I was wondering as well weither a current-limiting resistor was necessary (on both chip pins actually: +3V and clock). Driving a 1uF cap straight from a pin definitely gets me anxious.
You aren't really driving a capacitive load though, you are just changing the reference voltage. Nearly all of the energy in the system is going to come from the VCC pin in the circuit that charges the cap once your clock pin goes low and the cap voltage is lower than VCC.
Thank you! This tutorial is nine years old so you may never see my comment. I couldn't get my circuit to work until I saw your tutorial and built your circuit.
Wow amazing, I went to school for computer engineering years ago and I came across this video. You're amazing btw, but this video gave me so much nostalgia! I miss working on EE stuff.
You definitely should! First try to understand how it works. Then you see why it's always good to have a bunch of them lying around in the parts drawer. Just yesterday I needed a square wave with variable frequency (from .1 to 1kHz) to flash some LEDs. If you're fine with fixed 50% duty cycle, search for "mini-astable ne555". A NE555, one resistor and two caps, that's it. It's also a circuit I like, because it's "unusual", in that it uses the output pin itself for the timing.
Used as a source, the current to the load is coming from the capacitor charged up to 3V, which charges the grounded capacitor up to 6V thanks to that boosting effect. The cap gets re-charged (to at most 3V) when PWM = low, and THAT current comes from point 1; when PWM = high, the diode blocks reverse current from cap to point 1. There shouldn't be a point where both cap terminals are 3V once the thing's running, unless your load is so big that the cap gets fully discharged.
I think what you're missing is that a charged capacitor maintains the voltage across itself (ΔV_C) as long as no current passes through it (incl. leakage). Furthermore, ΔV_C(t) is always continuous. Look at the circuit when PWM = 0V. Point 1 is 3V_{DC}, so the capacitor can charge to 3V. Later the PWM voltage = cap bottom lead voltage = 3V, and the capacitor maintains ΔV_C = 3V it charged up earlier; the voltage at the top lead is therefore 3V + ΔV_C = 6V (with reference to ground).
thanks Dave, this is exactly what I was looking for to work around some issues with a project I'm totally new to electronics - and your vlog has helped me in a lot of ways
Dear good sir, I'm so lucky that I found your channel. Now I can use this method for my capstone project! Thank you so much. I love your teaching. So easy to understand the theory. It helps alot when you do the exxperiment right after.
What I like most about his videos are: He removes empty parts of video, like while he is writing something to board; I mean at 4:58 no graph - at 4:59 colorful graph plotted and his speech goes like there is no video edit, magic happened,
When the PWM goes high, you are lifting the "ground" of the cap to +3v. This lifts point 1 to +6v through the cap. The current comes from the charge stored across the cap.
If anyone's wondering what the name at 1:21 actually is here's the reference Greinacher circuit in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_doubler#Greinacher_circuit
I want to ask two things: First is that voltage dropped mostly on diodes , maybeyou can use MOSFET instead of diode? Maybe more power efficient also. Another concern, imho when you drive capacitive load, it increases requirements to capacitor on microcontroller power circuit, because on battery powered setup initial stage of capacitor charge will draw relatively significant current, and will cause also significant supply voltage drop (which will lead to supervisor shutdown, or glitches)
What about the inrush current exceeding the maximum output current of the micro? At start up the output pin will be effectively shorted to ground through a diode.
Wouldn't you want a current-limiting resistor or something on the PWM output? Otherwise it seems the instantaneous current would exceed the microcontroller's absolute maximum rating.
Could you use 2 transistor astable multivibrator to provide the signal for the multiplier? What frequency should it resonate in? Also if the same one multivibrator was at the end of this, providing 9V pulses to this circuit and a piezo buzzer would it work?
Depends on the uC and the load but e.g. Atmega328 provides 40mA and similar uCs provide similar current I guess. The MSP430g2253 for example provides 20mA max current per pin. Furthermore you have to drive the driver as well ;)
The ansewer is weared by dave... it's called ne555 (you can use the magic ne555 in astable mode) :) or you can use the pwm module on pic. Everythigs than generate an oscillating signal can work. (sorry for my english :) )
I wonder if the switching input from the microcontroller is drawing too much current for a tiny uC. Would be better to put a kind of driver (MOSFET?) on this line?
