#SBDORS%WMMVS.BITNET@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU (03/02/90)
What is the limiting factor when building your power supply? If the transformer won't put out the current, having a high current regulator won't help; if it will, having one that won't handle the current is asking for disaster. Reducing the effective series resistance of the regulator will greatly improve the transient current available, but probably won't do much for the continuous available current. The secret is capacitance. Lots of it. With good quality electrolytics that have very low series resistance. Photoflash caps, or barring that, switching supply caps. This will greatly improve the amount of transient current that can be supplied, won't reduce the average amount of current, and since the high current peaks are provided primarily by the caps, the resistance of the transformer and regulator can be relatively high. In an ideal world, you wouldn't have to do this, but reality is rearing its ugly head. In any event, you can get seemingly endless amounts of peak current if you are willing to keep the average current draw lower. High current regulators will indeed help the caps charge up faster, so the higher supply current you can get, the better. But spend your money on capacitors and then get the regulation... Motorola makes some nice TO-3 packaged regulators that you can probably get free samples of. --scott Does anyone out there still use ballast tubes and gas regulators?