Connectors Education

Isolators are one of the key electronic components used in a solar inverter. They enable communication between low-voltage, sensitive control circuitry, such as microcontrollers, and components connected to high voltage, such as power transistors and sense elements. They also provide a safety barrier for human accessible interfaces and connectors. When it comes to power paths in Solar Inverters, we notice three key trends: Higher power string and centralized inverters are moving towards higher bus voltages enabling the system to deliver higher power, while keeping the current levels the same, Reducing transition times in the DC-AC switching stage to minimize the duration that the IGBTs spend in high impedance, Increasing PWM switching frequency in the DC-AC stage to reduce the size and cost of the magnetics in the design (for example the inductive EMI filters)

Any kind of switch contact can be designed so that the contacts “close” (establish continuity) when actuated, or “open” (interrupt continuity) when actuated. For switches that have a spring-return mechanism in them, the direction that the spring returns it to with no applied force is called the normal position. Therefore, contacts that are open in this position are called normally open and contacts that are closed in this position are

The associative property In addition and multiplication, terms may be arbitrarily associated with each other through the use of parentheses: The commutative property In addition and multiplication, terms may be arbitrarily interchanged, or commutated: The distributive property

What, exactly, is necessary to establish electrical continuity between two wires? If I want to have an electric current flow out of one wire and into another, what must be done with those two wires to make that flow path complete? Conversely, what things might prevent continuity from being established between two wires when they are supposed to electrically connect with one another?

This calculator helps you compute the inductance of a wire-over-plane setup.

A switch can be constructed with any mechanism bringing two conductors into contact with each other in a controlled manner. This can be as simple as allowing two copper wires to touch each other by the motion of a lever, or by directly pushing two metal strips into contact. However, a good switch design must be rugged and reliable, and avoid presenting the operator with the possibility of electric shock.

So far, we’ve been analyzing single-battery, single-resistor circuits with no regard for the connecting wires between the components, so long as a complete circuit is formed. Does the wire length or circuit “shape” matter to our calculations? Let’s look at a couple of circuit diagrams and find out: When we draw wires connecting points in an electric circuit, we usually assume those wires have negligible resistance. As such,

By now you should be well aware of the correlation between electrical conductivity and certain types of materials. Those materials allowing for easy passage of free electrons are called conductors, while those materials impeding the passage of free electrons are called insulators. Unfortunately, the scientific theories explaining why certain materials conduct and others don’t are quite complex, rooted in quantum mechanical explanations in how electrons are arranged around the

With BogusBus, our signals were very simple and straightforward: each signal wire (1 through 5) carried a single bit of digital data, 0 Volts representing “off” and 24 Volts DC representing “on.” Because all the bits arrived at their destination simultaneously, we would call BogusBus a parallel network technology. If we were to improve the performance of BogusBus by adding binary encoding (to the transmitter end) and decoding (to the receiver end), so that

The circuit in the previous section is not a very practical one. In fact, it can be quite dangerous to build (directly connecting the poles of a voltage source together with a single piece of wire). The reason it is dangerous is that the magnitude of electric current may be very large in such a short circuit, and the release of energy may be very dramatic (usually in the form

This calculator helps you compute the inductance of a wire loop.

Project Parts and Materials Automotive alternator (one required, but two recommended) Old alternators may be obtained for low prices at automobile wrecking yards. Many yards have alternators already removed from the automobile, for your convenience. I do not recommend paying full price for a new alternator, as used units cost far less money and function just as well for the purposes of this experiment. I highly recommend using a Delco-Remy

The atoms in insulating materials have very tightly-bound electrons, resisting free electron flow very well. However, insulators cannot resist indefinite amounts of voltage. With enough voltage applied, any insulating material will eventually succumb to the electrical “pressure,” and then current flow will occur. However, unlike the situation with conductors where current is in linear proportion to applied voltage (given a fixed resistance), current through an insulator is quite nonlinear: for

It should be common-sense knowledge that liquids flow through large-diameter pipes easier than they do through small-diameter pipes (if you would like a practical illustration, try drinking a liquid through straws of different diameters). The same general principle holds for the flow of electrons through conductors: the broader the cross-sectional area (thickness) of the conductor, the more room for electrons to flow, and consequently, the easier it is for flow