Most of the pic micros, can sink only 20 mA, on the entire port i think. So whether we need a current limitting resistors. Or do we need to sdjust the fz, and there by increasing the importance to reduce the current?
from those i have, the one with the highest reverse current is the mur820(8A 650mV Vf) with 5µA and the one with the lowest is the bat85 (200mA 240mV Vf) with 500nA. Compared to the nothing special 1n4148 (200mA 500mV Vf) with 7nA (all at 25V 25ºC, Imax Vf min), yeah that's a lot but still dont think that's gonna affect the doubler in any way except for the higher voltage due to less losses on the diodes. Not sure about those with miliamps of Ir but maybe those were the old ones?
It may be a silly question, but how can I easily get this kind of squarewave or i have to run something else and use a microcontroller. Or just to use some sort of chip or oscillator, (like mc34063 but i don't want to use an inductor) i don't know. For example if only want to double the voltage to power something up.
What I don't understand is the PWM is 3V with reference to ground, point 1 is 3V to ground. So across the first cap coming from the PWM is 3V and 3V so where is the current coming from?
There seems to be some ghosting or screen burn in the lower left hand corner of your DaveCAD screen there - should have used an amusing screensaver....
I would really like to see you read the AC Line frequency vs a RTC or your rubidium clock with a micro-controller! That would be very interesting to see....
A method to increase the power of this kind of charge pump is to multi-phase interleave them, I got a 3-phase voltage inverter charge pump in my product and it just works fine, transformer eliminated!
Thankd dave...very Educative. I actually had an issue with a low dc voltage in my latest design..this will surely help out. I was thinking....do you have any video on how to perfectly use Oscilloscopes, especially when powered by AC mains...to avoid damaging your circuits by a blast..tnks
hey dave how about explaining joule thieves next? to continue white the voltage multipliers/converters idea. Also really useful what you dont have a clock signal or a really low voltage source like a single 1,5v AAA
Dave, can I power it from a sine RF signal of say 15MHz, or does it need to be a square wave? I would like to use this as a DC-DC doubler for feeding a 14V varicap from 12v. I choose 15MHz so that the second harmonic is just above the HF (30MHz) to avoid interference to my RF circuit.
Prefer these over tear downs from a learning perspective - wish you did more I'm interested in how you'd handle 3.3v to 5v for ttl serial interfacing (extending on this video topic)
Hi Dave just trying to replicate your circuit. At 24min you say oops wrong polarity. Does that mean I should be using a negative signal. I was under the impression from the beginning that it was a positive signal inducing a negative charge on the capacitor? I am using a SSR 40d as my signal so I can do either. Any help appreciated Thanks Raef
lol that gets crazy... in lab at university it took 2 months just to learn how to use the software and its design rule checks to build a simple bandpass filter.. fyi you can do the same filter i did on that chip with only a few resistors, caps and transistors
How come the voltage increases at pt.2? When batteries are in paralell only the current increases. Batteries in serial increases voltage. It's a bit unclear to me.
Hi Dave, great tutorial. Question, how do did you connect the voltage multiplier to your o-scope? The doubler does not appear to have one common ground reference and it does not look like you used differential probes. Thanks!
Can you drives circuit like this from a 3V3 microcontroller that has 12 VDC rails available (to get 24 VDC)? I assume you just replace the direct pin connection a “2” with a MOSFET.
Why the ripple is getting bigger along with the load? I predict it has something to do with discharging the capacitor, but could someone explain it precisely?
hi thanks for your explanation of voltage doubler. i wonder that is voltage doulber effect current ? i mean normalla monitor lighting of small inverters consume 12 v 1,5 a because of transformer. Can i use it instead of inverter ? i want less current consumption.
