VRDN: bipolar regulator PCB for line level ckts: ±11V to ±20V @ 1.5A with "De-Noiser"

Series R with comp cap usually helps with oscillation, and 1R does almost nothing to performance but might help a lot with oscillations.
What output capacitor is used?
edit: also you can go 33n/47n even for comp cap.
There's a zone between working fine and oscillating where it's somewhat stable but with higher noise floor. I think the negative regulator might be in this area atm.
Also replace the output cap just for testing with the 470uF Panasonic FR cap.
 
Last edited:
I feel confident these measurements are correct. I changed to 48k sampling, set high and low pass filters to 10Hz and 30kHz, and adjusted graph settings.

Calibration using 4uV/rtHz method
View attachment 923886

Negative Rail
View attachment 923887

Positive Rail
View attachment 923888


Looking at these photos the PSRR between the rails seems to be the same. That is a change since the first you measured them.
edit: ah no, it's not a dB measurement.
 
Member
Joined 2014
Paid Member
Got the transformer cooled down and it is fine. Here is the negative rail with the ESR Resistor on the output cap replaced with a wire. Also, I currently have a 30nF + 1 ohm resistor installed on both rails. I had read that somewhere in the thread when they had issues with the TI regulators.

VRDN neg rail output ESR Res bypassed.jpg

This change made it way more jittery jumps all over even when touching the PC keyboard.

Will work on this more tomorrow.
 
I feel confident these measurements are correct. I changed to 48k sampling, set high and low pass filters to 10Hz and 30kHz, and adjusted graph settings.

I checked some noise measurements that I have made earlier. It seems your negative rail has about the same noise that I had with LM317+Cadj (i.e. without denoiser) although in my test the output voltage was only 7V. So maybe you should check the PNP transistor (BC327) as well. It may also be useful if you could repeat the noise measurement but with denoiser bypassed.
 
I don't see the ESR for the first capacitor in the BOM, but the second one has a ESR of 0.121R. If I try to extract the ESR of the first option for output cap, based on the tan value, I get somewhere between 70 and 80mOhm. Which is higher than all that worked for me.
If you have any extra Panasonic FR 470uF/25V use it on the negative rail output, and don't change the compensation network, leave it as it is now.
 
Member
Joined 2014
Paid Member
The picture above was not correct, seems like I say that a lot. Something locked up in REW. I noticed after I disconnected the input lead and the display stayed the same. So rebooted and it is working correctly. I now trust the graphs below.

VRDN Negative Rail with .47 ESR adjusting resistor and 2200uF in place
VRDN neg rail w .47 ESR resistor and 2200uF.jpg

VRDN negative rail with .47 ESR resistor replaced with wire, 2200uF in place
VRDN neg rail with 2200uF.jpg

VRDN negative rail with .47 ESR resistor replaced with wire and 2200uF cap replaced with Panasonic Series FR 470uf/25V
VRDN neg rail 470uF.jpg
 
Member
Joined 2014
Paid Member
@bohrok2610 I agree. I decided to try the ZTX951 in place of the BC327. Elvee mentioned that transistor gave him the lowest noise. I didn't see any change swapping it out, still right at 10nV/rtHz.

VRDN neg rail with ZTX951 and 2200uF output cap
VRDN neg rail with ZTX951 and 2200uF.jpg

VRDN neg rail with ZTX951 and 470uF cap
VRDN neg rail with ZTX951 and 470uF.jpg
 
Also after the PSRR measurement maybe you can revert the comp network to the recommended values for rev.A2 and measure noise and PSRR again, so people can rely on the recommendations for that revision. At the moment your compensation network is different from the rev.A2 values.