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Re: Resistors getting hot

Subject: Re: Resistors getting hot
From: John Larkin
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 07:55:38 -0700
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.basics
On 19 Apr 2006 04:33:42 -0700, "MarkMc" <mmcnospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Hi I'm a bit of a novice, and I just tested the circuit below on a
>breadboard, and I find that the RL and R2 resistors are getting
>incredibly hot.  They are 0.25W rated.  I measured the current through
>R2  to be 20mA, and voltage across R2 was 10v.
>
>Using P = IV, I make that 0.2W, and using P = I^2R, I get 0.19W, both
>in spec as far as I can see.  I wonder if I'm doing something else
>wrong.
>
>RL will eventually be a relay, but on the breadboard, I've made this
>470R and an LED.
>
>
>
>
>
>                         +-------+----+--------------
>                         |       |    |        +12v
>                        .-.     .-.10k|
>                        | |     | |   |
>                      RL| |     | |   |
>                        '-' ___ '-' |<
>                         +-|___|-+ -|   Q2
>               6.8k      |  10k     |\
>               ___     |/             |
> On/Off Sig o-|___|-+ -|  Q1          |
>                   .-. |>            .-.
>                   | |   |           | |R2
>                10k| |   |           | |
>                   '-'   |           '-'
>                    |    |            |
>                    |    |            |
>                   ===  ===      LED  V ->
>                   GND  GND           -
>                                      |
>                                      |
>                                     ===
>                                     GND
>
>
>
> Q1 = BC107B (NPN)
> Q2 = BC177B (PNP)
> RL = 470R
> R2 = 470R
>
> RL and R2=470 both 0.25W both get very hot
>(created by AACircuit v1.28.5 beta 02/06/05 www.tech-chat.de)
>
>
>Regards,
>Mark


Get rid of RL - it serves no function now - and it won't get hot.

Resistors usually get hot, too hot to touch, at rated power. It's
common to derate then maybe 2:1 to improve reliability and avoid
discoloring PC boards longterm.


John



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