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Isolation Transformer
Question from Brett: Hi Guys,
First off, I enjoy your videos and I hope you keep producing them.
I recently purchased a new monitor to replace an old bad monitor I had (I tried to fix it, due to the amount of burn in on the screen it wasn’t worth it to spend to much money/effort). I am looking at hooking up the new monitor, and I am trying to decide if I need an isolation transformer.
The cabinet I have is a Japanese style Candy Cab and the wire that was going to the monitor did not have an isolation transform and it was non-polarized.
The new monitor has a three pin molex connector and has a white, black, and white wire (polarized). I don’t believe I need an isolation transformer for this monitor. However, went trying to look up how to hook up an iso transformer it brought up my question.
It appears that the input of the isolation transformer is the bottom two pin are the input, and the top two are the output. When I run a multimeter across the two pins, and get a connection, as do I with the bottom two pins. Do this mean that the isolation transform is going to de-polarize the power signal?
Thank you in advance for your time,
Brett
1 answer
Response from Jonathan: Brett,
The polarization should stay in tact through the isolation transformer. It should not make a difference whether you hook up your new monitor through the isolation transformer since it does not require one.
The isolation transformer basically just cleans up the power by getting rid of power line noise, ground loop issues, in-rush current (speaker “pops” when another device turns on) and other forms of interference. They can also step up or step down power depending on the transformer. Isolation transformers that are hooked up to monitors are typically just a 1:1 type which means they output the same as the input. You can learn more about isolation transformers by visiting http://www.therealbobroberts.net/xformer.html.
Hope that helps. Thank you for your question and good luck with your repair.
Response from Tim: Thanks for your question sorry for the slow response. If you monitor is new you are right you likely dont need an isolation transformer…perhaps you can contact the mfg and ask though.
it doesn’t depoloarize it per say it just filters it some think of it like a surge protector in a way.
It wont hurt to use it though we usually still do use the old ISOs even if the new monitor has one built in.
Tim
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