The smaller the cross-sectional area of any given wire, the greater the resistance for any given length, all other factors being equal. A wire with greater resistance will dissipate a greater amount of heat energy for any given amount of current, the power being equal to P=I2R. Dissipated power due to a conductor’s resistance manifests itself in the form of heat, and excessive heat can be damaging

A right triangle is defined as having one angle precisely equal to 90o (a right angle). Trigonometric Identities H is the Hypotenuse, always being opposite the right angle. Relative to angle x, O is the Opposite and A is the Adjacent. “Arc” functions such as “arcsin”, “arccos”, and “arctan” are the complements of normal trigonometric functions. These functions return an angle for a ratio input. For example, if the tangent

Solid Cooper Wire Table Size Diameter (inches) Cross-sectional area (cir. mils) Cross-sectional area (sq. inches) Weight (lb/1000ft) 4/0 0.4600 211,600 0.1662 640.5 3/0 0.4096 167,800 0.1318 507.9 2/0 0.3648 133,100 0.1045 402.8 1/0 0.3249 105,500 0.08289 319.5 1 0.2893 83,690 0.06573 253.5 2 0.2576 66,370 0.05213 200.9 3 0.2294 52,630 0.04134 159.3 4 0.2043 41,740 0.03278 126.4 5 0.1819 33,100 0.02600 100.2 6 0.1620 26,250 0.02062 79.46 7 0.1443 20,820 0.01635 63.02 8 0.1285 16,510 0.01297 49.97 9 0.1144 13,090 0.01028 39.63 10 0.1019 10,380 0.008155 31.43 11 0.09074 8,234 0.006467 24.92 12 0.08081 6,530 0.005129 19.77 13 0.07196 5,178 0.004067 15.68 14 0.06408 4,107 0.003225 12.43 15 0.05707 3,257 0.002558 9.858 16 0.05082 2,583 0.002028 7.818 17 0.04526 2,048 0.001609 6.200 18 0.04030 1,624 0.001276 4.917 19 0.03589 1,288 0.001012 3.899 20 0.03196 1,022 0.0008023 3.092 21 0.02846 810.1 0.0006363 2.452 22 0.02535 642.5 0.0005046 1.945 23 0.02257 509.5 0.0004001 1.542 24 0.02010 404.0 0.0003173 1.233 25 0.01790 320.4 0.0002517 0.9699 26 0.01594 254.1 0.0001996 0.7692 27 0.01420 201.5 0.0001583 0.6100 28 0.01264 159.8 0.0001255 0.4837 29 0.01126 126.7 0.00009954 0.3836 30 0.01003 100.5 0.00007894 0.3042 31 0.008928 79.70 0.00006260 0.2413 32 0.007950 63.21 0.00004964 0.1913 33 0.007080 50.13 0.00003937 0.1517 34 0.006305 39.75 0.00003122 0.1203 35 0.005615 31.52 0.00002476 0.09542 36 0.005000 25.00 0.00001963 0.07567 37 0.004453 19.83 0.00001557 0.06001 38 0.003965 15.72 0.00001235 0.04759 39 0.003531 12.47 0.000009793 0.03774 40 0.003145 9.888 0.000007766 0.02993 41 0.002800 7.842 0.000006159 0.02374 42 0.002494 6.219 0.000004884 0.01882 43 0.002221 4.932 0.000003873 0.01493 44 0.001978 3.911 0.000003072 0.01184

Note: this is a very unique and useful property of e. As in the case of derivatives, the antiderivative of such a function is that same function. In the case of the antiderivative, a constant term “c” is added to the end as well.

Example Derivatives of e Proportionality Constant When we say that a relationship or phenomenon is “exponential,” we are implying that some quantity—electric current, profits, population—increases more rapidly as the quantity grows. In other words, the rate of change with respect to a given variable is proportional to the value of that variable. This means that the derivative of an exponential function is equal to the original exponential function

Constant rule Rule of sums Rule of differences Product rule Quotient rule Power rule Functions of other functions

Notice something important here: taking the derivative of f(x) may precisely give you g(x), but taking the antiderivative of g(x) does not necessarily give you f(x) in its original form. Example: Note that the constant c is unknown! The original function f(x) could have been 3x2 + 5, 3x2 + 10, 3x2 + anything, and the derivative of f(x) would have still been 6x. Determining the antiderivative of a