Pwr suppley Problem

Nov 20, 2008 3 Replies

Pwr suppley Problem I made a power supply with 3 paralelled LM338 Regulators in paralell (24V 12A trans), with 2 paralelled 20A rectifirs, worked great for 1 week, then all of a sudden, output dropped to 2 amps max (from 15A), , all componed seem to check out ok, getting full current out of filter caaps past rectifiers, any ideas, tried substituting a good regulater, and same thing, any ideas.


Sorry.. I'm a very visual person.. Schematic please..

Perhaps see:

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Page 14 has an example of paralleling regulators.

But what bugs me, why parallel regulators??? I'm inclined to get the same function by paralleling transistors, use feedback and a Vref.

D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com British Columbia Canada

Simplify first. Get one regulator working by removing other parts - then reintroduce the second, etc.

Most obvious failure is in low value sharing resistors. Perhaps these were not good for 5A and they are now open/higherZ.

A schematic would be nice.

RL

I wonder if Scott used current equalizing resistors, as NSC recommended in the examples in the datasheet?

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