At 12:54 PM 7/1/2004 -0700, Ben Hencke wrote:

>Thats why you also add a regular diode and compensate with a lesser
>value zener. I believe this was already mentioned. But in assembly, it
>is easy for a newbie to be confused about how a zener works
>differently than a regular diode.

I wouldn't make it a requirement to understand how the power supply works.
Designing power supplies isn't really all that trivial.
Where I was going, was a reliable, simple, and inexpensive power supply for running student projects. Such a supply will need to tolerate mistakes that students might make, and not introduce any "flakiness" that will complicate the student's experience when learning about the processor.

>Yes there is no regulation, but is it required? It depends on the
>ciruit and I don't think that a blink-a-led needs regulation. PICs do
>not always need regulation, especially with such a wide operating
>voltage range of most PICs. I have found the INTRC to be very
>forgiving of supply variation and have not had a PIC lock up due to
>supply ripple.

The only valid question here, is do you go outside the spec?

>9v is the de-facto standard power supply for newbies. What could be
>easier for a newbie to diagnose and replace?

They are rather expensive on a $/Watt basis.

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