>-----Original Message-----
>From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] 
>Sent: 26 October 2006 14:27
>To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
>Subject: Re: [PIC] Transformerless power supply
>
>
>Jinx,
>
>On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:11:30 +1300, Jinx wrote:
>
>> > That does not exactly raise my confidence in the 
>engineering behind 
>> > the part of the circuit that is shown
>> 
>> "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" ?
>> 
>> A potentially, no pun intended, harmful circuit that raises as many 
>> questions (if you know you ask them that is) as it answers.
>
>Indeed, a "Trap for the unwary" - which will catch out those 
>who just copy circuits as they are without underestanding 
>them, and just expect they 
>will be OK.  I've been known to do this (I started out doing 
>just that when my age only needed one digit) so I know it 
>happens!  :-)  In those days, of 
>course, it was in magazine articles, so the amount of 
>available material was limited.

To be fair, this is exactly how you learn from a young age.  How many people got stuck into a semiconductor theory book at the age of 8?

I think the point is that we would have been using PP3 batteries* rather than transformerless supplies as these are most certainly not suitable to design in without full knowledge of their design and shortcommings.

Regards

Mike


*Except my dad somewhat foolishly let me have a 12v Lead Acid battery from his motorcyle to use for powering experiments.  Had many happy hours welding bits of wire together!

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