50Hz vs. 60Hz

[Jochen Kunz]

On Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:59:18 +0000
Mike Ross <mross666 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 1. Thinking about old DEC logic power supplies in general (pdp-8, -11, -12, -15 etc), is there liable to be any problem with using equipment sold in 50Hz countries on US 60Hz supplies? Obviously output voltages would be checked as a matter of course anyway!
Depends. SMPSUs normaly don't depend on mains frequency. The first thing
they do with mains AC is to rectify it to DC... With linear PSUs with
transformers it may work with a slightly different mains frequency.

> Equipment which uses motors is, I would have thought, liable to be more of a problem, for instance:
Depends on the type of motor. There are AC motors where the RPM depends
on the mains frequency. Universal and DC motors, obviously, don't
depend on mains frequency. Especially in tapes there are DC servo
motors common. Usually there speed is controled by a closed loop
contoler.

Also keep in mind things like line time clock...

In short: There is no short answer. You have to check each device
individually.
-- 


tschüß,
       Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/