Has anyone else been using them for synth or audio stuff?
2 Likes
Used similar circuits in B.E.A.M. robotics to allow solar panels to charge a cap then one transistor triggers a discharge and another holds it open.
A light dependent noise box ?
3 Likes
yes they are used alot especially the MAX 1044 in reverb and delay , General Guitar gadgets uses them in their circuits too .
1 Like
Originally I figured they’d be handy to use with Arduino boards for prototyping, to create a dual power supply.
I bought some cheap ones off eBay which turned out to be junk ICs… the output ripple is at 10k. Basically unusable for audio.
Then I got a TC1044S, with a boost pin to take the ripple out of the audio range. It’s actually pretty great and seems to just work.
The problem I encountered was that the USB power actually has a whole lot of junk in it to begin with, and it’s hard to clean it up when you don’t have that many volts to play with. I had a go at a capacitance multiplier, following an EEVblog video, but it doesn’t seem to play nice with a charge pump IC for some reason. As soon as you add the IC, the positive voltage coming off the capacitance multiplier drops by a lot, even if the IC is drawing power directly from the 5 volt pin.
Starting off with a 9v DC wall wart, using the charge pump to invert it and then using a 7805 and 7905 to regulate the power rails seems to work better.
I have an LT1054 to play with too but haven’t gotten around to tinkering with it yet.
In hindsight, I’ve probably done things the wrong way around by starting with a power supply and then trying to build things around it. It would make more sense to fit the right IC to a prototype once you know what the current draw is.
1 Like