Fed 9V To My Belton Reverb…

debrad

Active member
I completed my Gravitation build and noticed the 78L05 was getting QUITE warm during a 5 minute test. Quickly realized the regulator was flipped 180 degrees and made the correction.

Everything SEEMS to be working OK but just wondered what kind of damage (if any) may have been possible?
 
The regulator is definitely hosed. Don't use it. Replace it. I'm not engineer, but I would say if the Belton Brick is still working properly -- if it were mine-- I'd just keep using it for myself, not to give anyone. If you didn't release any magic smoke, at worst it'll be a slow death due to damage to internal junctions, etc.

Anecdotal evidence here: I had a regulator flipped feeding the PT2399 of a mag echo. I had it on for quite a while and was actively audio probing for the issue until I took some measurements at the regulator. I was measuring the V+ pin on the PT2399 which was ~6V. The max voltage for it is around 6.5V, but the BTDR-3 appears to be 5.5V. So revert back to the rule of smoke.

edit: I'm kind of interested what happens if there's no load or a different load on the 78L05 and the pins are reversed. I'll post anything I find.
 
Just checked, and from my bench supply of 9.04V measured with a DMM:
normal pinout: 5.03V ~3mA
inverted pinout: 8.30V ~8mA
I didn't leave it hooked up for an extended period of time to test for temps, but yeah, doesn't look like me voltage gate theory is holding much water...

Yeah, ditch the regulator previously used (inverted), and continue to use the BTDR as long as it lasts.
 
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