Cherry Heaven TV has made some short on-line radio and tv programmes about making and working with kilns. This one is about replacing the transformer on a Paragon SC2.

To play, pause, or stop the player, or adjust the volume, click the Cherry Heaven Player controls. Whilst it's playing, you can drag the time-line slider to any new position.

Cherry Heaven TV has encoded the programmes to a net-standard FLV format of 320px x 240px. Other parameters have been set to achieve a practical balance of audio and video quality set against a likely data-streaming rate.

However, they're all over 1MB so, if you're not on a fast internet connection, they might pause and continue occasionally if the data stream can't keep up with the demands of the player.

If you're using a notebook computer, the audio quality will probably be poor, and might not be loud enough. To remedy this, you need some external loudspeakers:

The Cherry Heaven USB Stereo Loudspeakers don't need batteries, installing, or setting up: they're powered by the computer's USB socket and driven by the stereo-out socket. To learn more, use the Cherry Heaven link above the menu bar near the top of the page.

External loudspeakers will improve your enjoyment of music cds, mp3 tracks, on-line movies, dvd movies, video camera movies, games, youtube, and net-phone applications.

A transformer is a no-moving-parts device which changes an input voltage into a different output voltage. Generally, it decreases the voltage and increases the current, or increases the voltage and decreases the current.

A transformer usually consists of two coils of wire, insulated from each other, wound on an iron core. The energy in one coil is electro-magnetically transferred to the other.
The number of turns in the two coils determines how the input and output are related. In a typical kiln, the transformer converts a regular UK 240v mains voltage to 12v, which is used by the programmer.

High-voltage components aren't mounted on the low-voltage programmer circuit board: it's safer to keep the mains away from the user fascia in the event of a fault, and any heat away from the electronics. It's also easier to replace an inexpensive transformer if it's not an integral part of an expensive circuit board.

Although there are no moving parts, some still make a distinctive low humming sound. This isn't a sign that something is wrong.