Mr Carlson's Lab patreon

Circuit Release: 3 High Voltage Regulator Circuits With Schematics.

🕑 Added 2018-03-01 22:10:35 +0000 UTC

Comments

LoSaYa

Thank you for the great and smart work

Adriaan Diedericks

Would any of these circuits work in replacing an EZ81 rectifier, now almost unobtanium?

Trifon Trifonov

Can you share me gerber files, if it is possible of course.

Sergey Kazantsev

Dear Mr Carlson! I've just finished troubleshooting MOSFET version with D-pak LR8 and IRF840 (both to-220 and D2-pak). It seem to be 100% unstable without anti-ring resistor in the Gate of the MOSFET. The symptoms are clear: significant voltage drop under any load. 1k resistor solves the problem. I would suggest to add it to the schematic. Thanks for sharing!

Andu

designed my first pcb for this project https://imgur.com/a/uSyZ3Vs works great as screen supply used a STF7NM60N as a pass element which is perfect for this application, does not even need a heat sink as it barely gets a little warm and a 20turns vishay trim pot to achieve any available drop I may desire it helped me crack 7+watts on a class A SE fender champ type topology by putting a little over 400V on the plate of the 6v6 output tube and around 180V on the screen kinda like what bogen did with his amps, and running it like that the tube....it's just fine :)

miaulon

That would be a great project! Did you ever find out if there are any reasons not to do it?

DrHumberto

Hi, i am new to your patreon channel ( the best investment for years already) and I am just discovering all that wonderful knowledge. I have a question about this genius circuit. Would it be possible to place two or more FETs in parallel to achieve a higher output current? Let's say I would like to put maximum 50mA on one FET but I want 500mA in total, so I place ten in parallel . Just for curiosity

Giulio Costa

Hi everyone! Would this circuit work put after a diode rectifier bridge RC filtered?

Andu

same just adjust the resistor network for the desired voltage and use a lower voltage fet or transistor

Wert JS

variable low voltage regulator?

John Inlow

What fun! I really enjoyed this video, and learned a great deal. Thanks, Paul.

Olaf Koch

Made a little PCB with IRF830 instead for lower currents. Heatsink has 7°K/W. Used Zeners before as well but this works much better. https://ibb.co/0yYYvf2 https://ibb.co/kcy4XdG https://ibb.co/PFsMHmn https://ibb.co/TBt9hcj

Bruce Dow

Mr Carlson, I am waiting with bated breath to hear all about that solid cartilage on your left hand! Ouch!

Lewis E Brockman

Mr. Carlson I have a 2335 tektronics oscilloscope and ch1 has no trace. with beam find I can see the beam but it will not adj. vert. This unit has been heavely tampered with and there is ba resistor on the ext input that has been changed and a cap added. The resistor is burned and can on;ly see one band ,red, can you point me in the right direction

Robert Calk Jr.

Thanks Paul. I thought that I was older than you but you may be older than me. I am 58.

Oscar Anderson

Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to use this circuit for a high voltage bench power supply (similar to the heathkit one you made a video about)? I'm looking to build something in a 2U rackmount form factor to replace my Eico 1030 (bench space reasons).

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Dennis, that's quite some math to add here in the comments section. That would warrant an entire video. Device dissipation is the big one. The FET is running in the linear region, (acting as a resistor) so heatsinking is required. Devices derate quickly as they heat, so heat is the semiconductors biggest enemy.

Dennis

Hi again! I just built the FET version using a TK3A65D and surface mount LR8 (I made a few boards for it as well) and I was impressed. I put as much load on it as I could without the load catching fire and the reg just chugged along. The un-heatsinked fet did get quite toasty but the rest stayed cool. Now some questions! What is the output impedance of the regulator and how do you measure it? Why is that important?

Escabusa Roy

Yes sir another great video. Whatever you want to show us any kind of invention, you may GO I want it I would like to see the diagram and variable voltage regulator. Thank you again sir...

Mr Carlson's Lab

Welcome Steve! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Steve Marshall

I finally got around to becoming a Patreon Supporter for this site

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Dennis. All the tubes you mention are stand alone regulators. The 6GE6 uses one of those tubes you mention as a reference. This allows for tighter regulation, as the 6GE6 is dealing with the current. The reference is just there to control it.

Dennis

Mr. Carlson, I used VR-150s in a preamp and I was very happy with the sound of the preamp as a whole though I didn't experiment with different regulators. Have you used VR- 75/90/105/150 tubes and how might you compare a circuit using them compared to your 6GE6 circuit? I realize your circuit outputs more than one voltage so they can't be compared directly

Mr Carlson's Lab

Great! I'm glad you found this helpful.

