Why Can't I get This FET To Oscillate

Hi, try increasing Rd. The gain of the cct should be gmRd so you need to check the typical figure for gm ( 2000 to 7500uS for a 102) and then determine the correct minimum Rd. Try using a pot. if gm =2000 then Rd = 14k5 if gm = 7500 then Rd = 3k9

Cheers Greg

In addition to the need for gain (and jfets have low gain) the "lead"-type phase shift network needs to see a low impedance at its output. A bipolar base provides this low impedance, a fet doesn't. A lag-type phase shifter is more appropriate for a fet.

But phase-shift oscillators tend to be rotten anyhow.

Hey, this guy has a few really terrible circuits on his web page!

John

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Thanks. The first JFET I used needed a 1.5k for the source resistor. I increased the drain load from 3.9k to 10k, to get more gain, but of course that meant a higher source resistor for more neg V on the gate. So instead I put a 1N4148 in series with the resistor to give a .6 or so volt dtop. That helped bring the drain voltage up to closer to half the

9V supply voltage. But it still wouldn't osc, just a damped sine wave. So I swapped the JFET, and that got it to be a bit better, but still a damped sine wave. I decided to put another 1000 uF across the source bypass cap, total 2000, and it helped a bit. So I kept putting more of them across, and the damped wave kept getting longer. I'm up to 5400 uF, and it will 'ring' for more than a minute but it's still a damped sine wave. I'm gonna try a higher value drain load, as you suggest. But I still have to deal with rebiasing it with a higher source resistor. I used a pot, but I guess it wasn't high enough value. I'll tinker with it some more after awhile.

One thing that's always bothered me about JFETs is that there is so much variance in the gm and Idss from part to part. Now that I have a bagful, I'm not so concerned with having to swap them to find the 'right one'. Before, I was lucky to find two of them at Rat Shaft, and with my luck, they'd both be the same. And I wasn't about to go all over town to buy more and have to spend tens of dollars to do so.

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You mean Bowden's website? He posts here regularly. Thanks for the advice. I could always lower the resistors, I suppose. But I may change it to lag type if I can't get it to behave. See my other followup.

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Thanks. It's a MPF102. The circuit works, but it's a damped sine wave, it just won't sustain oscillation. After I made several changes (see other followup), it is taking longer to damp, but still not sustaining oscillation. I'm working on it, thanks to other's advice.

I would be tempted to put a pair of NPN emitter followers on the drain, one for the output and one to drive the capacitive line.

--
John Popelish

I was taught that one of the corrolaries of Murphy's Law is... "Amplifiers will oscillate. Oscillators won't."

the source should be on the resistor side and the drain to the 9volts. i don't know if that will fix it, also did you make sure you used a jFet and not a MOSFET?

Do you mean this one?

you link puts me at "Triangle and Squarewave Generator".

If you mean the "Low Frequency Sinewave Generators",

Well, that'll kinda degenerate your source follower output.

This confuses me, because the circuit I see has no drain load resistor, it's merely a source follower buffer. The 2N3906 is the gain element.

Or are you talking about a completely different circuit?

Thanks, Rich

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Sorry for any confusion. Yes, the correct link is to the low Freq Gens, not the func gen. And when I said "I built up a FET version of the phase shift oscillator", I meant I replaced the 2N3904 with a JFET, but used the schematic on the right of that link as the starting point. I haven't got to the point of adding a source or emitter follower yet, I'm just trying to get it to oscillate, not put out a damped sine wave. J.P. suggested ading an EF to the output, so I may do that soon. Back to work.. Thanks.

Well, it almost oscillates. Like for a minute or so. But the period of a cycle was 17 seconds - too long.

So I removed the three 10 uFs and put 2.2 uFs in their place. Now it's faster, but it's back to damped oscillations that settle down in 20 or

30 seconds. Back to work..

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I thing that might be a good idea. But I have a couple theories or ruminations.

This is a 'lead' network. Three CR sections with the last one directly driving the gate, which is (nearly) infinite input impedance. Each section contributes 60 degrees phase shift, but say each one was contributing 45 degrees. Then the reactance of the caps would equal the resistance of the resistors, which is 150k. So 60 degrees isn't that much diff, the tangent of 60 is 1.732, but I forget which way, so either the cap reactance is 150k * 1.732 or 150k / 1.732 (the former makes more sense). We're talking about an impedance that's considerably above the drain resistor (which is 16k for now), and much lower than the input impedance. So this should allow the FET to be better at oscillating than a BJT. But it doesn't seem that way, with all the problems I'm having getting it to do better than poop out after a few cycles.

Couldn't resist it!. Tried Wien arrangements, then gyrated LCs but the single FETs and transistors just kept running out of gain. Don't know whether that FET was the main interest, or just that a L.F. Sine was wanted but the same circuit using an NPN seems to useably work. regards john

+9V | .-. | | 27k| | '-' | .------------------------------------o----o 0.1Hz | ___ ___ | 4Vpp | .--|___|--o-|___|-o | | 1M | 1M | --- | | | ---10u | --- | | | 10u--- | | | | | | || || | GND |/ o----||---o--||----o---------------| Jelly Bean | || | || |>

| 10u | 10u | | | o----. | | | | .-. .-. .-. | | |82k | |100k | | | | | | | 27k| | --- '-' '-' '-' ---1000u | | | | === === === === GND GND GND GND

(created by AACircuit v1.28 beta 10/06/04

"Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, the Dark Remover"" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

Bingo. Calculate the phase shift of the third section if it works into an infinite impedance (JFET input impedance.)

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Yeah., thanks. I got a couple of those BJT PSOs laying around. In the above schem, assuming 10u electrolytics, the polarity is real important. Plus to the base and collector. I've built several with the 'self bias' resistor between base and collector. In this case, 2M total is kind of on the high side, unless the transistor has a very high beta. And that seems especially true with the 27k emitter resistor. Why do you put that in there? With self bias, it's not really necessary, just wastes V swing, in the case of an amp.

The above is a lead CR network, which is what I was using. Last nite I changed the circuit to a lag RC type. It works even worse.

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Well, each CR has to be 60 degrees to give the 180 total needed. If not, then the freq changes to make it so.

"Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, the Dark Remover"" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

Why? Are your three sections identical? According to the schematic you cited, the R of the last stage is the input R of the active device. As I understand your posts, you substituted a JFET for the BJT, greatly increasing the resistance seen by the third capacitor in the phase shift section. A series RC network, in the limiting case of infinite R, has 0 phase shift. I suspect this is the case with your version of the oscillator, which requires nearly all the phase shifting to be done in the first two sections. But, as the phase shift of the RC network approaches 90 degrees, the attenuation approaches infinity, which means you run out of gain!

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Well, the cap already has the 150k to ground at the gate. See my other followup with the schematic in ASCII. Thanks.

Cool. In the limiting case where each RC doesn't load the one before, three RCs give 180 degrees shift with a gain of 0.125.

If you did 4 RCs like this, 45 degrees each, gain is 0.25!

Etcetera, I think.

John