# iVac blastgate trouble



## gwood86 (Jan 28, 2019)

This is my first post and I really respect all the expertise on this forum. Hopefully, one of you have seen a similar issue in your shop. I have been running 5 auto blast gates for about a year now. Everything is auto with the machine, blast gate, and dust collector all turn on and off together. Recently I noticed one of the gates not responding. I figured out that it was the a/c to d/c transformer not sending anything to the gate. I switched it out with one from a working gate and everything was fine. So I just wrote it off to normal failure of a device. Now about a month later, that transformer is now dead. I'm wondering if something is wrong with the gate that is blowing these things. I'm afraid to plug another transformer into that gate. The two transformers were running off different a/c outlets and my shop is all powered appropriately so I don't think it's anything with the a/c power in my shop.

Any ideas?

Thank you.


----------



## DustyM (May 16, 2016)

I worked in low voltage for years, but not an expert by any means (hopefully one of our myriad electricians can chime in). But, if I had to guess, since it's the same gate that's killed two transformers, I would think there's a short or other fault somewhere with that gate that drawing more current than the transformer is rated for. Resistance and current are inversely proportional (from Ohm's Law: E/I = R, where E is voltage, I is current, and R is resistance). So as resistance goes down, as it would in a short, current draw can spike up. I've seen something similar happen on low voltage relays if the current draw of the device (in my case, magnetic locks) exceeded the rating of the relay.

I'd recommend disconnecting power (DO THIS FIRST) to that gate and another known good gate, then checking the resistance on both (using a meter connected to the terminals where power would be hooked up). If the problem gate shows a much lower resistance or short, I think you've found your culprit.


----------

