[Iain Churches]

"Chris Hornbeck" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:26:51 +0300, "Iain Churches"
wrote:

Guitar amp technicians seem to refer to them as "flyback" diodes.
This may or may not be a general term.

That's an excellent choice of a name. It comes from old TV
receiver practice, where the horizontal sweep output transformer
was combined with a high-ratio step-up "secondary" and rectified
to make the multi-KiloJolts needed for CRT anodes.

The transformer itself (later with internal high voltage
rectifiers) was called the "flyback" transformer, because
its primary was shunted with a "reverse" biased diode,
whose purpose was to fly the flying spot back from right
to left.

The vacuum valve diodes used for this gig in their day are
very popular now as slow-heating rectifiers with amazingly
large heater-cathode voltage ratings (unidirectional! arf.).
They're commonly called damper diodes.

Chris. Interesting to know from where the term has originated.
I was not sure if "flyback" was a general term,. as here in Scandinavia
Swedish, Finnish and also Danish technicians seem to intersperse
their vocabulary with English language expressions that may or may
not mean the same thing in the US. Sometimes ago there was some
confusion over the term "common cathode", for example.

Best regards
Iain