Unregulated Power Supply
A basic full wave rectified power supply is shown below. The transformer is chosen according to the desired load. For example, if the load requires 12V at 1amp current, then a 12V, 1 amp rated transformer would do. However, when designing power supplies or most electronic circuits, you should always plan for a worst case scenario. With this in mind, for a load current of 1 amp a wise choice would be a transformer with a secondary current rating of 1.5 amp or even 2 amps. Allowing for a load of 50% higher than the needed value is a good rule of thumb.
50 Watt power Amplifier
This simple audio power amplifier was originally designed for a circuit board workshop, conducted by the OSU IEEE Student Group. At the workshop, 20 participants each constructed this amplifier, by etching and drilling the single sided circuit board, soldering all components, and attaching a pre-built heatsink assembly with the output transistors. Three workshops were held between 1995 to 1996. Though the design is simple, these amplifers have impressive preformance, with a frequency response to approx 40 kHz, very low noise, reasonably fast slew rate, and approx 50 watts (true "RMS" power) with the proper +/- 40 volt unregulated power supply. Someday, I'll do some substantial testing to determine exactly what the power output is, and create some more detailed pages about how to build this amplifier.
Electronic Motor Starter
This motor starter protects single-phase motors against voltage fluctuations and overloading. Its salient feature is a soft on/off electronic switch for easy operation. The transformer steps down the AC voltage from 230V to 15V. Diodes D1 and D2 rectify the AC voltage to DC. The unregulated power supply is given to the protection circuit. In the p