Elenos ETG 1000W Repair

[BriansBrain]

New ERA-5 and BLF404 now fitted in the Driver board

Driver ready for BLF404.jpg

Driver with BLF404 in on Microscope.jpg

Driver Board with BLF404 in.jpg

[BriansBrain]

Mounted the board back i n the TX......

And.........

We have RF power output

On a soak test @ 100W note the *BEER* to celebrate

Fixed @ 100W on Test.jpg

Fixed @ 100W on the Bench.jpg

[thewisepranker]

Out of curiosity, have you measured the mains power consumption? I tried to find some info about the efficiency of these but there doesn't appear to be any information, which usually means well you can probably guess...

[yellowbeard]

Well done young fella! I'd say you danced a little jig when that sucker lit up...

[projuicer]

#therigwhisperer

[BriansBrain]

Out of curiosity, have you measured the mains power consumption? I tried to find some info about the efficiency of these but there doesn't appear to be any information, which usually means well you can probably guess...

They are not as good as the new Indium versions which are rated at 74% efficiency

I have some measurements of this one working at 59% efficiency

Elenos ETG 1000 @ 1037W = 59% Efficiency.jpg

[BriansBrain]

Well done young fella! I'd say you danced a little jig when that sucker lit up...

Thanks

I certainly did......... I had a Beer or two to celebrate my achievement

[BriansBrain]

#therigwhisperer

Thanks mate

[jvok]

Nice job, take it radio brians getting its 1000w upgrade after all?

Also might be worth getting hold of a meter than can measure power factor, could be some of that 7.8a is reactive power that your not paying for anyway

[sinus trouble]

Excellent work Brian!!!!

Youve still got it geez!! So dont put yourself down so much!!

I raise a beer to you too!

[radium98]

Nice , keep AIRF UP

[BriansBrain]

Nice job, take it radio brians getting its 1000w upgrade after all?

At most I will only be running at 600W to try and keep the Electric costs down

Also as Brian's linear now is 150W this would make it a nice worthwhile 6.02 dB increase

[BriansBrain]

Excellent work Brian!!!!

Thanks buddy

[BriansBrain]

Nice , keep AIRF UP

Thanks

[thewisepranker]

At most I will only be running at 600W to try and keep the Electric costs down

You might not save much by running it at a lower power. Most transistors are less efficient at lower powers. This is quite evident on the BLF278 datasheet. Not accounting for losses, efficiency for the BLF278 is about 65% at 250 W output for a total of 1 kW. It's only about 50% at 150 W output for a total of 600 W.

Total power budget is 1747 W and at 65% efficiency the BLF278s at 1037 W uses up 1595 of those, which leaves about 152 W for everything else.

The gain of the BLF278 is about 22 at 250 W output, so requires conservatively about 2 W to drive it. There's four BLF278s so there's 8 W, at 50% efficiency for the BLF245 that's 16 W. That leaves us with about 136 W for the fans and power supply inefficiencies and some micros and logic. How efficient has the power supply got to be to achieve this? Let's assume 5 W per fan, for a total of 10 W, leaving us 126 W. Assuming no other losses, that's roughly 92% efficiency for the power supply which is unlikely, but let's just go with it.

Given that the power budget is:
10 W for cooling
92% efficiency for the power supply
We can have a bit of a guess at the power consumption at 600 W output. At 50% output stage efficiency the power supply will be required to deliver 1200 W at 92% efficiency (just go with it) which is a total consumption of 1304 W. Drive requirements are now lower, at about 1 W per output device, so the driver now only consumes about 8 W, still at 50% efficiency, plus 10 W for the fans, for a total of roughly 1322 W.

This translates to a reduction in output power by 42% for a reduction in power consumption of only 24%.

A caveat to the above - yes I know that all of the power consumption has to be factored into the power supply efficiency calculations, but there's not enough data. The bulk of the losses are in supplying the largest consumer, which is the output stages.

I'm curious to know what the difference really is!

[BriansBrain]

At most I will only be running at 600W to try and keep the Electric costs down

You might not save much by running it at a lower power. Most transistors are less efficient at lower powers. This is quite evident on the BLF278 datasheet. Not accounting for losses, efficiency for the BLF278 is about 65% at 250 W output for a total of 1 kW. It's only about 50% at 150 W output for a total of 600 W.

Total power budget is 1747 W and at 65% efficiency the BLF278s at 1037 W uses up 1595 of those, which leaves about 152 W for everything else.

The gain of the BLF278 is about 22 at 250 W output, so requires conservatively about 2 W to drive it. There's four BLF278s so there's 8 W, at 50% efficiency for the BLF245 that's 16 W. That leaves us with about 136 W for the fans and power supply inefficiencies and some micros and logic. How efficient has the power supply got to be to achieve this? Let's assume 5 W per fan, for a total of 10 W, leaving us 126 W. Assuming no other losses, that's roughly 92% efficiency for the power supply which is unlikely, but let's just go with it.

Given that the power budget is:
10 W for cooling
92% efficiency for the power supply
We can have a bit of a guess at the power consumption at 600 W output. At 50% output stage efficiency the power supply will be required to deliver 1200 W at 92% efficiency (just go with it) which is a total consumption of 1304 W. Drive requirements are now lower, at about 1 W per output device, so the driver now only consumes about 8 W, still at 50% efficiency, plus 10 W for the fans, for a total of roughly 1322 W.

This translates to a reduction in output power by 42% for a reduction in power consumption of only 24%.

A caveat to the above - yes I know that all of the power consumption has to be factored into the power supply efficiency calculations, but there's not enough data. The bulk of the losses are in supplying the largest consumer, which is the output stages.

I'm curious to know what the difference really is!

Wow that is some workout... thanks

As a matter of interest the fans in this unit are PAPST
2 x 120mm @ 11W each
2 x 80mm @ 6W each
Total Fan Power = 34W

[jvok]

Also as Brian's linear now is 150W this would make it a nice worthwhile 6.02 dB increase

Good stuff.

Would be interesting to see an input power measurement at 600w to prove/disprove wiseprankers theory

[Albert H]

Yes. Pranker's just about right - we've got a very similar rig here (a Seil 1200W beast), and that works out at about ~60% efficient at 1200W out, but backing it off to 500W actually reduces the overall efficiency to ~48%! Things are better at 800W - it's about 54%. As you get closer to its full rated power, the efficiency improves. Peak efficiency is at 1185 W out, which suggests that they did some serious work on optimising it for its rated output!

[BriansBrain]

Would be interesting to see an input power measurement at 600w to prove/disprove wiseprankers theory

When I get it hooked up to the Antenna system I will report back my findings

[BriansBrain]

Yes. Pranker's just about right - we've got a very similar rig here (a Seil 1200W beast), and that works out at about ~60% efficient at 1200W out, but backing it off to 500W actually reduces the overall efficiency to ~48%! Things are better at 800W - it's about 54%. As you get closer to its full rated power, the efficiency improves. Peak efficiency is at 1185 W out, which suggests that they did some serious work on optimising it for its rated output!

As I mentioned in another thread, the newer model Indium Version of this Elenos TX is quoted at 74% efficiency.
This older model could never get anywhere near that

I was even thinking of somehow disabling two of the final output stages and run it at 500W to increase it's efficiency
As Brian's electric running cost is very high on my agenda
I will have to look into that