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Thread: DIY rotary DJ mixer

  1. #161
    Quote Originally Posted by efinque View Post
    I see. So if the PSU sags it won't affect the regulated circuit.
    That, and also so that when the load varies the voltage at the output of the regulator is continuously adjusted to keep it steady.
    The load of an amplifier varies constantly, so the regulator is also varying constantly to keep the voltage to the amplifier steady.

    Quote Originally Posted by efinque View Post
    I found some TO220 regulators for cheap from one of my preferred suppliers with a schematic included, they seem to use coupling capacitors to provide current during spikes.. other than that I didn't quite understand how the voltage is adjusted, looks like a voltage divider of sorts.
    The regulator is an integrated circuit, it has at least two (often more) transistors in it, and a zener diode for the voltage reference. Here's a Quora article that shows the basic internals of a linear regulator:

    https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-...tor-consist-of

    The heart of the regulator is a power transistor that varies its resistance continuously to keep the voltage steady at the output. This type of circuit is called a "linear regulator", it's an analog circuit and these kinds of regulators often need a heat sink because the extra power (the difference between the input and output voltage,multiplied by the current) is released as heat.

    The second kind of regulator you will find is called a "switching regulator" or "buck regulator". These are both digital types of regulators, they work by adjusting the width of high frequency pulses.. and like a digital amplifier, they are much more efficient than an analog regulator and run cooler. But they are also more electrically noisy.

    Here's an article about how a buck regulator works.. you can see it's much more complicated.

    https://circuitdigest.com/tutorial/s...and-efficiency

    But since you can buy both types of regulators as prebuilt modules, they're really equally easy to use. Digital regulators are if anything easier to use since they don't generate as much heat. Switching regulator boards are incredibly cheap on ebay, just around $2-$6USD depending on what you need.
    Last edited by light-o-matic; 12-26-2022 at 01:58 PM.

  2. #162
    Quote Originally Posted by light-o-matic View Post
    The regulator is an integrated circuit, it has at least two (often more) transistors in it, and a zener diode for the voltage reference. Here's a Quora article that shows the basic internals of a linear regulator:
    Yeah I knew zener diodes were used in applications such as these.

    The heart of the regulator is a power transistor that varies its resistance continuously to keep the voltage steady at the output. This type of circuit is called a "linear regulator", it's an analog circuit and these kinds of regulators often need a heat sink because the extra power (the difference between the input and output voltage,multiplied by the current) is released as heat.

    The second kind of regulator you will find is called a "switching regulator" or "buck regulator". These are both digital types of regulators, they work by adjusting the width of high frequency pulses.. and like a digital amplifier, they are much more efficient than an analog regulator and run cooler. But they are also more electrically noisy.

    Here's an article about how a buck regulator works.. you can see it's much more complicated.

    But since you can buy both types of regulators as prebuilt modules, they're really equally easy to use. Digital regulators are if anything easier to use since they don't generate as much heat. Switching regulator boards are incredibly cheap on ebay, just around $2-$6USD depending on what you need.
    Thanks for the insight.. my first mixer build used a Velleman regulator module fed from a SMPS but it wasn't digital.

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