Kenneth

Your 6ge8 voltage regulator is an absolute “stroke of lightning” to jumpstart my 6cd6 pp tube amp as the screen regulator supply, worth every penny as I got a few stashed somewhere:/ thank you for your site!

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Peter. The dissipation of triode plate, (for two units in one envelope.) The HK breakdown, so on. I experimented with many other "multiple tube combinations," I can clearly tell they intended this for pass regulation service. The 7734 is the variant I used.

Mr Carlson's Lab

HI Ken. A 1 Watt Zener would be fine, this is just gate protection. The resistors for a through hole version can be 1/2 Watt, due to the standard voltage ratings of available resistors. The current is low, they won't even get warm.

Ken Lotts

What are acceptable specs for the 10V zener in the MOSFET version of this circuit ? Also how much current runs through the resistor network? i.e. what wattage should they be..

Peter Sage

Hi Paul. What makes the 6GE8 particularly better suited as a voltage regulator than other tubes with a low-mu triode and a sharp-cutoff pentode? I don't see anything in the Tung-Sol datasheet that sets this apart from the others.

Robert Eliassen

This is probably the best 2 dollars I've ever spent! As a radio HAM, I would like to build (or learn the theory behind) a high current 13.8V power supply for a HF rig. Now, that's not an easy task if weight is considered. Linear power supplies is fine and pretty easy to get right, but they are heavy. I've got one with five regulators (2N3055) in parallel. It'll generate a lot of heat as well. Another scary issue is that one power transistor might short circuit and kill the rig. Anyway, I'm interessted in the theory of high quality switch mode power supply for HF (or VHF/UHF) rigs.

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi. The link above is functional, (assuming your signed in) If you like, go to the very bottom of the posts page, you can work your way up to the top from there as well.

WatSonic

I'm looking forward to viewing the videos in the order you originally organized them. The link above does not work. Suggestions?

Mr Carlson's Lab

Thanks for your input William!

William C. Jordan

Might something similar be good for the voltage regulation on a CDV-700? A Corotron regulates about 900v. A series on the CDV-700's would be great! :)

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Travis, nice to meet you. PM here is a good way to contact me. There usually is some delay to response, just due to volume. Here is a great list put together by Ralf here on Patreon: <a href="https://rebelba42.lima-city.de/img/mcl/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://rebelba42.lima-city.de/img/mcl/</a>

Travis McLendon

Paul, I'm trying to view your videos on Patreon and cant figure out the order in which to watch them to learn more about electronics or where to go to contact you.

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Bogdan. I would always use proper filtering, even with the ripple rejection provided by a circuit like this, its just good practice.

Bogdan Genis

Hi Paul, great video. Just wondering... does this supply reject ripple well. Can it be used in this configuration to power a tube amp... without big CLC filters?

Charles Legg Jr

Good stuff, thanks for the video. And agree, bench supplies would make a good project.

Mr Carlson's Lab

Thanks for your input!

Merritt Derr

I'm with Patrick Briggs. A video or two regarding bench supplies would be nice. Maybe extend it to include a supply that will provide both positive and negative outputs that are used so often with op amps.

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi MysterHawk. This information is part of the course, and is to remain here only. Thanks for your inquiry.

MysterHawk

Could I post this schematic in other places? is this circuit of public domain? Of course I will mention you :)

Mr Carlson's Lab

Thanks for your input Patrick.... LOL "Bench Ninja 3000!"

Mr Carlson's Lab

I think Zeners and a pass transistor (the old fashioned way) would be the most dependable way at elevated Voltages. Down the road I may design a circuit using the LR8 for elevated Voltages like this.

MysterHawk

Thanks Paul, I have question thou, I would like to use this circuit for regulating the b+ on my SE 300B tube amp, but the voltage needed for working exceed the nominal max voltage of the adjustable linear regulator (I need of exactly 450V regulated for the output tubes and 420V for the preamp section) What could I do about it? Do you know higher voltage rated adjustable linear regulator?

Patrick Briggs

I'd say a good power supply project would be to build your own lab bench power supply. Something that can do 0 - 15 volts, 1 amp is plenty. I'm looking at doing something around the LT3080 regulator. A simple design would use just a 10 turn pot, but a more advanced design would use a micro-controller and ADC/DAC's. Dave Jones did a series of videos on this, but never came out with a finished project. I'm interested in it as a learning exercise. If I ever got a precision one working, maybe I could call it the Bench Ninja 3000.

Arnon

I need to built a low current high voltage power supply. Similar to these projects but 600 volts x 3 mA. Any suggestion on how to increase voltage on Paul's design?

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Douglas, without seeing the schematic of your 4CX250 machine (RF Amp) I couldn't tell you.

