The simplistic Salas low voltage shunt regulator

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iko

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Basic question coming up - I sat down to measure my 2SK170GR's IDSS to get the high ones for use in this reg - As my Fluke 16 DMM max current is 200uA I used the technique of: short the gate to the source and add a 9V battery from the drain to the source & I put a 100 ohm resistor between the drain and the battery and measure across it so 0.1V=1mA, I think. So far, so good but something is amiss - when I measure about 50 of these GRs I get a range from 0.29V to 1.61V which would make them in the IDSS current range of 2.9mA to 16mA. This couldn't be, could it? - the GR range is 2.6mA to 6.5mA

Edit: 9V battery was down at 8.6V but i don't think this matters, does it?

Edit: Just double checking - looking at the SK170 from the bottom - pin 1 (drain) is on the left, correct?

I haven't yet seen even a BL with 16mA Idss, let alone a GR. Yes, the pins are DGS, looking from the bottom, face up. Battery positive on D, battery negative on GS together.
 

iko

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Joined 2008
Do you not have a cheapo DMM to use the ampmeter directly? It's always good to have a few cheapos around, not for accuracy, but to be there. I got a few from fleabay including one for $9.99 that give me hfe, capacitance, etc. Sometimes all you need to know is that you're in the right ball park.
 
diyAudio Chief Moderator
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Well, it says on all of them
K170
GR9L

And there are about 9 of the 50 above 10mA - I've remeasured some of them & they check out a second time - I'll try again just to be sure, to be sure

Edit: did the re-measure & same results

Then it goes to the factory culling and batch stamping. You got em from a trusted source? I personally never found a 16mA GR. Up to 6mA I have seen the odd one.

P.S. Mine were always Toshiba only.
 
I got them from Futerlec.com I dug out my cheapo DMM which gives me different ranges - still pretty much the same - the DUT that measured 1.55V (15.5mA) gives me 17.42mA on the DMM - the low DUT that gave me 0.28V gives me 3.16mA on DMM. This seems to confirm the measurements, now how do I check these parts are kosher? I don't want to build a Vreg around them for them to fail !!

Edit: Aha, Thanh1973 a cross post - you hit the nail on the head - and were they good working parts - just mis-labeled? If so then hey ho these only cost me $0.18 each & a mix of grades is good! I'll sort them into ranges next & see what I have so others might benefit from a purchase through them if you don't mind spending the time measuring (5mins)

Edit: Breakdown as follows:
12 GR grade
18 BL Grade
10 V Grade
 
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diyAudio Chief Moderator
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Hmm, is there any way I can test them? - it's a hassle getting a refund & the cost of postage will eat it up. Selling them on ebay! - where's your ethics, man :D

If they do the same thd, gain, and noise in a given circuit VS trusted ones that fall in to stamped range, they can be OK, just a cheap offer they got for an accidentally mixed batch then, maybe. Since you idss labeled them, if you get some matches they can be usuable. Say if I had them, I would substitute a similar idss one in my phono's second stage which has no loop feedback, and I would compare FFTs and gain. If with different gm and noise, the floor would go up, thd too, and gain would missmatch a lot.
 
Yep, I'll do that as well, Iko & compare to my battery PS that I'm trying to knock down the noise on over at the other thread :)

Anybody want to try out the 16mA ones I have in the batch or Salas do you want me to send you some to do what you say? What IDSS?
 
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diyAudio Chief Moderator
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Watch the quality of zener. Many bad ones pop up lately. Especially those with plastic case that look like diodes. I use big cap across them, and I get into the trouble of using a resistor in its place if I can see noise on the oscope on the reg's output. Which is a pitta since I have to tune it with the under Vgs resulting idss of the jfet tail Vref ccs. And 9 out of ten, no its not a standard value.
 
Watch the quality of zener. Many bad ones pop up lately. Especially those with plastic case that look like diodes. I use big cap across them, and I get into the trouble of using a resistor in its place if I can see noise on the oscope on the reg's output. Which is a pitta since I have to tune it with the under Vgs resulting idss of the jfet tail Vref ccs. And 9 out of ten, no its not a standard value.

Am I right in thinking that LEDs + diode can be substituted for the zeners? This seems to be more flexible, less noise & less hassle, if true!
 
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