Chris PetrilliSharing this because I just shared with a friend. This is an application note from Microchip from 2007!! that I found to be a great explanation of a lot of the switch mode power supply (SMPS) topologies that you run into. As a hobbyist, mostly you're probably dealing with buck, boost, and buck-boost. But it digs into magnetics, selection process, etc.
mx alex tax1a - 2020 (6)@petrillic oh, we missed this one!
@atax1a there's another follow-up from 2009 that digs even deeper.
@petrillic printing off a copy of each (doublesided!)
@atax1a it's amazing how hard it is to find really good explanations. For me, all the waveform diagrams helped enormously. It's a great expansion on the basics that are introduced in The Art of Electronics §9.6.
@atax1a had to go look, §7.11 in the ARRL Handbook (2023 edition, 100th) also has a decent overview.
The internet? Not so much.
@petrillic TAoE never really did it for us. ARRL Handbook worked better but ours is from 1987 so i don't think it has much on switching power supplies
@atax1a the anniversary edition (2023) was a pretty big revision if I recall. Added a lot of more advanced stuff, including space and more advanced DSP/etc. It replaced one I had from around 1990. Not that that one was "wrong" mostly, it just was missing how much the industry and best-practices has been revolutionized by the semiconductor advancements.
@petrillic we got ours from 1987 specifically because it focused on through-hole parts and didn't quite phase out all the vacuum-tube stuff. maybe we'll get the 2023 one as a supplement.
@atax1a you can never have too many! I still have some old vacuum tube works. You might find these fun: https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/Concepts_Series
Lots of Tek refernce books from the late 1960s and early 1970s.
And of course: http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm
@atax1a like, how about a book on vacuum tubes from 1920. Surprisingly readable, even if the language changed a lot.
Andrew Zonenberg@petrillic if you want a deeper dive, https://www.amazon.com/Switching-Power-Supply-Design-3rd/dp/0071482725
You know it's a good textbook when they're still publishing new updated editions despite most (all?) of the original authors being deceased
Switching Power Supply Design, 3rd Ed.: Pressman, Abraham I., Billings, Keith, Morey, Taylor: 9780071482721: Amazon.com: Books
Switching Power Supply Design, 3rd Ed. [Pressman, Abraham I., Billings, Keith, Morey, Taylor] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Switching Power Supply Design, 3rd Ed.
@azonenberg oooo more things to put in my 800# pile of "books I really absolutely plan to read sometime soon". As soon as I finish Bogatin's Signal and Power Integrity.
@petrillic do you have Dunsmore yet? More on the RF than power side
@azonenberg I do not. Nor am I familiar. Yet more to learn!
Have you ever thought of putting together a reading list? I think it'd be one of those things that would be super helpful with some "paths" to go down. RF, FPGA, high-speed/SI, etc.
@petrillic https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119477167
Both books I've consulted from time to time but not had the time to properly study in depth
@azonenberg VNA is definitely an area I know 1% of what I feel like I should. Although this has saved me from buying some 80# piece of Agilent test gear.
@petrillic meanwhile I'm saving up for a https://signalhound.com/products/vna400-40-ghz-vector-network-analyzer/
@azonenberg hah! The antithesis of my NanoVNA
@petrillic i mean it's probably the cheapest 40 GHz VNA out there so there's a lot of tradeoffs. I don't wanna know what a fancy R&S in the same bandwidth range would cost
@azonenberg I think a ZNB would be around $90k? I have seen some ZNB with the base performance (I think 8.5?) for around $20k.
A bargain!
I love this, so I
@jpm @petrillic I'm sure there's scans or used copies floating around elsewhere if you look. Can't remember what I paid for my copy but I don't remember it being that bad
@jpm @petrillic it shows 104.58 usd used price for me
@azonenberg @petrillic yeah it’s definitely the Australia Tax hitting hard
@jpm @azonenberg I mean, new from my local bookseller it's $150 USD. Makes me wonder if it's actually still in print.
Adam ♿@jpm https://ebay.us/m/nbK0M5 and maybe someone local will offer to forward although because of the Everything, postage in and out of the US is fucked @azonenberg @petrillic
Carrie (of Alpenglow)@petrillic I love a good app note. I’ve learned a lot about real-world electronics from them over the years.
@alpenglow I have so many of them saved... Zotero says 693 app notes. And then there are certain vendors who do (generally) amazing data sheets, like TI.
@petrillic yeeees, so many good TI datasheets (and app notes too). And of course everything Jim Williams wrote for Linear Tech. I loved the bonus cartoons.