Flyback, Done Right
A common part used to create a high voltage is a CRT flyback transformer, having been a ubiquitous junk pile component. So many attempts to use them rely on brute …read more Continue reading Flyback, Done Right
Category Archives: switch mode
2024 Business Card Challenge: Adding Some Refinement to Breadboard Power Supplies
For small electronics projects, prototyping a design on a breadboard is a must to iron out kinks in the design and ensure everything works properly before a final version is …read more Continue reading 2024 Business Card Challenge: Adding Some Refinement to Breadboard Power Supplies
It’s Switch Mode, But Not As You Know It
The switch-mode power supply has displaced traditional supplies almost completely over the last few decades, being smaller, lighter, and more efficient. But that’s not to say that it’s a new …read more Continue reading It’s Switch Mode, But Not As You Know It
Minimizing Stress on a Coin Cell Battery
When it comes to powering tiny devices for a long time, coin cell batteries are the battery of choice for things like keyfobs, watches, and even some IoT devices. They’re …read more Continue reading Minimizing Stress on a Coin Cell Battery
Tracking Down Radio Frequency Noise Source, With Help from Mother Nature
Amateur radio operators and shortwave listeners have a common enemy: QRM, which is ham-speak for radio frequency interference caused by man-made sources. Indiscriminate, often broadband in nature, and annoying as hell, QRM spews forth from all kinds of sources, and can be difficult to locate and fix.
But [Emilio Ruiz], …read more
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In-Depth Design Of A Flyback Converter
It is tempting to think of analogue and digital domains as entirely distinct, never to touch each other except like a cold war Checkpoint Charlie, through the medium of an ADC or DAC. In reality there are plenty of analogue effects upon digital circuitry which designers must be aware of, …read more
Switching over to SMPS for Efficiency
[Hesam Moshiri] has built a variable switch-mode power supply over on hackaday.io. When prototyping a new circuit, often the goal is to get a proof-of-concept working as soon as possible to iron out all of the bugs it might have. The power supply can easily be an afterthought, and for …read more
Mains Power Supply for ATtiny Project is Probably a Bad Idea
When designing a mains power supply for a small load DC circuit, there are plenty of considerations. Small size, efficiency, and cost of materials all spring to mind. Potential lethality seems like it would be a bad thing to design in, but that didn’t stop [Great Scott!] from exploring capacitive …read more
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Bench Power Supply Uses Server Voltage Regulator
If you stuff a computer into a rack with a bunch of other machines, you’d better make it a tough machine. Server-grade means something, so using server parts in a project, like this high-wattage power supply using server voltage regulators, can take it to the next level of robustness.
But before [Andy Brown] could build this power supply, he had to reverse-engineer the modules. Based on what he learned, and armed with a data sheet for the modules, he designed a controller to take advantage of all the capabilities of them and ended up with a full-featured power supply. The …read more
Continue reading Bench Power Supply Uses Server Voltage Regulator