There seems to be some good knowledgeable people here, so let me ask. I have come across a multiple times where I wish I had an exact ac voltage and current. It is hard for me to tinker with ac circuits because I only have outlets, so here's what I'm asking about; Is there such a thing that plugs into the wall and can regulate (change) the voltage and amperage by simply turning knobs or something? Foe example I have this ac powered "piston" but I cant utilize it without the correct power. it says it takes 110/120 volts and 0.02 Amps, it there a piece of equipment that can do this for me? Also if it could have some sort of cables/alligator clips coming out to attach to stuff like this that'd be great. --- Post updated --- Does anybody know?
Well, I know a little in Electricity, but in France we use 230V not 110v. But If I understand well, in big, your electricity isn't stable, so you try to found a thing who regulate it ? If the probelm of the electricity come from your supplier, I guess you can complain to it, they should do something. If you just want a regulator, you can buy the kind of stuff used at school where you choose the tension than you want.
I should imagine that you can find a wire that plugs into the wall and has a dial potentiometer controlling the amps?? Not too knowledgeable but that would be my guess on where to start What's the port look like that plugs into this 'thing'. I would also imagine that it has an amp controller built right in if that's what you're worried about.
Wow the lack of knowledge above astounds me. You can only directly control voltages in electronics. Resistances tend to be fixed. Current that flows then depends on the voltage and resistance. V=IR where V is volts, I is current, R is resistance, this only really applies directly to DC, theres some more maths involved in converting an AC voltage to its DC equivelance but the principle applies still. If you want more current, the only way to achieve this through the same load is by upping the voltage. You cant simply say I have 5v and 2A flowing here but I want 5v and 3A flowing, electronics dont work that way, youd have to modify the circuit to have a lower resistance instead to achieve that. If you connect a 20A device to a 40A outlet, the 20A device will only pull the 20A it requires due to its fixed resistance, the 40A outlet rating is simply the *maximum* it can supply and is not the amount it will actually force out at all times. As for converting AC voltages. Transformers are what you are after, though variable transformers are rare, usually they are fixed stepping. if I recall you are american so your mains are already at 110V and so that electrical device you have there is fine to be connected to the mains as is. Just please exercise extreme caution, ensure all connections are properly insulated and all that before you connect them to mains as mains voltages can be extremely dangerous to work with. Variable adjusting transformers are sometimes called variacs. They are very expensive. Cheapest source you might encounter is high end dimmer switches for home lighting, though most of these actually use a variable resistor to simply increase resistance and hence decrease current to the bulb (making it dimmer) rather than using a variac to adjust the bulbs voltage, we have 2 dimmer switches in this house, both appear identical, one has a variac one doesnt.
You are dealing with mains electricity. Something that can literally kill a man. It is not to be trifled with and so no, I aint gonna hold back in commenting on how you should not be giving advice about a lethal subject you clearly are not qualified to talk about. It literally gets people killed. Live with that on your conscience if you want, but I'd rather keep people on these forums alive rather than being a barely twitching burned out corpse.
But god why are you so bad with everybody. Try to help people : it's cool for you, but stop belittle everyone on the forum.
i did, i gave info on what he actually needs and some electricity 101 rather than leaving him to be killed
You litteraly cald him idiot... I give up with you it's alwais the same story at the end, you are too Maleficent for me I guess
Quote where I did that. Go on. The only people I referred to as lacking knowledge were you and iheart, who were both giving inaccurate advice on a lethal subject. Even then theres a difference between literally calling a person an idiot, and pointing out that I am astounded by the lack of knowledge given.
.........................................K Disclaimers were given. I said that I'm not too knowledgeable with the subject. Isn't on me if he took my advice to a T and I wouldn't expect him to, keeping in my that he read my disclaimers. If they are smart, they would read what I said and do further research. More or less I was thinking out loud. It's not like I said "I got an A in tech-ed on my circuit board project so you should listen to me as if I were the electrical Jesus!"
Woah, sorry for causing strife, thanks for *all* of your contributions. Now, @SixSixSevenSeven sense it seems that you have to most knowledge regarding this matter (absolutely no offence to anyone else) I'm starting to think about solely controlling amperage instead of both amperage and voltage. would this be possible if I were to create a multi-option switch (meaning many different positions) and have it send the current through a already-determined-circuit for an accurate, set, amperage? for example here's a rough drawing to show what I'm trying to explain;
there isnt a reason to limit amperage really. just a fuse for caution. Using that will use a fair bit of power because of the fact that resistors dissipate the current as heat. Just give it 110v. be careful though, its mains electric!. I dont think i have ever seen a circuit or anything really where there is a desired amperage output. Seems odd. itll only draw that amount of amperage rated (check with a multimeter) if its above by a small margin then its not the end of the world. probably just extra friction somewhere. if it doesnt work and the amperage is high then disconect it. its shorted or locked. Long story short, why would you want to limit the amount of amps. and if im honest that isnt a hard limit, its just like a brake on the current, will work but dissipates heat and is wasteful. 6677 already said this in his first post.
Might I ask application, there's likely better options than trying to build a true constant current AC source. Such devices exist but are complex, they work on varying output voltage in accordance with what current is flowing. Not enough current? Increase the voltage, too much current, decrease it. The device in your initial picture would be fine connected to its rated voltage as is. Like I said before, current is drawn not pushed (assuming a fixed voltage) and so it will only draw what it needs assuming you don't have any shorts. Definitely fuse whatever you do make, smallest value fuse possible. 9A circuit? 10A fuse rather than 25 please.