*6 years ago! that's like vintage or classic in the days of youtube. By now the technology he is talking about is totally obsolete and we don't even use such things now with the simplest 3 cent micro having 8 cores running at 0.1v at 4GHz with 256Gb of onboard memory. This video is so old Instead of black and white the video is in old school 1080p; so primitive... surprised you can even watch it at such a low resolution. a 1080p camera has a crank on the side, it's so old in todays terms* !!!! Good to know to work on vintage electronics like 1080p cameras.
Dave, it looks as though you are running 50% duty cycle on the PWM. How do you get a 3V DC value out of the 3Vppk with 50% duty cycle? I see that you get almost the full 9 volts, so I know I must be missing something.
Micro controller spec sheets warn against driving capacitive loads, so buffering the io pin may be required. Great video mate! Thanks.
I was wondering as well weither a current-limiting resistor was necessary (on both chip pins actually: +3V and clock). Driving a 1uF cap straight from a pin definitely gets me anxious.
You aren't really driving a capacitive load though, you are just changing the reference voltage. Nearly all of the energy in the system is going to come from the VCC pin in the circuit that charges the cap once your clock pin goes low and the cap voltage is lower than VCC.
@@AustinSteingrube What is VCC, is it stand for voltage charging circuit?
@@ryanb1874 "VCC" stands for "Common Collector Voltage". It is basically just your positive voltage supply. Nothing fancy.
@@AustinSteingrube is there really a difference between positive, and negative voltage, material, or like affecting, electron migration?
By far my favorite, and in my opinion the most informative EE, youtuber. Very good video as usual
Thank you! This tutorial is nine years old so you may never see my comment. I couldn't get my circuit to work until I saw your tutorial and built your circuit.
Great video, even after 9 years!
Wow amazing, I went to school for computer engineering years ago and I came across this video. You're amazing btw, but this video gave me so much nostalgia! I miss working on EE stuff.
Why didn't you use dual diodes on the watch to save space?
Oh, and you forgot to mention you can use this method to generate negative supplies...!
You definitely should! First try to understand how it works. Then you see why it's always good to have a bunch of them lying around in the parts drawer. Just yesterday I needed a square wave with variable frequency (from .1 to 1kHz) to flash some LEDs. If you're fine with fixed 50% duty cycle, search for "mini-astable ne555". A NE555, one resistor and two caps, that's it. It's also a circuit I like, because it's "unusual", in that it uses the output pin itself for the timing.
Used as a source, the current to the load is coming from the capacitor charged up to 3V, which charges the grounded capacitor up to 6V thanks to that boosting effect. The cap gets re-charged (to at most 3V) when PWM = low, and THAT current comes from point 1; when PWM = high, the diode blocks reverse current from cap to point 1.
There shouldn't be a point where both cap terminals are 3V once the thing's running, unless your load is so big that the cap gets fully discharged.
I think what you're missing is that a charged capacitor maintains the voltage across itself (ΔV_C) as long as no current passes through it (incl. leakage). Furthermore, ΔV_C(t) is always continuous.
Look at the circuit when PWM = 0V. Point 1 is 3V_{DC}, so the capacitor can charge to 3V.
Later the PWM voltage = cap bottom lead voltage = 3V, and the capacitor maintains ΔV_C = 3V it charged up earlier; the voltage at the top lead is therefore 3V + ΔV_C = 6V (with reference to ground).
thanks Dave, this is exactly what I was looking for to work around some issues with a project
I'm totally new to electronics - and your vlog has helped me in a lot of ways
Hey that is my registered key for DaveCAD!!!
Now I'll have to buy another license....
Another great vid Dave!
Dear good sir, I'm so lucky that I found your channel. Now I can use this method for my capstone project! Thank you so much. I love your teaching. So easy to understand the theory. It helps alot when you do the exxperiment right after.
What I like most about his videos are: He removes empty parts of video, like while he is writing something to board; I mean at 4:58 no graph - at 4:59 colorful graph plotted and his speech goes like there is no video edit, magic happened,
This is awesome. Done this a while ago on a project but good to see the application again. :)
I love this series. I am learning so much from this videos. Thank you!
