"Bill Turner" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 23:19:17 -0800, "Ed Price" wrote:

I don't know what you mean by the "life" of a carbon comp resistor. My
experience is that they last forever, until you kill them somehow. Drift,
under low power, hasn't been a problem for me. I have never seen 40%
drifts,
except for very abused parts, and if you are using the 2-watt carbon
comps,
you can hear or smell when you are abusing them.

__________________________________________________ _______

Then you just haven't been around long enough. I worked in the TV
repair industry for just under 20 years and I have replaced hundreds of
carbon comp resistors which were NOT abused in any way, but failed none
the less. It's an ancient design which time has passed by.

--
Bill W6WRT


I didn't know anybody repairs TV's anymore! g

If you had read my entire post, you would have noticed that I wasn't
endorsing carbon comps for every resistor design. Consumer electronics is
better served by metal film discretes or SMT bricks.

I was addressing the sweeping condemnation of carbon comps (I suppose from
consumer techs with limited exposure). I suppose you might have noticed when
I was talking about my using 2-watt carbon comps in pulse generators and
dummy loads; you don't see much of that inside a TV.

Just as IC's haven't replaced tubes in EVERY application, carbon comp
resistors still are the best solution in a few instances, and I hope the
technology isn't completely abandoned.

Ed
wb6wsn