[ARC5] Power Supply Filter Question

[Ben Hall]

On 12/21/2013 7:18 PM, Dennis Monticelli wrote:
> I can agree with that statement.  The circuits are reproducible and
> components affordable, but the gotcha's should a tube-trained person try to
> roll his own design are just too numerous.  The high power FETs do have
> better SOA, but robustness issues remain.

Good morning Dennis and all,

I've been looking for a robust high-voltage regulator circuit for some 
time for use with vacuum-tube gear.

One reason is the cost of filter chokes - a nice, new Hammond unit can 
be $40 or so for an enclosed unit.

Another reason is that I have a plethora of used, vacuum tube 
transformers that always seem to have HV secondaries that, even with a 
choke-input configuration, produce way more voltage that I require.  :(

Some time ago I came across this post of diyAudio.  If you can sift the 
good information from the "audiophoolery," you can actually find some 
interesting things there.

One of those interesting things was a post entitled "21st Century Maida 
Regulator."

Years ago, Mike Maida wrote National Semiconductor Linear Brief 47, 
describing a high-voltage regulator based on the wonder LM317.

This thread presents an updated version of the Maida regulator, using a 
Linear Technology LT3080 regulator at its heart:

<http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-valves/209067-21st-century-maida-regulator.html>

I have built two of these on a PC board of my own design - one for 90 
VDC output, the other for 500 VDC output.  Both seem to work very well.

thanks much and 73,
ben, kd5byb