Voltage Regulators: Explained.

Introduction:

    In the world of electronic circuit design, the selection of the right voltage regulator is one of the most important decisions. Virtually, every product that runs on DC power employs voltage regulation.

                                        

Voltage Regulators:

    As the name indicates, voltage regulators take a variable or unstable input voltages and convert them to higher or lower constant output. That matches the voltage and current needs of an electronic circuit. Basic regulators of the linear IC type regulators simply drop down the source to the desired level and shed the rest as heat while the others such as the switching type are more efficient. Simply stated, rapidly switching a voltage input on and off results in an averaged voltage output, depending upon switching frequency. A wide range of voltages is possible from a single source. Some regulators employ additional features to handle large voltage spikes, reverse polarity protection, or remove unwanted signal noise, automotive alternators.

For use in electrical systems and charging the vehicle's battery, most alternators employ a built-in AC to DC rectifier and a robust voltage regulator that is capable of delivering 13.5 to 14.5 volts DC above 100 amps. Each device in the electrical system may have its own voltage regulator depending on its specific needs. Common voltages are 12 volts DC for lighting and accessories and 5 volts DC for sensors and control modules. 

Types:

Linear regulators use a transistor that is controlled by feedback from a differential amplifier circuit and a reference voltage to control the output voltage. They may feature fixed or adjustable output. Output current is determined by the input current minus circuit operation losses. Linear regulators are simple to add and give a fast response time but are not very efficient. The output of a linear regulator is always lower than the input and drops out if the input voltage is too low. 

Switching regulators are very efficient but can be difficult to design. As mentioned, earlier switching regulators use controllers to rapidly connect and disconnect either the positive or negative component of the source voltage from the rest of the converter circuit to produce desirable changes in voltage and current. A feedback loop from the output to the controller helps to determine the switching rate. The arrangement of inductors, capacitors, and diodes in basic switching converters determines if the output voltage is increased or decreased.

Buck-boost converters can increase or decrease voltage but

reverse the polarity.

Fly-back transformers increase the voltage to 

very high levels but at very low current by collapsing the field of an energized coil much like the ignition system in some

automobiles.

These are the basic functionality, types, and common

applications of voltage regulators. 

Stay tuned. Bye.

Inductors: Briefly Explained.

 

Introduction to Inductor:

            An inductor also called a coil or reactor is a passive two-terminal electrical component which resists the changes in electrical current, passing through it.

An inductor is characterized by its inductance.

 

Structure:

            It consists of a conductor such as a wire usually wound into a coil. When the current flowing through an inductor changes the time, the varying magnetic field induces a voltage in the conductor.

Uses:

The ratio of the voltage to the rate of the change of current, which has units of Henry's many inductors have a magnetic core made of iron or ferrite inside the coil which serves to increase the magnetic field and thus, the inductance inductors are widely used in easy electronic equipment particularly in radio equipment.

 

This was a quick introduction to Inductors. We will go into detail in the Future.

Stay tuned.

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Bread Boards: Explained.

 

Bread Boards:

                Breadboards are used to prototype circuits. If you've got a starter kit with your Arduino or Raspberry Pi you probably have one. They come in many sizes for the most part the standard large size and slightly smaller size. The bigger bread boards have lines running all the way down the longest side which are known as the power rails. This is because you can plug your microcontroller or power supply into them to provide power to the components. On the inside running perpendicular to these are the component lines and these are where you place your components. This is where you can build your circuit. Smaller bread boards work exactly the same as the larger ones though they don't have the power rails running down. On each side by flipping over a breadboard and pulling off the backing, you can see how they work. These pieces of metal run all the way along the board and connect all of the components together that you need. If you were to pull out one of the metal lines on your breadboard, you will see that there are all small metal crimps that are designed to grab the legs of the components. This is why they're so useful. It means you can make circuits without having to rely on learning how to solder or using a soldering iron and it's very easy to prototype things quickly. One of the feature of the breadboard that you'll see is that down the middle there is a channel and this channel is a specific size and for a specific reason. The reason is that it's there is because many integrated circuits or chips comply to a standard called dual inline packages. For example, if we have an l293d motor IC that is designed for driving motors in a circuit, it fits perfectly over that little channel.

                You're wondering why this plastic device that you have that helps you make circuits is called a breadboard. It harks back to the history of DIY electronics when people also wanted to prototype quick circuits but they didn't want to have to get soldering iron out or anything like that. What they would do is they'd get an actual breadboard from their kitchen and they would use that with their components along with some screws or some nails or some thumbtacks to make quick circuits just to test things out or learn about electronics. So that is in brief what a breadboard is and what you can use one for.

                                                                                                                                                              

Stay tuned.

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Diodes: Explained.

 

In this article, we will be covering that what is a diode and what do diodes do. 

Diode:

            A diode is a device or component that allows current to flow in only one direction. LED is a type of diode. It's a diode that emits light but the diode we're concerned about is not a light-emitting diode.

