WEEE and CdS cells

"martin griffith"

The use of CdS cells in electronics is utterly miniscule ( hence the amount of Cadmium too) compared to the massive number of Ni-Cd cells & batteries made every year.

Yet the widespread use of Ni-Cd continues just as before.

........ Phil

Sheesh, Another person I thought I would never agree with :)

martin

Hello Martin,

Not enough lobbying $$, no exemption, I'd guess. AFAIK the telecom industry landed a big exemption. So, if whatever you develop would have an RJ45 jack with some telco function then maybe...

Regards, Joerg

Of course. The governments mostly own the phone companies over there.

John

Hello John,

It looks like a strategy of "You'll try RoHS first and then we'll watch the long term results".

FWIW this link lists CdS cells under "proposed exemptions" but I don't know how old the list is:

Regards, Joerg

I know Silonex's UK distributor and have spoken to him about this.

He has indeed obtained exemption for the parts in question IIRC.

Graham

I beg your pardon ? Would you care to elaborate.

Graham

Many thanks for that bit of info, how are you coping with this potential nightmare?

martin

The cadmium aspect ? We'll just continue using the photocells we've always used as normnal.

That reminds me actually, there's another one we use ( not Silonex ) that comes from China. I bet they haven't applied for exemption.

As for 'lead free' we're in the hands of our sub-contractors. I've raised the issue many times with the department manager but he seems to be asleep on the job - seems to have a 'can't do anything about it - so don't care' attitude.

The whole thing's a bloody farce anyway. ROHS and WEEE tto for the most part.

We've plenty of old lead-containing stock ( it seems no-one considered this issue ) - if someone wants to complain they'll shut us down - end of story. Who's going to be checking anyway ?

I had to chuckle when checking out CPC ( part of Farnell ) the other day. Plenty of stuff there to that had in the description 'ROHS compliant - NO' ! It's just 2 months away now.

How about yourself ?

Graham

Oh - just remebered.....

When talking to the Silonex guy he mentioned that he reckoned many small companies still aren't even fully aware of the lead-free issue at all ! That was a few months back, but not that long ago.

Have you tried soldering ( by hand ) with lead free btw ?

Graham

as normnal.

from China. I bet they haven't applied for exemption.

issue many times with the department manager but he

so don't care' attitude.

issue ) - if someone wants to complain they'll shut us

Plenty of stuff there to that had in the description 'ROHS

I'm trying to start making some useful audio/ video/DC stuff for web selling.I have no stock in hand. Done most of the PCB layouts etc So it was relatively easy to check the BOMs for RoHS.

It was just one horrible shock when I encountered the WEEE gobbledegook, from my secluded ivory tower. (must get out more)

martin

as normnal.

The company I work for switched from CdS to a photo-transistor. It seems to work well for our application. The standard layout includes locations for two different photo-transistors (to ensure a good supply and the best price). It made a nice project for the COOP student about a year ago.

I'm not sure how the cost compares to the CdS circuit, but I think it is similar.

The company policy is that everything must be documented as being ROHS compliant. It's somewhat painful and costly, but what's the cost of losing ~30% of our business? And then there are similar regulations coming up soon in other parts of the world (China and others). We suspect there will be some confusion until there are legal proceedings which clarify just what documentation and effort are required; we decided to complete our due diligence and not risk it.

Mike

used as normnal.

comes from China. I bet they haven't applied for exemption.

issue many times with the department manager but he

so don't care' attitude.

issue ) - if someone wants to complain they'll shut us

Plenty of stuff there to that had in the description 'ROHS

WEEE seems to be a mess. It's already been delayed a bit. The infrastructure simply isn't there.

Graham

used as normnal.

Not suitable in my example since it's controlling an audio signal. CdS cells are very good for this actually. Conceivably a photo-fet might work reasonably too.

Great if you're a larger company and have the resources to do all this.

The impact on small businesses is excessive. It sometimes feels like small business is being legislated out of existence. Maybe the powers that be forget how the likes of H-P for example started out ? Or simply don't care of course !

Graham

Hello Martin,

Can't you make that somehow fall under the network gear exemption?

Getting out more sounds great but it has to be past the taberna :-)

Regards, Joerg

are very good for

What photo-FETs are available... have you seen any good ones?

Wouldn't they be limited in voltage for the audio signal? Or possibly have signal polarity issues (for example, if there is a body diode on the MOSFET that acts as a clamp)?

are very good for

JFET not mosfet.

e.g

You need to keep the AC voltage across it fairly small to keep it linear.

Graham

companies still aren't even fully aware of the lead-free

Well, no, I get a friend, who owns a PCB assembly biz in the UK to do the prototypes, when we get our act together, he then sends them to me in spain. Skype is great for this sort of thing, sending files while VOIP-ing.

One thing the assembly company said, that nobody ever asks him about Pb free...

martin

Interesting part, thanks. It looks like the idea is similar, but to get it to work in an ordinary compressor circuit may involve noise considerations:

I am working on a circuit like