Parts from the lamp module board are removed.
- I removed the screw on the triac
-The connections to the large, black, cylindrical choke under the heatsink is unsoldered and the heatsink and choke is removed from main circuit board.
-I removed the triac; resistors R5 (1K), R8 (39 ohm), R3 (100K), R6 (330K); diodes D11, D7, D8, D9, D10; and transistor TR1. The brown 18AWG jumper wire between the hot blade and MT1 pin of the triac is also removed. The electronic components removed are to trigger the gate on the triac and to sense the current for local switching, both of which I do not need anymore.
Refer to this picture to find the parts I removed:
For the hot and neutral wires in the module, I will need a minimum of 18 AWG wire. One can install rather large current carrying alternistors, but I don't think there is enough heatsink area to cool them. To be safe, I would probably want to limit the lamp module to 5 Amps. To test, I would plug the load to test into the lamp module and see if the lamp module gets too hot to the touch. If it gets too hot, DO NOT continue to use this modified module to power the load. My main purpose for this mod is to power 20-200 watt fluorescent lights, so I am not too concerned about heating the module.
There may be a need to drill larger holes for the hot and neutral wires if larger hookup wire is to be used. I decided to use 16 AWG wire, so I had to drill out the holes. If 18 AWG wire can fit into the holes, they probably can be left alone. The holes that might need to be enlarged are the holes where the choke was solder into, the hole where the brown wire was soldered by the hot blade, and the hole where the old triac MT2 soldered. The MT2 hole is the center lead.
- A 16 AWG jumper wire is soldered across the holes where the choke used to be. This will bridge the neutral from the blade to the jack at the bottom of the box.
I will need to get to the logical ground and -15V on the lamp module circuit board.
Since I removed alot of components from the board, I can reuse some of the holes.
-A jumper wire is put across the holes where R10 used to be. This jumper is installed so I
can get the -15V signal to holes at D11 and R5 for the capacitor and the V- wire to the
SSR PC board.
-A 22uF electrolytic cap is put into the holes where R5 used to be. This will give me some steady DC current to drive the IR LED on the optoisolator. The + lead should be connected to the hole closest to the edge of the board.
Here is a photo showing the holes that need enlarging and placement of parts:
The little PC board is attached to the heatsink. I placed the PC board on the heatsink
and lined up the hole.
-The leads on the alternistor is bent so they touch the PC board and while the alternistor
lays on the inside of the heatsink.
-The location of the hole to attach the alternistor to the heatsink is marked.
-A new 1/8" hole was drilled in the heatsink to attach the alternistor.
-16 AWG wire was soldered to the MT2 and MT1 leads of the alternistor.
Refer to this photo to see how the PC board is wired.:
The solid state relay PC board is attached to the underside of the heatsink with a little wire tie-wrap and the alternistor is bolted to the heatsink.
Here is how the PC board is attached to the heatsink:
Now I need to wire the PC board to the lamp module.
-The wire from the MT2 lead of the alternistor is soldered into the hole next to the hot
blade.
-The wire from the MT1 lead of the alternistor is soldered into the MT2 hole of the old triac.
-The wire from V+ is connected to logical ground. There are a bunch of holes along the edge where the diodes used to be. I picked a hole along the edge where the transistor TR1 used to be.
-The wire from V- is connected the switched -15V at the collector of the remaining transistor. I soldered the wire into the old D11 hole closest to the large 220uF cap.
Again, refer to this photo to see where these wires are connected:
Here is what the finished mod looks like:
OK, reassemble the case, dials and Ta-Da, a silent appliance or fluorescent light switch!