GFCI Outlets

[hertamaniac]

I'm not really that great with analog electronics. I'm really a zeros and ones guy, although I sometimes have to understand about stuff like slew rates. I remember I damaged a lot of parts in the lab trying to handle a soldering iron. I'm really a desk jockey although I can handle a #2 Phillips screwdriver.

I took apart my board and got a better look at it. There is a direct connection via a resistor to the reset switch. I see a revision "89" on the board, so it's probably designed in 1989. The board has holes and every single component is going through the holes. I don't know everything on it, but there are at least 6 ceramic capacitors, a few inductors (maybe 4?) various resistors (I forgot how to read them) including one huge one, at least 5 discrete diodes (is silver on black a diode?) and one discrete BJT transistor. A chunk of the transistor seems to have blown apart.

And at the heart is a National Semiconductor LM1851N GFCI circuit.

http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/405/lm1851-441901.pdf

There is a company in St. Pete, FL (Jabil) that actually made a prototype, successfully, where they were able to mold the IC directly into the plastic; they called it in-mold electronics (IME). We worked with them on various projects, but this touch capacitive solution is remarkable when you think of all the applications.

https://www.jabil.com/insights/blog...ward-for-jabil-engineering-services-team.html

 

[bcla]

There is a company in St. Pete, FL (Jabil) that actually made a prototype, successfully, where they were able to mold the IC directly into the plastic; they called it in-mold electronics (IME). We worked with them on various projects, but this touch capacitive solution is remarkable when you think of all the applications.

https://www.jabil.com/insights/blog...ward-for-jabil-engineering-services-team.html

Touch capacitive? Let's just say I know a little something about that from professional experience. Maybe on a smaller scale, but that's the way that several fingerprint readers work. However, almost all the longstanding companies in the business are gone. You don't see them any more on new PCs because Apple bought the last survivor and adapted the technology to their own devices. There might be a couple of companies that filled the void though.