Diff. between DC regulators and DC-DC converters (choppers)

difference between choppers and regulators

Hi,

was just wondering what the difference(s) is/are between DC voltage regulators and DC chopper circuits? Does the latter provide isolation in a DC environment, much like transformers in an AC one? More info/links would be much appreciated.

Thanks all,
FK

how to make a dc regulators

The main differences are:

DC regulator : It's function is to make a stable DC voltage on its output while it's input has some ripple. You use one when you want, for instance, 5V output but your input swings a little above 5 V (not stable). Usually, regulators need its input voltage to be a little above its output voltage becouse of loss problems.

DC converter : Basically there are two types, BUCK convertor the steps down a dc voltage and BOOST convertor that steps up a dc voltage. Both of then uses a inductor energy and a switching device (like a FET transistor) to achieve this step down or step up property.
The amount of step up or step down on the voltage mainly depends on the switching time of the circuit.
You can easilly find how this kind of convertors work by checking out power electronics books. On this books you will find how to analyze them and how to calculate its components values.

I am also posting a schematic of the above DC-DC converter.
Hope i could help you.
mcoster

difference between regulator and dc-dc

Hey there...

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, that's what I thought until I realised, looking at my schematics, that there are voltage regulators out there that are able to output say, 5V from an input of say, around 12V or something.

Something I know that's also different is the implementation of a chopper and a regulator is the complexity of the circuits. What I'm thinking is that if it's so much more difficult (usually) to design a chopper because of the number of components involved, why bother? One could always just take the easy route with a regulator right?

Regards,
FK

difference between dc dc converter and regulator

Depends, regulators ususally have a lower efficiency that DC-DC converters, for simple low current and a low difference between input voltage and output voltage the regulator does the job, at least for me because it's just one part, but if you have high currents and a high difference between viltages the DC-DC converter is a must

difference between regulator and dc-dc converter

I agree with ROOKIE.

If you just want to make a thing that has low current with small voltage drop and don´t need to be power efficient you can allways use a voltage regulator. There are plenty on the market that does a nice job (LM317, 78XX).

If you want to reduce 12V to 5V with a maximum current of 1.5 A you can use 7805.

That's it
mcoster

types of dc-dc chopper

DC-DC converter is just a fancy name for a voltage regulator with high efficiency and regulation.

Re: Diff. between DC regulators and DC-DC converters (choppe

There is a lot of difference between a regulator and a converter. There are switching and linear regulators while there are switching and linear power supplies. A DC DC convertor is a switching power supply.