Galvanic Isolators

[Philosail]

This is just a question of curiosity. But why do you think in your opinions Galvanic Isolators cost up to $300 or so dollars(for some), cheapest I've seen was $150? To my understanding, they seem like simple enough devices, in essence, a couple of diodes(which you can find millions of, in a CPU, on Ebay, for $10), with a few other throwins....certainly no more complicated than a VHF radio. Is it one of those things where people are like "Well...if you don't buy one of these, you could pay thousands of dollars in repairs, so it's worth $200 in the long run!"?

This is starting to sound more and more like a DIY, I'll just have to figure out what size of rectifiers is used in 'em. Thanks for any enlightenment on this subject.

Cheers

[cal40john]

This one is rated at 50 amps
Galvanic Isolator Explained

The first place I found 50 amp diodes had priced them at $10 each. You need 4, they probably don't make enough to get much of a volume discount, so around $40 in diodes.

John

[Philosail]

50A 50 Amp 400V Bridge Rectifier GBPC5004: In Stock Buy Now | West Florida Components

What about 2 of these guys. They have a bunch of 50amp all the way up to 1kv, all for a few bucks each.

[cal40john]

At first glance I don't see why it wouldn't work, you'll want to make sure the terminals that you don't use can't touch anything.

John

[DeepFrz]

Galvanic isolators have gone up in price because of the safety devices and system checks built in to them. They are not much cheaper than than isolation transformers. See the discussion we just had on the forum for links.