Ceriatone Forum

I understand how to make a bleed resistor for de-charging capasitors to avoid shock. But what I need to know is how to use it and also how to test that it is safe. Do you attach the clips to each cap one at a time? And for how long should I leave it to de-charge? Also, how long should I make the leads from the alligator clips? Once that is taken care of, using a DMM how to I properly check each one and at what setting should I use the DMM? If anyone had pics or a link to pics, that would be great. A

Thanks.

First of all, pull the plug while you are still strumming and listen to the signal die out.  A lot of times this alone will drain the caps of a lethal charge BUT...NEVER ASSUME!!  6 inches or so for the leads should be plenty.  Discharging one of the power caps does it for all but this too I never assume and probe for DC at several points in the circuit.  At this point you should not have much or any residual DC above a few volts so your DMM can be set to any scale of DC really.  Leave your "bleeder" connected as caps do have a tendency to build a bit of charge even at idle.  DO NOT forget to take your discharger off before you power up or you will see smoke.

Thanks for the help. Also wondering: do you just attach the bleed resistor to any one of the capasitors positive and negative ends? And by "probe for DC at several points in the circuit", do you mean just one of the caps that the bleed resistor is attached to? Or other points somewhere in the circuit?

You can also wire a resistor from one of the leads in the filter cap to ground and the cap will drain automatically when turned off. Leave the standby switch to on it will help the cap drain as well. You can probe for DC voltage by sticking the black probe to anywhere in the chassis and the red probe to the leads. I had Nik do this on my Plexi 50 clone and usually there are no more than 17 volts in the system after about 3 minutes from power down.