                                     

If you have the diode connected so that it allows current to flow through the circuit, if you now stop the circuit and disconnect this diode, turn it around to swap the polarity of it and then reconnect it to the circuit. If you go ahead now and power up the circuit, nothing happens. No current is being allowed to flow through the circuit. This diode is stopping the current from flowing because it is now what you call reverse biased diodes. These are made up of semiconductor material and that means that they have the ability to both conduct and oppose the flow of current.

I am going to keep this simple so I'm not going to go into all the technical ways that diodes work for article as it can clear the basic concept of a beginner. All you need to know is that this diode will just block current flowing from one direction but it will allow it from the other direction so if you now go ahead and disconnect this diode, again flip it, either way, reconnect it and then power the circuit, it allows current to flow and there are many uses for diodes.

 

Transistors: Explained.

 

Transistors: 

       

While watering the garden you have noticed that the water pressure is low and so you turn the faucet valve to its maximum water gushes out in full strength and you marvel at the power you hold literally at the tip of your fingers, you wonder if only everything else in life is that easy that's probably what the electronics engineers hoped for when they set out to design a device that would allow them to control the flow of current in circuits what they came up with is a semiconductor device called a bipolar Junction transistor transistors are special because they allow you to control how much current goes through all of it some of it or none at all you can do this by controlling the voltage across two of the transistor leads each transistor has three leads emitter-base and collector the collector collects the current and the emitter amidst the current while the base is the region between them depending upon where the three terminals of the transistor are located on the semiconductor we can have either an NPN transistor or a PNP transistor in the transistor symbol an arrow between the emitter and base indicates the direction of current flow, the sequence of doped regions in a PNP transistor is the P region collector n region base P region emitter the sequence of doped regions in an NPN transistor is n region collector P region base in region emitter we can think of a transistor as made of two diodes pointing either towards or away from each other, before we dive into their significance let's take a moment to familiarize ourselves with terminology that is used to describe diodes electrons negatively charged carriers of current holes positively charged carriers of the current result of the flow of changing carriers both holes and electrons doping addition of impurities into a semiconductor to form regions rich and electrons or holes either electron donors like phosphorus or electron acceptors like boron are added into the semiconductor in the region negatively charged area of the semiconductor into which electron donor atoms are added so that there is an extra electron that is free to float away per donor atom P region positively charged area of the semiconductor into which electronic acceptor atoms are added so that there is an extra space or hole created per acceptor atom PN Junction region where the P and n regions meet allowing electrons and holes diffuse across biasing process of adding an outside voltage source to make the diode behave a certain way forward-biased connecting a voltage source such that its positive terminal connects to the P region and negative terminal to the in the region of the diode voltage is greater at the tail-end compared to the pointed end of the diode symbol reverse biased connecting a voltage source such that its positive terminal connects to the in region and negative terminal to the P region of the diode.

 

 

 

That’s all. Hope that you will like it.

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Integrated Circuits: Explained.

 

Integrated Circuits(IC’s):

An integrated circuit also referred to as an IC is an electronic circuit formed on a small piece of semiconducting material performing the same function as a larger circuit made from discrete components an IC is a collection of electronic components resistors transistors capacitors etc, all combined into a tiny chip and connected together to achieve a common goal. Integrated circuits can be categorized as analog-digital or a combination of both analog.

ICS work by processing continuous signals they perform functions like amplification active filtering demodulation and mixing digital ICS operates only at a few defined levels instead of operating overall levels of signal amplitude, they are designed by using multiple numbers of digital logic gates multiplexer flip-flops and other electronic components of circuits, these logic gates work with binary input data or digital input data these devices are used in computers computer networks modems and frequency counters integrated circuits that combine both analog and digital ICS on a single-chip are called mixed IC use these functions as digital to analog converters analog to digital converters and class timing ICS the most common An example of a modern IC is the computer processor which consists of billions of fabricated transistors logic gates and other digital circuitry.

 

That’s all. Hope you will like it.

Stay tuned.

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Capacitors: Explained.

 

 In this article, we will be discussing capacitors to learn how they work, where we use them, and why they are important..

Capacitor:

A capacitor stores electric charge.

It's a little bit like a battery, except it stores energy in a different way.

It can't store as much energy as a battery, although it can charge and release its energy much faster.

This is very useful, and that's why you will find capacitors used in almost every circuit board.

Working of Capacitor:

So, how does the capacitor work?

I want you to first think of a water pipe with water flowing through it.

The water will continue to flow until we shut the valve, then no water can flow, however, if after the valve, we first let the water flow into a tank, then the tank will store some of the water but we will continue to get water flowing out of the pipe.

Now when we close the valve, water will stop pouring into the tank but we still get the steady supply of water out until the tank empties.

Once the tank is filled again, we can open and close the valve as many times as we like.

As long as we do not completely empty the tank, we will get an uninterrupted supply of water out of the end of the pipe.

So, we can use a water tank to store water and smooth out interruptions to the supply.

In electrical circuits, the capacitor acts as the water tank and stores energy.

