Whelen UPS-64C strobe PS

[RJ*]

I recently picked up one of these - a Whelen UPS-64 C featuring... CometFlash™ (The sticker on it actually says that ). It's used, and looks really sad, with half the powdercoat peeled off and rust on the screws. The warranty must have run out sometime in the previous millennium. I fired it up and seems to be working perfectly though.


I opened it up - inside, between the big capacitors and the top of the metal case is a white paste. So, tech gurus; is that paste for heat dissipation or what? And should I do something to replace it, since I plan to be using this in a lightbar project?


Thanks.

 

[shues]

It is likely a thermal grease that helps to conduct heat away from the capacitors and into the chassis. This allows the chassis to act as a heat sink.





Your local computer repair shop should have small tubes of thermal grease available at a very reasonable price, it not free. In modern computers, a thin layer of thermal grease goes between the CPU and the heatsink/fan assembly to help move the heat from the die of the CPU to the aluminum heatsink and let the fan dissipate said heat.


If you need to, you can remove or clean up the old thermal grease fairly easily with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol.

 

[RJ*]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.