Tributaries Premieres TX1000, TX500 AC Power Controllers
Tributaries® has introduced two new power controllers, the TX1000 and TX500, designed to collectively supply the necessary power requirements for today's consumer electronics multi-functional systems, company officials said.
System requirement features include surge protection, ac line filtering, programmable outlets, external dc power on trigger, on board ac polarity sensing, voltage and current reading meters.
The TX1000 Power Manager is an 1800-watt, Underwriters Laboratories listed device designed to integrate the ac requirements for a home audio/video system. Engineered with 10 ac outlets, a balanced toroidal power transformer, tri-level noise filtering, surge suppression and programmable delay turn-on circuitry, the TX1000 will provide dependable, clean ac power for high performance audio/video components, officials said.
The basic operation of the company's power controller systems uses an on board microcomputer for power up, triggering, and outlet programming. AC power enters the system via a 15-amp IEC cable and immediately enters a set of high current surge protectors by way of an external 15-amp fuse. This surge-protected voltage routes itself directly to the primary of a balanced line transformer. At this point, the ac voltage is inductively coupled to the balanced line output with common mode rejection.
Distribution switching and filtering of the common mode ac voltage is accomplished by high-current relays controlling timing and order of operation. The programmable user interface is a set of piano switches positioned on the rear panel of the unit.
Blue LED indicators are provided on the front panel to identify selection and timing of each outlet. An additional feature on the front panel is the polarity identifier. This red LED illuminates if the TX1000 or TX500 is connected to an ac outlet that was wired incorrectly. An illuminated LED alerts the user that the black and white ac wires in the wall are reversed.
Surge protection is accomplished by silicon avalanche diodes (SAD). Conventional surge protection is usually accomplished using metal oxide varistors. These parts have limited life expectancy and will almost always burn up under heavy surge demands, officials said. The SADs are highly modified diodes that can sink up to 20 amps of current, and recover within 2,000 nanoseconds while still maintaining 100% effectiveness for years of trouble-free operation, officials said.
