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WEEE and CdS cells

M

martin griffith

P

Phil Allison

"martin griffith"
Just trying to search to see if you will still be allowed to use CdS
cells at the end of the year, (WEEE etc ) for pro equipment

I haven't a clue

All I could find was stuff like
http://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/i...ns/electronic_components&vm=detailed&sb=Title
and
http://www1.silonex.com/docs/RoHS_Letter.pdf

One company seems to have asked for exemption, but I dont seem to be
able to find out if its "allowed"
Click to expand...



** Complete madness !!

The use of CdS cells in electronics is utterly miniscule ( hence the amount
of Cadmium too) compared to the massive number of Ni-Cd cells & batteries
made every year.

Yet the widespread use of Ni-Cd continues just as before.




......... Phil
 
M

martin griffith

"martin griffith"



** Complete madness !!

The use of CdS cells in electronics is utterly miniscule ( hence the amount
of Cadmium too) compared to the massive number of Ni-Cd cells & batteries
made every year.

Yet the widespread use of Ni-Cd continues just as before.




........ Phil
Click to expand...
Sheesh, Another person I thought I would never agree with :)


martin
 
J

Joerg

Hello Martin,

Just trying to search to see if you will still be allowed to use CdS
cells at the end of the year, (WEEE etc ) for pro equipment
Click to expand...

Not enough lobbying $$, no exemption, I'd guess. AFAIK the telecom
industry landed a big exemption. So, if whatever you develop would have
an RJ45 jack with some telco function then maybe...

Regards, Joerg
 
J

John Larkin

Hello Martin,



Not enough lobbying $$, no exemption, I'd guess. AFAIK the telecom
industry landed a big exemption.
Click to expand...

Of course. The governments mostly own the phone companies over there.

John
 
P

Pooh Bear

martin said:
Just trying to search to see if you will still be allowed to use CdS
cells at the end of the year, (WEEE etc ) for pro equipment

I haven't a clue

All I could find was stuff like
http://forum.europa.eu.int/Public/i...ns/electronic_components&vm=detailed&sb=Title
and
http://www1.silonex.com/docs/RoHS_Letter.pdf

One company seems to have asked for exemption, but I dont seem to be
able to find out if its "allowed"

It's one of those days when I would agree with Jim Thompson
Click to expand...

I know Silonex's UK distributor and have spoken to him about this.

He has indeed obtained exemption for the parts in question IIRC.

Graham
 
P

Pooh Bear

John said:
Of course. The governments mostly own the phone companies over there.
Click to expand...

I beg your pardon ? Would you care to elaborate.

Graham
 
M

martin griffith

I know Silonex's UK distributor and have spoken to him about this.

He has indeed obtained exemption for the parts in question IIRC.

Graham
Click to expand...
Many thanks for that bit of info, how are you coping with this
potential nightmare?


martin
 
P

Pooh Bear

martin said:
Many thanks for that bit of info, how are you coping with this
potential nightmare?

martin
Click to expand...

The cadmium aspect ? We'll just continue using the photocells we've always used as normnal.

That reminds me actually, there's another one we use ( not Silonex ) that comes from China. I bet they haven't applied for exemption.

As for 'lead free' we're in the hands of our sub-contractors. I've raised the issue many times with the department manager but he
seems to be asleep on the job - seems to have a 'can't do anything about it - so don't care' attitude.

The whole thing's a bloody farce anyway. ROHS and WEEE tto for the most part.

We've plenty of old lead-containing stock ( it seems no-one considered this issue ) - if someone wants to complain they'll shut us
down - end of story. Who's going to be checking anyway ?

I had to chuckle when checking out CPC ( part of Farnell ) the other day. Plenty of stuff there to that had in the description 'ROHS
compliant - NO' ! It's just 2 months away now.

How about yourself ?

Graham
 
P

Pooh Bear

martin said:
Many thanks for that bit of info, how are you coping with this
potential nightmare?
Click to expand...

Oh - just remebered.....

When talking to the Silonex guy he mentioned that he reckoned many small companies still aren't even fully aware of the lead-free
issue at all ! That was a few months back, but not that long ago.

Have you tried soldering ( by hand ) with lead free btw ?

Graham
 
M

martin griffith

The cadmium aspect ? We'll just continue using the photocells we've always used as normnal.

That reminds me actually, there's another one we use ( not Silonex ) that comes from China. I bet they haven't applied for exemption.

As for 'lead free' we're in the hands of our sub-contractors. I've raised the issue many times with the department manager but he
seems to be asleep on the job - seems to have a 'can't do anything about it - so don't care' attitude.

