[pYr0rAGE]

Hello all

I am new to designing high power circuits, and recently ordered an EV200 contactor without an economizer. Now, after attempting to install it, I managed to blow it up. I figure it was a combination of the following factors:

1) Not having any kind of economizer circuitry in place
2) Running the coil off of 18.5V instead of 12V

Now, touching the coil terminals reads an open circuit. I figure that by running it at too high of a power, the coil drew too much power and fried itself (although, right after the incident, the case didn't feel particularly warm...)

So, here's my question to the board: I am going to try again with this relay. It is the same as the one I was using before, but it has an economizer built in. Now, in order to prevent me from blowing it up again, here are some precautions I am going to take:

1) Set up a voltage divider circuit to reduce the voltage at the + side of the coil to 12V
2) Measure the resistance of the wires through the coil and find out how much power the wires will draw at inrush. It if looks too high, reduce the voltage further.

My questions to the board are...

1) Did the relay blow up for the reason I think it did (too much power dropped across the coils)?
2) Are the steps I'm taking above necessary?
3) Is there something I'm leaving out that would cause the coil to blow up again?

Thanks for your time!

-pYr0