It can release this to smooth out interruptions to the supply.

hich are typically made from aluminum, and these will be separated by a dielectric insulating materials such as ceramic.

Dielectric means the material will polarize when in contact with an electric field, and we'll see what that means shortly.

One side of the capacitor is connected to the positive side of the circuit, and the other side is connected to the negative.

On the side of the capacitor, you will see a stripe and a symbol.

This will indicate which side is the negative.

If we were to connect a capacitor to a battery, the voltage will push the electrons from the negative terminal over to the capacitor.

The electrons will build up on one plate of the capacitor, while the other plate, in turn, releases some electrons.

The electrons can't pass through the capacitor because of the insulating material.

Eventually, the capacitor is the same voltage as the battery and no more electrons will flow.

There is now a buildup of electrons on one side.

This means we have stored energy and we can release this when needed.

Because there are more electrons on one side compared to the other, and electrons are negatively charged, this means we have one side which is negative and one side which is positive, so there is a difference in potential, or a voltage difference, between the two, and we can measure this with a multi-meter.

Voltage is like pressure.

When we measure pressure, we're measuring the difference or potential difference between two points.

 

If you imagine a pressurized water pipe, we can see the pressure using a pressure gauge.

The pressure gauge is comparing two different points, also:

The pressure inside the pipe compared to the atmospheric pressure outside the pipe.

When the tank is empty, the gauge reads zero because the pressure inside the tank is now equal to the pressure outside the tank, so the gauge has nothing to compare against; both are the same pressure.

The same with voltage, we're comparing the difference between two points.

If we measure across a 1.5 volt battery, then we read a difference of 1.5 volts between each end, but if we measure the same end, then we read zero because there's no difference and it's going to be the same.

Coming back to the capacitor, we measure across and read a voltage difference between the two because of the buildup of electrons.

We still get this reading even when we disconnect the battery.

If you remember, with magnets, opposites attract and pull towards each other.

The same occurs with the build-up of negatively charged electrons.

They are attracted to the positively charged particles of their atoms on the opposite plate.

They can never reach each other because of the insulating material.

This pull between the two sides is an electric field, which holds electrons in place until another path is made.

If we then place a small lamp into the circuit, a path now exists for the electrons to flow and reach the opposite side.

So, the electrons will flow through the lamp, powering it, and the electrons will reach the other side of the capacitor.

This will only last a short duration, though, until the buildup of electrons equalizes on each side.

Then the voltage is zero.

So, there is no pushing force and no electrons will flow.

Once we connect the battery again, the capacitor will begin to charge.

This allows us to interrupt the power supply and the capacitor that will provide power during these interruptions.

Where do we use capacitors?

They look a little bit different but they're easy to spot.

In circuit boards, they tend to look something like this, and we see them represented in engineering drawings with symbols like these.

We can also get larger capacitors, which are used, for example, on induction motors, ceiling fans, and air conditioning units.

We can get even larger ones, which are used to correct poor power factor in large buildings.

Values:

On the side of the capacitor, we will find two values.

These are the capacitance and the voltage.

We measure capacitance of the capacitor in the unit of Farads, which we show with a capital F, although we will usually measure a capacitor in microfarads.

With microfarads, we just have a symbol before this, which looks something like a letter U with a tail.

The other value is our voltage, which we measure in volts, with a capital V.

On the capacitor, the voltage value is the maximum voltage which the capacitor can handle.

Limit of a Capacitor:

The capacitor is rated to handle a certain voltage.

If we were to exceed this, then the capacitor will explode.

Applications:

One of the most common applications of capacitors in large buildings is for power factor correction.

When too many inductive loads are placed into a circuit, the current and the voltage waveforms will fall out of sync with each other and the current will lag behind the voltage.

We then use capacitor banks to counteract this and bring the two back into alignment.

Another very common application is to smooth out peaks when converting AC to DC power.

When we use a full bridge rectifier, the AC sine wave is flipped to make the negative cycle flow in a positive direction.

This will trick the circuit into thinking it is getting direct current, but one of the problems with this method is the gaps in between the peaks.

We can use a capacitor to release energy into the circuit during these interruptions, and that will smooth the power supply out to look more like a DC supply.

We can measure the capacitance and the stored voltage using a multi-meter.

Not all multi-meters have the capacitance function, so keep that in mind as well.

Instructions:

You should be very careful with capacitors.

As we now know, they store energy and can hold high voltage values for a long time, even when disconnected from a circuit.

To check the voltage, we switch to DC voltage on our meter, and then we connect the red wire to the positive side of the capacitor and the black wire to the negative side.

If we get a reading of several volts or more, then we should discharge that by safely connecting the terminals to a resistor and continue to read the voltage.

We want to make sure that it's reduced down into the millivolts range before handling it, or else we might get a shock.

To measure the capacitance, we simply switch the meter to the capacitor function.

We connect the red wire to the positive side and the black wire to the negative side.

After a short delay, the meter will give us a reading.

We will probably get a reading close to the stated value but not exact.

 

Hope you will like it.

Stay tuned. Bye.