The whole thing's a bloody farce anyway. ROHS and WEEE tto for the most part.

We've plenty of old lead-containing stock ( it seems no-one considered this issue ) - if someone wants to complain they'll shut us
down - end of story. Who's going to be checking anyway ?

I had to chuckle when checking out CPC ( part of Farnell ) the other day. Plenty of stuff there to that had in the description 'ROHS
compliant - NO' ! It's just 2 months away now.

How about yourself ?

Graham
Click to expand...
I'm trying to start making some useful audio/ video/DC stuff for web
selling.I have no stock in hand. Done most of the PCB layouts etc So
it was relatively easy to check the BOMs for RoHS.

It was just one horrible shock when I encountered the WEEE
gobbledegook, from my secluded ivory tower. (must get out more)


martin
 
M

mw

Pooh said:
JFET not mosfet.

e.g http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/H1/H11F1.pdf

You need to keep the AC voltage across it fairly small to keep it linear.
Click to expand...

Interesting part, thanks. It looks like the idea is similar, but to get
it to work in an ordinary compressor circuit may involve noise
considerations:

1) The voltage levels across the "resistor" part will have to be a lot
smaller, so it may be that background noise will be a bigger factor.

2) The H11F doesn't have the natural filtering that is present in the
CdS cells, so the drive to the LED will probably need to be filtered better.

I am working on a circuit like
http://www1.silonex.com/audiohm/comp_fig/fig6.htm ,
so I will put a spot on the board for the H11F1, just for fun.
 
P

Pooh Bear

mw said:
Interesting part, thanks. It looks like the idea is similar, but to get
it to work in an ordinary compressor circuit may involve noise
considerations:
Click to expand...

Yes.

Many compressors have also used conventional jfets too ( using voltage control
on the gate ).
1) The voltage levels across the "resistor" part will have to be a lot
smaller, so it may be that background noise will be a bigger factor.

2) The H11F doesn't have the natural filtering that is present in the
CdS cells, so the drive to the LED will probably need to be filtered better.

I am working on a circuit like
http://www1.silonex.com/audiohm/comp_fig/fig6.htm ,
so I will put a spot on the board for the H11F1, just for fun.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I just recently made a compressor using an adaption of that circuit
myself.

The BSN10 is obsolete btw. I actually used a very high beta darlington bjt
configuration in place of it. In fact I'm sure that'll work much better, the fet
will suffer from Vgs(th) variations.

Graham
 
M

mw

Interesting. I just recently made a compressor using an adaption of that circuit
myself.

The BSN10 is obsolete btw. I actually used a very high beta darlington bjt
configuration in place of it. In fact I'm sure that'll work much better, the fet
will suffer from Vgs(th) variations.
Click to expand...

I was going to try a 2N7002, but the Darlington might be better.

The tough thing to track down for that circuit is all the different
pots: 10k, 50k, 500k, and 1M... all of them Log pots. I am going to use
linear pots plus an external fixed resistor to approximate the log
curve. Crude, but oh well.
 
P

Paul Hovnanian P.E.

John said:
Of course. The governments mostly own the phone companies over there.
Click to expand...

As opposed to over here, where the telcos own the government.

I suppose if some fundie congressman doesn't want his 1-900 calling
record to hit the press, its important to vote correctly.
 
M

mw

Winfield said:
mw wrote...



Can you still get Silonix nsl32 light-dependent resistors?
I see they have a call for letters in support of the cause.
http://www1.silonex.com/docs/RoHS_Letter.pdf
Click to expand...

Yes, www.alliedelec.com has them. I bought 5 samples a few months ago.
But I have seen problems with CdS photocell supplies in the past,
even before RoHs arose, so it would be good to know about alternatives.
From my reading the CdS optocouplers are always highly regarded, so
there probably aren't any.
 
P

Pooh Bear

mw said:
Yes, www.alliedelec.com has them. I bought 5 samples a few months ago.
But I have seen problems with CdS photocell supplies in the past,
even before RoHs arose, so it would be good to know about alternatives.
From my reading the CdS optocouplers are always highly regarded, so
there probably aren't any.
Click to expand...

There are no direct equivalents to the Silonex parts.

The Chinese like using these......
http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=eagle+lcr0202&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

*Very* cheap too. Primitive construction.

Not sure if the old Vactrols are still around, ah they've been picked up by
Perkin Elmer it seems.
http://optoelectronics.perkinelmer.com/catalog/Category.aspx?CategoryName=Axial+Single+Element

Hamamatsu Photonics used to make some too. Can't find them now though.

Graham
 
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