Component looks out of place

[`FRANK.C]

I took a quick look at a Horizont Ranger B 1055 battery fence. A quick internet search shows they are in current production.
I was surprised to find the blue electrolytic inside. I haven't seen any of them in catalogues for ages.
I would have thought they would be more lightly to be found in equipment made in the 70's.
I am sure that it was fitted in the factory as the solder looks undisturbed as does the circuit varnish which covers the solder.

Frank

[Murphyv310]

Looks like a Philips cap Frank.
I'd agree it looks rather out of place.

[radioman]

Still made by Vishay (formerly BC components & Philips) although they tend to be pricier than radial types. Examples

Andy

[Diabolical Artificer]

Yep, i was going to say Vishay still make axial caps in blue, but tother Andy beat me to it. i think they must be the only manufacturer still making decent axial caps. An axail have been used because of the clearance between leads, if for instance there was a large potential between them, which don't think is the case here, maybe it's for the same reason but in case of a fault scenario?

Andy.

[ppppenguin]

You do wonder why they aren't using dirt cheap radial parts. Perhaps they had a lot of the axials in the stores. Is the board laid out with extra holes to take radials once they run out of axials?

[Mark Hennessy]

Sadly, they recently changed the blue plastic sleeve - it's no longer translucent, as shown in that photo, but a solid light blue. So they're not such a sympathetic replacement for restoration work, though still better much IMO than radials with their leads stretched across the gap between pads. Good job the originals are proving to be so reliable in the transistor sets I have.

Does the underside provide any clues? Such as a bunch of traces going to that switch that don't have an obvious other route... Or perhaps the designer just liked them? I could understand that

[`FRANK.C]

I am surprised to learn they are still around. I think I remember seeing a thread about someone using transparent blue heat shrink to mimic those capacitors.

The capacitor is just across the supply no more than 14V on it. There are no extra holes for different sizes.

The bean counters were on holidays when that panel was put together. It uses a ridiculous amount of silicon for what it does.
I can count at least 20 transistors a chip which is probably a microcontroller and a triac. Whereas the typical line up to do this sort of job is a transistor a UJT and a triac.


For all the extra silicon the only extra things that I can see this panel doing is that is can automatically vary the output level. Which is of limited value and IMO most lightly a disadvantage.
Also it has a battery level indicator.

Frank

[Mike Watterson]

I've repaired fencers. That does look madly expensive and complex. Maybe it senses what voltage there is excessive leakage, and maybe senses damp and does it less often. I think I saw one with a neon firing the thyristor. It was otherwise like an early CDI out of a car. Looked like a car ignition coil too. The SM modules look mad.

[`FRANK.C]

Hi Michel
Complicated for the sake of being complicated maybe it looks good in the sales blurb.

These fences usually senses the peak voltage on the fence line on each pulse and adjust the voltage in the storage capacitors to keep the peak voltage at a given level . The idea is to save on battery consumption. This is good on the face of it but if an animal touches the fence line it wont receive full power until the second pulse which can be too late. I favor fences with a simple High/Low power switch.

Nervus did an mains fence that used a neon to time the pulses. It trigger a triac by discharging a capacitor into its gate. The neon also served as an indicator to show that the fence was working.
Elephant also used a neon in a similar manner in their B2 battery fence.

Frank

[BusyBee]

This saddens me a lot as I remember the worst job I was ever asked to sort was the repair of a cattle prod. I am not sure whether they are even legal these days or even what happened at the time. Not really my job or the company's. Perhaps I have seen too many horror films. We all probably have our bad points!

Tracy