Donkey!
04-16-2007, 11:31 PM
Well the world is in trouble once again. I have begun the restoration of the brain cells in my dome that are on loan from god. :D
In the last couple of days I have been doing some research.
Everything from DC to RF. This means you audio only guys are included. :banana:
Because this is an audio joint we'll start there.
Have you ever wanted to power up some of your old school vintage gear in your shagon wagon. Well you're not alone.
Use a SMPS. A switching power supply. Now everyone is going to rant about noise and RF radiation. bla bla bla. Old news. You can, if designed and built correctly eliminate that shit. All of it.
This also applies to the DIY audio guy. Tube or solid state. Linear PSUs are expensive to build and are inefficient. Heavy too. Drop it on your foot if you don't believe.
You can start with any AC or DC voltage and get any AC or DC voltage you want or need. As long as the originating energy source (Wall/car battery) has enough current to power the overall system. These bitches are extremely efficient. 80% or more. Try gettin' that out of a linear supply.
Oh, and this is all regulated as well. It doesn't have to be, but it's just as easy to regulate.
My Yamaha amp uses a dual (bi-polar) psu. 50+/50-V. The transformer it uses are not cheap. Mine is ok, but....
So you would need a comparable supply. 50V+/- @ 5.5 amps. That's why it's a pricey TX.
You can build a SMPS to equal or better spec for 1/4 the price, and it will weigh 3-4 pounds (Lbs.) And your starting voltage can be anything. 120 VAC or 13.8VDC it doesn't matter. As long as you have enough current.
It all comes down to wattage. If you have 3KW available from the plug, you could build a 2400-watt/out PSU for a big ass RF amplifier, or santas sleigh.
Point being, once you accept this technology and understand it. You are free from the bonds of the "Transformer People"
I spent many a year being jealous of another mans transformer :D
Hey they are neat. They symbolize POWER. (Insert your joke here) I just did
I bought all the crap I needed to do this at 3 stores and built my first switch mode power supply in 6 hours. (I'm excluding my crash course in teroid tx winding). Yanked the power tx out of my yamaha and hooked up my scary project. And powered it all with a deep cycle marine battery. There was another voltage but that was too easy. I did some testing of course to avoid being able to add pyro-technician to my resumé.
How cool is that. Very! :yes:
Would you've ever guessed that you could build a FM broadcast band amplifier out of High efficiency N channel MOSFETs and use it in class E.
You have to know a hell of allot about antennas and feed lines and tank circuits and all of that jazz. But Hey, a good heat sink would be the most expensive single part. excluding the PSU. But refer to above. 28 VDC is to easy. And if your amp is really big I mean super huge, build a 28V @ 50A supply. It would still run off of normal 15A 120v circuit. That's allot of wattage too, 28x50=1400 and with a reasonable expectation of 80-85% efficiency with class E amplification you could be outputting 1.12KW from your man cave. heehaw And that's 80%, so your only dissipating 280 watts. You large pioneer monsters do that just sitting there looking good.
And for the avid tube gear guys. Big power small price. Well sort of. Tubes are tubes and I can't crap those out, so you're on your own there.
The tube amp my friend and I prototyped a little more then a year ago cost about 300 bucks. This was a dual 6550 ultra-linear amp. You can A or AB it. Irrelevant. Hell with these PSUs, might as well make everything A, because the power consumption is of no consequence. Within reason.
Anyways the Hammond power tx was 115 bucks. And it really would have been cool if it was twice as capable.
500-600-800 volts needed for the plates/grid/screens blazé blazé
I like and know solid state allot better. Well, I like the sound of tube amps better...
Now, what I have to work on is a way to substitute the output tx for a tube amp. This may not be suitable for AF, but it's the technology is what matters. I know people like the "Sound" the output tx gives gear.
"It's the iron, it's the iron" :scratch2:
With this stuff, frequency, amplitude, AC/DC, mode is not an issue.