Douglas Tees

Thanks Paul. Great video and very interesting. This opens a lot of doors for me. I'm sometimes a tube purest but I do have several of the lr8's but never have done anything with them. I built a tube shunt regulator configured as a differential amp using 6sl7's ( 12ax7 works better but I like the looks of 0ctal tubes) for a screen regulator for a 4cx250 transmitter. The regulation was adequate but not great. The 4cx250 has some kind of voltage feedback (sorry I forgot the proper term) on the screen so I was warned not to use a series regulator for this tube. Do you think your EF johnson regulator would work for the screens on 4cx250's?

Mr Carlson's Lab

Thanks for your input Alfredo.

alcor6502

I really appreciated the video, the transistor solution is quite common and it doesn't need much explanation. The FET one is a little different and I have some difficulty to understand completely how it works. A two minutes in-depth explanation would have made easier to understand the circuit.

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Albert. To stabilize a receiver, the screen grid of the oscillator tube should be regulated. The rest of the receiver does not require regulation for stability. If you really want to go all out, you could regulate the plate and screen supply of the oscillator tube, but the benefits of regulating the plate are very small. I'm going to do a video on stabilizing a VFO really soon. I just bought the stuff to do the build, so it's in que now. You will really enjoy this video I'm sure.

Albert G.

Hey as i continue to study radio circuits, and learn, would these be good to reduce drift in a tube set? As i understand it, there are usually two sides to the high voltage supply side to the tube plates. One side seems to be to the audio amplifier stage, and the other to the RF/IF/OSC stages. Which side would a high voltage regulator circuit be most beneficial, or would you split the regulation some how? My SX100 has a 0A2 tube as a voltage regulator on the RF/IF/OSC side before the 10k resistor separating out the audio power supply side. Is that a clue? There is a sizeable choke on the supply as well, ... quite a radio actually. Is your circuit redundant for a radio that already has a voltage regulator tube?

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi David. The IC could be in either, but there are a few values that need to be tailored to your input and output Voltages. So this makes design sort of specific.

David Wiszczor

Is this regulation device meant to be an in circuit regulator or can an external regulator be built? Could you include a parts list to build an external device? I am a newbe and am thinking of building my own power supply.

Jim H

"...obscure and accurate..." lol

Bill Moran

Would love to see a video of the Viking Valiant build. It was a good transmitter in its day, but I'm sure a lot can be done with it now.

Bill Moran

Very good circuit design! I know I'll use some of these in future projects. Im keeping a folder of your designs for future use.

Mr Carlson's Lab

Thanks for your input Nick, it's always appreciated.

Dawid Oszkiewicz

Another very good video on interesting topic! May I have one request? Could you give us readings in Celciuses as well when you are referencing to temperature? In the future of course. It will be very helpful for European viewers I think.

Nick95

Would definitely be interested in more videos on the subject and power supplies in general! Great video, thanks!

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Colin. It's all about the drop across the device (dissipation ratings) I would need a lot more info to give any answers.

Mr Carlson's Lab

400mA, that's a lot of current! I imagine there isn't a lot of drop across the device. If your trying to regulate the B+ to the plates of the output tubes, regulation is really not needed... The screens are another story though, if the configuration is not "ultra linear" with 40% taps, then screen regulation is a must. If your regulating an entire ultra linear amp, (then you my friend are next level :^)

Mr Carlson's Lab

All sorts of complexity gets added with that. You would start with a low value resistor in series with the output, then a transistor that senses the voltage rise across that resistor as current is drawn. As the voltage rises positive, a transistor would use that signal to turn off the output pass element (current fold back circuit) This would involve multiple transistors to do this "nicely"

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi John, I would have to build one, and test it before I could pass on any info about that. Thanks for your kind comment!

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Robert, it's an older program called Circuitmaker 2000 Pro.

Mr Carlson's Lab

You're welcome Pete!

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Gary. On the data sheet, the maximum average cathode current is 50mA. I would only do half that continuous. The cathode bonding wire is the issue in this case.

Luc Lopez

hi how can i add a variable current limiter to this circuit ?

John Inlow

Wonderful tutorial. Your confidence is contagious, Paul. I'm wondering, can an IXYS SS CCS can be added to the voltage regulator circuit?

Robert Corriel

What schematic program do you use that has the symbols for vacuum tubes?

Pete Bronlund

Thank you so much for introducing the LR8. I've seen the 'creature' often in my repairs travels but never needed to research it or what it's purpose was in a circuit (they always worked).. One desperate repair was an LCD motorcycle (exotic import) binnacle display that have failed from water ingress and a replacement unit price was more than the machine was worth! I repaired it in the end... (very happy owner).

