I assume you must know that what looks like a 7805 is TO-220 package
which is used for mosfets which are used in
buck switching regulators.
How you would say LINEAR regulators are
used in switching power supplies is beyond
my understanding. That make F**Kall sense !
raschemmel:
I assume you must know that what looks like a 7805 is TO-220 package
P-channel Power MOSFET - TO-220 Package [25A / 60V] : ID 1794 : $2.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kitswhich is used for mosfets which are used in
buck switching regulators.
How you would say LINEAR regulators are
used in switching power supplies is beyond
my understanding. That make F**Kall sense !
where did i say that?
Reply 19
"the ones I found online seem to use voltage regulators as well..."
"voltage regulator"= LINEAR regulator
as I already mentioned.
raschemmel:
Reply 19
"the ones I found online seem to use voltage regulators as well..."
"voltage regulator"= LINEAR regulator
as I already mentioned.
Not really. It's entirely normal to refer to switching regulators as regulators...because regulating is what they do. And there would be no point specifying that you meant linear regulators if there wasn't anything else that could be called a regulator.
Steve
Fair enough.
Point taken, but for the sake of discussion,
would you agree that here on the forum,
the term 'voltage regulator' USUALLY means
a linear regulator and bucks are USUALLY
'buck' to distinguish them from inefficient
linear regulators, and NOT 'voltage regulator'
ergo , 90% of the time if the newbie poster
says 'voltage regulator' he means a linear
monolithic like the LM7805 ?
"because that's what they do"
Come on, let's be honest here. That's not why
they are chosen and that's not what they are
known for and more than half the time the
"regulation" is provided by a linear regulator
happy with it's 7V input voltage.
What bucks 'do' and what they are known
for , and the reason they are chosen is
EFFICIENT VOLTAGE STEPDOWN.
Rarely are they chosen to replace the linear
regulator. Rather they supplement stepping
down the voltage to something more
suitable for the linear regulator. I most often
see them used to stepdown the barreljack
external dc Vin input on an arduino.
If it were possible to have GOD do a statistical
analysis of the % of times "voltage regulator"
was used to mean LINEAR REGULATOR vs
buck converter, (in ALL FORUM posts), I have
no doubt Linear regulator would win hands down,
so what you are suggesting is massively less
likely than what I am suggesting. I grant you
a small percentage of occurrances of 'voltage
regulator' used to mean buck, but not more than
10%.
We could take a vote but you'd lose.
"what is the FIRST thing you think of when you see the term
"voltage regulator" ?
A- LINEAR MONOLITHIC REGULATOR
B- BUCKCONVERTER
And just for the record , the OP said:
"and they seem to have voltage regulators too"
He did not say :
"And they seem to regulate voltage too"
At the end if the day, it may turn out that
all he was really trying to say is:
"and it seems buck converters are ADJUSTABLE
and NOT FIXED..."
Personally I tend to say DC-DC converters which gets rid of that confusion over bucks and boosts and buck/boosts. But if you want to be really picky I suppose you could say that a linear regulator is a DC-DC converter too!
But I do agree that many people round here may not know the correct term for things (supposing that there really is one correct term). I find it more useful to try to understand their meanings and help them rather than rudely correcting their terminology. That's probably just me.
Steve
Point taken.
(the ones i just found online seem to use voltage regulators as well).
Why you would say LINEAR regulators are
used in switching power supplies is beyond
my understanding. That make F**Kall sense !
"Am I to understand you are implying the use of linear monolithic voltage regulators
in buck converters because you happened to notice that they are "adjustable" and
somehow assumed that voltage adjustment capability implies the presence of one
or more linear monolithic voltage regulators , or am I misinterpreting your statement ?"
PS- In view of the fact that, technically speaking, almost every post eventually comes
down to an interrogation process, (I have seen posts run past 100 replies) , someone
has to play the "bad cop". Unfortunately we don't have a small room with a single chair
and a bright hanging overhead light... It might speed up the process.
If the OPs ALWAYS answered ALL the questions they are asked, then the correct name
for the process would be "Question/Answer" process. The whole reason interrogation is
used is because the person being question is avoiding the questions or simply not answering
at all. If you read all the posts , you will see that RARELY does an OP actually answer
all the questions. Instead, they completely ignore them and make a statement or ask
a different question. It is actually rare (strangely enough) that an OP will quote someone's
reply saying "I have no clue what this means" . It does happen, but it is the exception
rather than the norm. If there were AI software that locked the post until the OP answered
the questions, then none of this would be necessary and it would default to a simple
Question/Answer process and we could find out whatever we needed to know , knowing
we WILL get the answer. (keeping in mind that the OP MUST provide an answer or
simply state: "I don't know.", for every question asked, even if the resulting reply is:
Q1: "I don't know."
Q2: "I don't know."
Q3: "I don't know."
Q4: "I don't know."
Unfortunately, this is not the reality. Not even close. Human
nature is such that posters are afraid to appear like idiots, and so they ignore the questions
and ask something else, that is more on their level. Do you KNOW for a FACT that the
OP is aware that VOLTAGE REGULATION in a BUCK is the result of the switching of the
mosfet and the feedback from the output and the duty cycle is directly (or indirectly, depending
on how you look at) controlled by the output voltage ? No. You don't. To my point,
did the OP ask "HOW DOES A BUCK CONTROL THE OUTPUT VOLTAGE ?" No , he did not.
Did he ask any questions about the theory of operation of a buck converter or the fact
that some are fixed dc to dc converters (I have a 48Vdc to 5Vdc brick) while others are
adjustable ? No , he did not.
So if you ask someone questions and they avoid the questions or ignore them, and you
continue to ask questions, is that process not BY DEFINITION an INTERROGATION ?
in·ter·ro·gate
/inˈterəˌɡāt/verb: interrogate; 3rd person present: interrogates; past tense: interrogated; past participle: interrogated; gerund or present participle: interrogating
ask questions of (someone, especially a suspect or a prisoner) closely, aggressively, or formally.
"ANSWER THE QUESTION !
DID YOU, OR DID YOU NOT MEASURE THE OUTPUT VOLTAGE ?"