It does vary the design, but it can be done.
:music:
- - Adam
In the last couple of days I have been doing some research.
Everything from DC to RF. This means you audio only guys are included. :banana:
Because this is an audio joint we'll start there.
Have you ever wanted to power up some of your old school vintage gear in your shagon wagon. Well you're not alone.
Use a SMPS. A switching power supply. Now everyone is going to rant about noise and RF radiation. bla bla bla. Old news. You can, if designed and built correctly eliminate that shit. All of it.
This also applies to the DIY audio guy. Tube or solid state. Linear PSUs are expensive to build and are inefficient. Heavy too. Drop it on your foot if you don't believe.
You can start with any AC or DC voltage and get any AC or DC voltage you want or need. As long as the originating energy source (Wall/car battery) has enough current to power the overall system. These bitches are extremely efficient. 80% or more. Try gettin' that out of a linear supply.
Oh, and this is all regulated as well. It doesn't have to be, but it's just as easy to regulate.
My Yamaha amp uses a dual (bi-polar) psu. 50+/50-V. The transformer it uses are not cheap. Mine is ok, but....
So you would need a comparable supply. 50V+/- @ 5.5 amps. That's why it's a pricey TX.
You can build a SMPS to equal or better spec for 1/4 the price, and it will weigh 3-4 pounds (Lbs.) And your starting voltage can be anything. 120 VAC or 13.8VDC it doesn't matter. As long as you have enough current.
It all comes down to wattage. If you have 3KW available from the plug, you could build a 2400-watt/out PSU for a big ass RF amplifier, or santas sleigh.
Point being, once you accept this technology and understand it. You are free from the bonds of the "Transformer People"
I spent many a year being jealous of another mans transformer :D
Hey they are neat. They symbolize POWER. (Insert your joke here) I just did
I bought all the crap I needed to do this at 3 stores and built my first switch mode power supply in 6 hours. (I'm excluding my crash course in teroid tx winding). Yanked the power tx out of my yamaha and hooked up my scary project. And powered it all with a deep cycle marine battery. There was another voltage but that was too easy. I did some testing of course to avoid being able to add pyro-technician to my resumé.
How cool is that. Very! :yes:
Would you've ever guessed that you could build a FM broadcast band amplifier out of High efficiency N channel MOSFETs and use it in class E.
You have to know a hell of allot about antennas and feed lines and tank circuits and all of that jazz. But Hey, a good heat sink would be the most expensive single part. excluding the PSU. But refer to above. 28 VDC is to easy. And if your amp is really big I mean super huge, build a 28V @ 50A supply. It would still run off of normal 15A 120v circuit. That's allot of wattage too, 28x50=1400 and with a reasonable expectation of 80-85% efficiency with class E amplification you could be outputting 1.12KW from your man cave. heehaw And that's 80%, so your only dissipating 280 watts. You large pioneer monsters do that just sitting there looking good.
And for the avid tube gear guys. Big power small price. Well sort of. Tubes are tubes and I can't crap those out, so you're on your own there.
The tube amp my friend and I prototyped a little more then a year ago cost about 300 bucks. This was a dual 6550 ultra-linear amp. You can A or AB it. Irrelevant. Hell with these PSUs, might as well make everything A, because the power consumption is of no consequence. Within reason.
Anyways the Hammond power tx was 115 bucks. And it really would have been cool if it was twice as capable.
500-600-800 volts needed for the plates/grid/screens blazé blazé
I like and know solid state allot better. Well, I like the sound of tube amps better...
Now, what I have to work on is a way to substitute the output tx for a tube amp. This may not be suitable for AF, but it's the technology is what matters. I know people like the "Sound" the output tx gives gear.
"It's the iron, it's the iron" :scratch2:
With this stuff, frequency, amplitude, AC/DC, mode is not an issue.
It does vary the design, but it can be done.
:music:
- - Adam