Gary D Trautman

Hey, not enough gets said about HV regulation. Thank you! Question: what is the power dissipation and output current limitation of the vacuum tube version? Is it simply the plate limitation of the Triode section? Which I think is 7W & 45mA (data for this tube is hard to find).

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hello Sebastiaan. These circuits are designed for voltage stability, and should be installed after a well filtered DC supply. The bonus of using a regulator like this is its ability to further act like an electronic filter. So the bulk of the ripple should be removed with a standard filter network.

Mr Carlson's Lab

Hi Seth, what is the maximum input ratings for your analyzer?

Seth Lavinder

Mr. Carlson, can you give some insight to a problem I have? If I wanted to look at the transmitter purity on my 100 watt HF rig, what size and value attenuator would I need so as not to blow the front end out of my spectrum analyzer

Sebastiaan Versluis

Thanks for the wonderful video! Maybe a stupid question as i am a amateur/beginner. But is this regulated circuit a practical replacement for a old fashioned CLC supply or more an add-on to stabilize the voltage? If it is a replacement does it require adding more capacitors (CRC) to filter the ripple a bit more?

Mr Carlson's Lab

LOL, Thanks Psient. This regulator can be used for that (Nixies) as well. For such low current demand, the BUL416T transistor would be absolutely fine as the pass element.

Psient

Tremendous viewing. In another realm one might designate your excellent communication as a cost benefit analysis (patreon capitol to dissipated instruction) as OhMg >= 10 out of 10 Now that's a great video ' . . . . hotter than the blazes of hell!!" As your depiction illustrates: my eyes are popping out of my head. Can you use this to regulate a voltage source for NIXIE TUBES?

Mr Carlson's Lab

Glad you enjoyed Ralf! Feel free to experiment with different HV FET's, the circuit is really versatile, and will work with almost anything. Thanks for your input as well!

Reb Elba

Wow Paul, you're very kind and generous, sharing with us such great circuits you're invented over the time! LR8+N-Channel Mosfet version is what I was looking/hoping for. !!Thx!! Ordering LR8 was easy, but I have to use a different Mosfet. I have STW13NK100Z and STP4NB100 on hand, but unable to find a supplier for TK9J90E in my area. I'll check both ST's, after LR8 delivery. PS: I'm pretty sure if you one day build an "Mr. Carlson's Lab - Tube Pre & Power Amp" from scratch in a combined Youtube/Patreon series, there are many people (including me) out there following you along. And at the same time, tube industry wondering about high demand on 12AX7 and other tubes :D Again great Job, Many thanks Paul!

nj Phil

Paul... This was very enjoyable to watch. Thanks for posting it!

Rick ross

Now THAT sounds like a good idea!

Steven Munts

Thank you Mr. Carlson. As usual, some more great information and a very educational video. I am interested in more voltage regulator circuits when ever it is appropriate to share them. I am not currently set up to prepare surface mount circuit boards so the standard layout is of interest to me.

col

Hi Paul Yes I found this regulator very interesting too but the heat maybe a concern for my applications For me that’s The single ended mono block amps 6l6 KT66/88s and the likes also using it in the 12B4A Pre amp would be good and just use the power amps unregulated as these use Damper diodes 6D22S follower by CLCLRC with 10H chokes with a 400VA 360-0-360v at 0.55A x2 with a HT of about 430v440v What are your thoughts about using the reg in this setup Paul and could you do a thorough whole PCB for this regulator project Another Great Video Paul Thank you Colin

Scott Morison

I never could have imagined a solid state high voltage regulator circuit could be so simple — let alone so stable! Thanks, as always, Paul, for the new cluster of synapses (and schematics!) I now have on your account.

Nick Vacalo

Thank you Mr. Carlson

Bart Youngblood

Thank you for this! I had been looking for a high voltage regulator that I could use for my tube amp projects and this fits the bill nicely!

Harold Deal

Thanks Mr. Carlson!!!

kmpres

Another fascinating electronics lesson you can't get anywhere else! Particularly liked the tube version but all three should be useful. A long term project of mine is to design and build a low power tube transmitter so my radio restorations can receive actual Hi-Fi AM tube-generated period-music signals like they used to when they were new. No such programming available where I live so I'll have to make my own. The knowledge gained here will be very useful for that, thanks!

Jason Thorpe

I'm nearly finished building (at least all of the perf-board mounted circuits -- I still need to have the chassis and front panel fabricated) for a regulated bench supply that uses a LM317 Maida-style regulator for the HV output and a quad of 6550As as the pass elements :-) It'll be good for 400mA at up to 480V! The 6550As have a regulated screen supply that uses a Zener+MOSFET, with the negative of that circuit referenced to the 6550A cathodes. It's been a fun project!