Hi A.J., Which voltage regulator are you using? Some are very sensitive to output capacitor ESR and need a capacitor with an ESR in a defined range to avoid instability. These are typically the low dropout types with dropouts below about 1V as this means that they are using a pnp series pass element and need the pole and zero created by the cap for stability. often a tant. or ceramic cap will not work. Some manufacturers now offer regulators that will work with any load cap. (look for "anycap" in google). I found it better to use regulators like the LM1117 that do not give stability problems. (we retrofitted 1000's of products for this reason) George Tyler ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Aase" To: Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 10:39 PM Subject: Re: [EE]: Ready to through a reel of boost converters out the window. > A.J. Tufgar wrote: > > I traced it quickly to the power supply part of the circuit, which was > > outputting .9V when it should have been 3.6V. > > > > I took another PCB and soldered on only the power supply components. > > No luck, although sometimes it gets really hot and outputs 6.6V?? :P > > ... > > The only thing that has changed from this revision to the last are > > widening the VCC and gnd, Using Tantalum instead of electrolytic and > > Do you have a scope available to you? Is it showing about the same > waveforms as your previous working version? Try looking for > subharmonic operation... layout changes can cause this for no obvious > reason sometimes. Also, are you *sure* your inductor really is what > you think it is? Do you have a means to measure its value, or to > observe the waveform of the current passing through it? > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics > (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics