Better Late than never; voltage problems...

[Paul Birkeland]

Powered up and fuse blew instantly but also, cap between terminals 20 and 25  is bulging.  I verified that it is oriented correctly as well as the diodes underneath it..??

Bad transformer?

Either the diodes are in backwards, the cap is in backwards, the 3 high voltage transformer wires are not properly connected, or some other issue is present. 

I now would suspect that your low heater voltage is due to a miswire in the high voltage section dragging everything else down. 

[marantzfan]

I have already verified that the diodes and caps are properly oriented so the only thing left is the wiring.  I'll take a look at the wiring and compare it to the instructions.  I hope this didn't cause any damage to the transformer.

Also, I wonder if I can get a replacement cap locally somewhere...

[marantzfan]

I'll have to remember where to look for the wiring as the manual I have desciribes three different colored wires coming off the transformer but the kit I have has no wires coming from the transformer and was all connected with plain black hookup wire.  I seem to remember that there was a link somewhere to an update but its been a while.   

[Paul Birkeland]

The middle black wire needs to attach to the ground buss, and the outer two need to feed the first 0.01uF/1.6KV cap.

[marantzfan]

I'm at work right now and my instructions are at home.  Can you do me a favor and remind me the size of the capacitor that is cooked so that I can see if I can get one at radio shack on the way home from work today.  If I can, I can replace it and fix the wiring (if miswired) so that we can see where we are at tonight.

[Paul Birkeland]

It's a 220uF/250V cap.  A 100uF/250V cap would be enough to get you back to troubleshooting.

[marantzfan]

OK, I'll see if I can pick one up.  Going to feel really stupid if I miswired it.   

[Paul Birkeland]

Eh, my knowledge of your operational issues is mostly from screwing up my own projects, so there's certainly no need to feel stupid about anything.

[marantzfan]

Doesn't look like Radio Shack has anything near that large in stock at the store.  Any idea of another place that I might be able to pick one up?

[Paul Birkeland]

Where abouts are you?

In my area, there's a Fry's Electronics, which has suitable parts.  There's also a surplus electronics store run by a bunch of veterans that has all sorts of interesting goodies (even tubes).

When I need a part in short order, I generally never even consider Radio Shack anymore. 

You also might be able to go to your local thrift shop and pick up a used camera flash.  Pop that baby open and there should be some 330uF/350V photo flash caps that will do the job quite nicely for you.

-PB

[marantzfan]

I'm in the Phoenix Metro area.  There is a Fry's not too far away, I'll stop by there.  Thank you sir.

[marantzfan]

Struck out at Fry's too, looks like I'll be ordering one..

[marantzfan]

Believe it or not it was wired correctly.  But, I had to unbraid the wires in order to verify that.  When I tried to re-braid them I kept coming up short so I decided to unsolder the wires from the transformer to re-braid them and then re-install.  Well, in the process of doing that I managed to melt off the middle transformer solder tab so now I definitely need a new transformer.  Damnit!

A little frustrated tonight; time for a glass of wine.  Does BH still stock this transformer?

[Paul Birkeland]

A little frustrated tonight; time for a glass of wine.  Does BH still stock this transformer?

The Seduction has been out of production for quite some time, and we do not have any additional PT-1's.

You can use this transformer with the Seduction, but it will be pretty noisy.

[marantzfan]

Damn, other than that is there anything else I can do?