuous use) then stabilize or plateau until they begin to fail. When you designed equipment using seleniums, did you design for initial conditions or for greater forward drop than the devices initially have?

I like your idea about a small capacitor in parallel with the zener.

What would you think of a series combination of silicon, zener, and resistor to most accurately model a selenium? What I'm after is an engineered drop in replacement that would require no thought on the part of the installer or consideration for the circuit. That sort of product is only possible if the replacement nearly exactly mimics the behavior of the original over the original's operating space of voltage and current.


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Follow Ups
  • Good Article - Lee of Omaha 08:47:18 10/14/09 (0)

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