Dropping a few tenths of a volt problem

The circuit is flakey. A couple of tenths of a volt margin is nothing to ship to the field.

--

John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc 
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com    

Precision electronic instrumentation
Reply to
John Larkin
Loading thread data ...

On a sunny day (Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:08:42 +0100) it happened Cursitor Doom wrote in :

Not exactly, ONE PIC DOES ALL.

you could HEAR that nuke?

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

On a sunny day (Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:11:01 +0100) it happened Cursitor Doom wrote in :

So?

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

in o----->|-----o---o--------o out 1n4148 | | .-. | | | --- 10k | | --- 100n '-' | | | === === GND GND

This should stretch brief clicks nicely, without needing any of that hifalutin integrated circuit crap.

--

Tim Wescott 
Wescott Design Services 
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Reply to
Tim Wescott

I don't have a PIC to hand and neither do I care to re-learn PIC programming for what should be a simple fix!!!

Didn't buy this thing for nucular war; just for checking canned seafood.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

For what it's worth, I have surface mount Schottkeys here that measure 80mV forward voltage. Quite leaky in the reverse, if that matters.

Reply to
hondgm

On a sunny day (Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:41:52 +0100) it happened Cursitor Doom wrote in :

If it shines in the dark stay clear of it! Photocell?

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

Computer says no. Simulation suggests this will just tail the pulses off. They might be a bit thicker at the 'base' as it were, but for this to work it would still have to be fed into a Schmitt or something similar.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

[snip]

Don't you have some sort of current source driving the zener, rather than a voltage source?

Is the zener just for protection?

It would appear that Panteltje is on the right track. Just protect that NPN and then drive your logic. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142   Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

No, he's getting hungry.

Reply to
amdx

Describe your pulses. I presume they are currents? ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142   Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

I'm just trying to represent the waveform I see on my analog storage scope as closely as possible that LTspice will allow. The real-world pulses the GC generates for the earpiece socket are not very uniform. They're *very* thin and spikey; too fast for a moving coil speaker to react to, I would guess. Plus they vary in amplitude from a few volts to over a dozen.

That's the principal purpose for it, yes. It might not be necessary, but I thought it best to try to protect the Schmitt input.

I'll take a closer look at what he's suggested in that respect.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

Please see Message-ID: for a description.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

It's worked well for me in the past, to solve a similar problem.

I didn't use a computer to fool me into thinking it'd work or not -- I actually built it and tried it out. That must have been my mistake.

--

Tim Wescott 
Wescott Design Services 
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Reply to
Tim Wescott

You say "volts". Source impedance or how measured?

Maximum observed voltage, minimum voltage you want detected?

Rough idea of pulse width, repetition rate? ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson | mens | | Analog Innovations | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | San Tan Valley, AZ 85142 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

formatting link
| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Reply to
Jim Thompson

ve

n

I have several little flashlights that use a single AA cell to drive a wh ite LED. There's a voltage upconverter between the cell and the LED that's the same diameter as the cell, and about 1/4 inch long. Cost, under US$1.00 each. I bought several of them just to scavenge the upconverter out of for other purposes because I can't buy/design anything better that small.

Mark L. Fergerson

Reply to
Alien8752

Your simulation does not match any real component: The gates output only 1.0 V signal, which is not too good for the next stages.

--

-T.
Reply to
Tauno Voipio

How long is a string?

--

Tim Wescott 
Wescott Design Services 
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Reply to
Tim Wescott

Yes, I know, which is why I stated more than once that I'm posting these as schematics only and not for simulation purposes!

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

Indeed! It's next to impossible for me to measure, Jim. I can't display the pulses at all on my conventional scopes; I've had to resort to an old analog storage job (bw 18Mhz!) for the purpose and it's really not capable of fully resolving these pulses, which are extremely short-lived and resemble transient spikes more than a 'pulse' as such. I'm well aware that it's a very unsatisfactory state of affairs not knowing the full characterists of the signal I'm dealing with, but there's not a lot I can do about it. I have recently acquired a fancy 100Mhz digital storage scope but the controls are totally unfamiliar and I have yet to get to grips with it so that's not a lot of use either at present...

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.