Electronics Calculators

Latest revision as of 09:00, 18 June 2013

Hi guys,

Had a little chat with Roman Black (The man in the know, when it comes to SPMS) via email the other day about a SMPS calculator that I had written. He checked it out and suggested that I post the MC34063A SMPS calculator on a site.

I had a couple of other calculators as well that Roman didn't know about, so I put them on my site as well. here's the direct link

[1] http://www.deanus.leviathan.net.au/Electronics_calculators.html

All calculators are written by me in VB6. I didn't use any 3rd Party DLL's or OCX so none are required that I can remember. You might need the VB6 runtime, I think all latter versions of windows had it already on installation) Only running them will tell if it's on your computer. All programs are Virus checked before posting, but check them after unzipping to make sure nobody has got at them.'

Give me an email If you have any problems. (address is on the site.)

- MC34063A SMPS If the input voltage is greater than the output voltage, the circuit given will be a buck converter. If the less voltage is less than the output voltage, the circuit given will be a boost converter. If the input voltage is positive but the output is negative, the circuit given will be a negative converter. The circuit will change to the correct one when you click "Calculate". It will supply you with a bill of materials list as well. The whole window can be printed to the default printer.

- DAC Error Enter the DACs reference voltage OR the operating voltage of the chip that the DAC is connected to (in the case of an R2R type DAC).

Enter the absolute Maximum number that the DAC can accept. Or optionally select the correct bit number from the drop down list. On selection, the correct maximum is placed in the DAC maximum box. Now press "Go".

The voltage per DAC step is calculated an displayed in the yellow "Volts Per Step" box.

That part of the program only calculates voltage per DAC step. Because the voltage is analogue, (points of volts) and the DAC deals in integer (whole numbers, The DAC has an error that cannot be got around.. To find the step per number value, the ref voltage Is divided by the maximum number of steps of the DAC. In the case of a 5V ref/8Bit(255), 5/255 = 0.0196v per step.

To find the error, lets say we want 4V output. To find the amount of steps that this requires is 4/0.0196=204.08 Since the DAC can't do .08 (whole digits only) the number is really 204.. But 204 * 0.0196 3.998V NOT the 4v that is required.

So the second part of the program does exactly that, you input a voltage that you would like to get out of the DAC, and the program Shows you the actual "Real" voltage that you will get.

- DAC (R2R type)

Allows the user to calculate the output voltage of an R2R DAC The program can do calculations for DACs from 3 to 10 bits with very good accuracy Very easy to use and very intuitive.

Calculate the output voltage of a DAC given the operating voltage (or Vref) of the DAC. Easy steps change the operating parameters live and the results are instantly displayed.

Setup: Not much to do here, Just type in the voltage of the VRef ( on the DAC type that has a VRef input ) or for DAC's that just have the R2R resistor network, enter the operating voltage of the chip. You will notice that the voltage per step changes as the voltage i/p's changed. Select the number of bits that the DAC has as an output (Default is 3), but the range is 3 to 10bits. The layout will change to fit the graphic view of the selected bits. Enter a number in any of the boxes marked Hex,Decimal or Binary. When the cursor is clicked in another box then the screen is updated. You will notice that the boxes that you did NOT type in have now been updated with the correct value and format for that box.

NOTE: If you type alpha characters in the Binary or Decimal boxes, then the characters will be removed and any numbers left behind will be used, this will result in an unknown number and is not recommended. Any character greater than "F" in the hex box is removed and ignored.

The output voltage is now displayed in the box at the lower right of the window. To change the value Bit by Bit, you can click on the check boxes. after each change, the screen is updated to reflect the new value. Hex,Decimal and Bin are also updated.

- LED resistor -Not much to say here, Select you input voltage, -Enter a LED Voltage or select the LED from the pull down menu -Enter the current you wish to run (according to the specs of the LED) Click Calculate, Shows the resistor value in Ohm.

- Voltage divider Enter a supply voltage. Select what you want to find using the option buttons, and enter the two missing parameters. Eg Find- R1, Enter an R2 and an output voltage click "calculate."

- LM317 (voltage & current modes.) Allows the user to calculate the voltage calculate the output voltage, or a constant output current. Misc section contains pinouts of common regs and resistor ranges and values. The program is very intuitive, doesn't really need a help file.

- Ferrite AL. Just follow the instructions on that App.

Oh yea, there's also an Electronics database (RATSAK) a couple of directories back on the site. I wrote it when I was employed in an electronics manufacturing company to keep track of our R&D stock (different to the normal stock as we didn't have to stock take.) Makes anything really easy to find. Has multiple field search like SMD, 0805,12k0. Also can do partial searches like 74 will find all components that contain the letters 74 anywhere in the field. That program has an installation program as it does use DLL's and the like. Password is admin. Not really meant as a password, just prevents accidental changes. Has a pretty comprehensive help file, and two other programs. One only allows you to look at the database, the other allows you to look and take the components. It will remove that amount of components off the amount of stock you have.

In the process of doing the LM2576 Adj SMPS

Enjoy

Dean