Sites, Tutorials, Documents etc. on Supplies?

[signmeuptoo]

Power supply electronics theory is really getting me more and more interested. My electronics education is rusty, but since I studied it at tech school I should be able to comprehend some stuff.

I'd like to know of websites that discuss the circuit layout, matrix, structure, schematics, the types of parts and why they go where they go, the things that set various supplies above the hurd on a technical level, and so on... I want to really gain some knowledge that will enable me to properly advise people in other forums and so I can hang around here and feel a portion of as intelligent as the rest of you here...

For instance, i know that there are toroids in our supplies, but how are they used, where in the circuit, and what factors set apart various ones? Who makes the best ones? Who makes the best conventional transformers? How many transformer do cheap and quality supplies have and where are they in the circuitry?

What makes a rail a rail (just that it is the circuitry post regulator, or is there more to it)? Why do companies like Antec claim that certain supplies have, say, 3 12VDC rails when ALL the load capacity is available to ALL 12VDC loads? What do THEY mean by "RAILS" in such instances? Is this one of those misnomer/FUD issues?

Where in the supply are the electrolytic caps used, what sets them apart (yes, I learned about the differences, such as temporal qualities between models, in college, but I am extremely rusty on this stuff, heck, I forget the difference between emitter bias and base bias, what a numskull, huh?) Who makes the good, better, and best caps? Who makes the ones to avoid at all costs? What *actual* manufactures and *end* manufacturers have the best caps?

Other than electrolytic caps, what else sees frequent failures in supplies? Which caps and where in the circuit do they usually fail?

Here is one: People in many forums will "read" their supply output voltage on problem computers and be convinced that the supply is good, all when, in the end, after countless hours of misery and loss of bucks buying unnecessary other solutions, the supply is the last thing that they replace and all is good again, so: What failure modes will give a person using a run of the mill cheap DMM a "good" reading (within 5%) yet something about that supply voltage will be flaky even yet? What things can it be? What ways are there to test out for such things? Could, for instance, a very high frequency shutting on and off of that voltage be occurring that the DMM isn't seeing?

Sorry to pepper you all with the countless questions, I sure wish I was fresh out of college, that I didn't suffer brain trauma, that my career was once before me, and I was getting a job working for, say, PCP&C, I am so damned fascinated by this topic! I desperately want to be bright enough to really help people in some of the more humble forums, and learn things I can say to people so that I am intelligent enough to have them give in to the fact that a quality supply IS REALLY more important than they can comprehend...

Can anyone guide me here, please? Sorry for the mile long list, but...

[GalvanizedYankee]

Our links page would be a good start. :)

[ianm2]

1/ matrix, schematics, the things that set various supplies above the hurd on a technical level, .

2/ i know that there are toroids in our supplies, Who makes the best ones? Who makes the best conventional transformers? How many transformer do cheap and quality supplies have and where are they in the circuitry?


3/ Where in the supply are the electrolytic caps used, what sets them apart (yes, I learned about the differences, such as temporal qualities between models, in college,
Who makes the good, better, and best caps? Who makes the ones to avoid at all costs? What *actual* manufactures and *end* manufacturers have the best caps?

a rail is just another word for a voltage supply. you have 12, 5 and 3.3? with plus and minus 12 and 5, makes about 5 in total usually

4/ Other than electrolytic caps, what else sees frequent failures in supplies? Which caps and where in the circuit do they usually fail?


A rail is simply another name for a dc volt supply, you have plus/minus 12 and 5 and 3v3 usually, that makes 5. and split them up, can't answer the other bit, but single rail is now meant to be best

5/ that a quality supply IS REALLY more important than they can comprehend...


groan, why does everyone think pcp/c are the cinderella by which all are judged? they get an awful lot of plugging...

wow, that's an awful lot, like lawyers, don't overburden them or you won't get no answers, but you are in the right place.

I will try a little...I have edited out some of the more unanswerable ones.

1/ martrix? block diagram you mean? general layout?

price sets them apart, you get what you pay for. In reality, circuit design skill, time mostly, too, r and d, and overbuilt components. but sometimes you can pay too much for the name.

2/ toroids are usually chokes in smps, which is what computer ones are. no idea who make the best ones. who make the best tx's? depends on the application. in psu's again, no idea, all will invariably be chinese.

they will usually have around the same no. of transformers in general, just like arnie has the same no. of muscles as anyone 2-3 or so I think.

3/ electrolytics are mainly on the secondary for final filtering to make the dc totally smooth. series choke, shunt cap. to ground, filter.

temporal qualities, you mean time??, or phase shifting? forget all that. go and do a course on ac theory if you want more.

good, better best, dunno, I am only interested in those that work, and work good, as a rule, japanese caps and some western ones, and europeans, german, american, and if the english still make em. another general rule, avoid chinese ones, but not always. nichicon, rubycon, elna are good, panasonic, too, hitachi.

even the dearest psu's can still use cheapish caps, pcp/c use teapo, which in computers are reputed to be pretty good.

difficult to say who uses what, as even the same 'name' will have psu's made by different makers, they use differeing components, sometimes, just what's on hand, seriously.

4/ anything stressed is likely to fail, unless overrated/specified/built, basically anything potentially can fail.

5/ not quite true, depends, many use successfully those cheap nasty ones that came with the case, depends on your end, if its being stressed, yes, if you are just surfing the web, or typing a document, its not so critical.

there are websites out there on smps design, and ones for computers, excellent that tell you loads, I will let others link to them....

and another thing, most of the 'names' don't make psu's, they just MAY design them or specify them, and get someone else to make them with the cheapest labour, and yet still charge western prices for them. profiteering in the extreme and exploitation

its even possible some brands don't know anything about psu design, and get the maker to do it all, they just add the packing. pcp/c MAY not know as much as you think ,then again ,they may.