Riedon Blog
Welcome to the Riedon Blog. Here you will find articles and resources related to all types of resistors and shunts.
Custom Designs? We build to order!
Custom Resistors For Your Next Project Riedon can modify existing power resistor designs to fit many special applications. For example, it is relatively easy to imbed one of our standard wirewound power resistors into a custom case. Our custom capability is somewhat...
Oh, my bleeding heart!
Bleed Resistors - Maintaining a Charge Bleed resistors are placed in parallel with a power supply’s load and are used to discharge the smoothing capacitors in linear AC-DC converters and also the reservoir capacitors utilized by DC-DC converters. These capacitors can...
Divide and Conquer!
High Voltage Dividers High voltage dividers are used to scale down a high voltage for any number of reasons including: feedback for power regulation, or simplified monitoring. Potentiometric ratios as high as 1000:1 or even higher are not uncommon. Voltage divider...
The view from up there must be amazing!
Current Sense Resistors High current sensing is where a low ohmic precision resistor is used in series with the load. To determine the current one measures the voltage drop across the resistor. This is the same principal used by a shunt ammeter. The dilemma facing the...
Striking a Balance!
Riedon's Balancing Resistors Balancing resistors provide a way for sharing a load between two or more DC-DC converters or power transistors. Using two smaller devices in parallel may have cost, thermal, or physical advantages when compared to one device of higher...
Relax. No need to inrush.
Inrush limiting resistors Inrush limiting resistors of a few Ohms or less in series with the AC line can address a problem with AC-DC converters where a large surge current may occur as the device powers up and the bulk storage capacitors initially charge. One...
Let there be light!
Powering LED's With Resistors Efficient and reliable operation of LED lighting is dependent on the right choice of current-limiting resistor. in many situations the necessary ballast resistor is likely to dissipate several Watts of power. This not only dictates the...
Let us take your pulse
Pulse Withstanding Resistors Determining the right pulse handling capabilities for a particular application is not always easy. Dealing with inrush current is different than dealing with transient suppression, for example. For pulses of up to five seconds, the...
Sometimes it is better to not have a pulse
Wirewound Resistors To Absorb Energy Events The source of a pulse can come from many places including lightning, inductive loads (motors), capacitor banks, switchgear, or even switching heating and ventilation systems in and out of a circuit. A device such as a...
Typical resistors parameters and their meanings:
Resistor Paramaters • Impulse strength is the maximum allowed short-duration (impulse) electric energy that the resistor can withstand without exceeding the limiting temperature. • Limiting voltage, also referred to as dielectric strength, is the maximum allowable...