Request Help Identifying Component

D1 is likely to be a diac. Your little rectangular box contains a 47 nF 400 Volt capacitor.

On Mon, 22 May 2006 06:53:56 -0400, Gerard Bok wrote (in article ):

Makes sense. Thanks. Now that I look a D1 closely, I can see that what I mistook for the anode band is actually the junction between the two parts in the middle. Tiny little bugger :-)

What is the significance of the "J" ?

Not a clue :-) But probably some indication of temperature range or precision. Anyway: something you can probably ignore for a motor speed control :-)

J typically stands for 5% tolerance

On Mon, 22 May 2006 13:38:08 -0400, Paul wrote (in article ):

Thanks!

Nelson & Gerard-

The "J" is most likely the tolerance of the capacitor, I'm guessing 5 percent.

Your diagram came across a little distorted, but it appears that what you call a diode is more likely the capacitor as Gerard suggested.

What you call a diac (D1) may be the full-wave equivalent used to trigger a triac on both halves of the cycle. I don't recall what it is called, possibly a three-layer diode or something like that. I have a home-made version built about 30 years ago.

Fred

I think there may be a diac type designated DB2 - try a search and see.