I used a charge pump to create a negative rail for a couple of my projects (which worked a treat). Maybe you should give that a mention some day.
Excellent video. Although I've built it in the past already I like the video very much and please, keep those tutorials/lectures comming.
When the PWM goes high, you are lifting the "ground" of the cap to +3v. This lifts point 1 to +6v through the cap. The current comes from the charge stored across the cap.
Wow, this is very good. Did not know you could do a pump stage like that.
Thanks.
This is my favorite series from you right now, keep it goin
fantastic video! Fashion show, audio at the end, never know what'll happen next. Content is great. Love it!
Love the war games quote at the end. Great job as always Dave
If anyone's wondering what the name at 1:21 actually is here's the reference Greinacher circuit
in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_doubler#Greinacher_circuit
I want to ask two things:
First is that voltage dropped mostly on diodes , maybeyou can use MOSFET instead of diode? Maybe more power efficient also.
Another concern, imho when you drive capacitive load, it increases requirements to capacitor on microcontroller power circuit, because on battery powered setup initial stage of capacitor charge will draw relatively significant current, and will cause also significant supply voltage drop (which will lead to supervisor shutdown, or glitches)
13:13 got me with the license popup there!
What about the inrush current exceeding the maximum output current of the micro? At start up the output pin will be effectively shorted to ground through a diode.
A brilliance derived by brilliants.
Wouldn't you want a current-limiting resistor or something on the PWM output? Otherwise it seems the instantaneous current would exceed the microcontroller's absolute maximum rating.
Always very helpful, thank you Dave, it' s a pleasure to watch your video
Loving this series Dave! Always fun and interesting. Keep up the good work!
Could you use 2 transistor astable multivibrator to provide the signal for the multiplier? What frequency should it resonate in?
Also if the same one multivibrator was at the end of this, providing 9V pulses to this circuit and a piezo buzzer would it work?
I did a quick google and I found values ranging from 20 microamps to 1 milliamp, so if you shop around it shouldn't be a problem.
Depends on the uC and the load but e.g. Atmega328 provides 40mA and similar uCs provide similar current I guess. The MSP430g2253 for example provides 20mA max current per pin. Furthermore you have to drive the driver as well ;)
What simple passive circuit would push the waveform into the positive range while halving or dividing the p-p voltage?
The ansewer is weared by dave... it's called ne555 (you can use the magic ne555 in astable mode) :) or you can use the pwm module on pic. Everythigs than generate an oscillating signal can work. (sorry for my english :) )
Hi mate,I think that your videos are brilliant & very informative as always & i have learned a fair amount from them .Keep up the good work,cheers.
I have a Communications Electronics Exam in 2 hrs :( Please guys wish me luck ! .. Dave ,, you are so greaaat !
I wonder if the switching input from the microcontroller is drawing too much current for a tiny uC. Would be better to put a kind of driver (MOSFET?) on this line?
Its also worth saying that negative voltages can be generated by inverting the circuit
The Analog Discovery is NOT a proper oscilloscope, not even close. It is not a replacement for a proper DS1052E.
Most of the pic micros, can sink only 20 mA, on the entire port i think. So whether we need a current limitting resistors. Or do we need to sdjust the fz, and there by increasing the importance to reduce the current?
you forgot to link the voltage doubler video in the description!
How does the capacitor on the left charge. Is it from the +3VDC through the Capacitor and and back to ground via the signal generator ??
If you take the output back to the input, will the voltage keep escalating?
Thank you Dave. This helps me a few times.
Hi Dave, I love your fundamentals friday. Greetings from Germany.
from those i have, the one with the highest reverse current is the mur820(8A 650mV Vf) with 5µA and the one with the lowest is the bat85 (200mA 240mV Vf) with 500nA. Compared to the nothing special 1n4148 (200mA 500mV Vf) with 7nA (all at 25V 25ºC, Imax Vf min), yeah that's a lot but still dont think that's gonna affect the doubler in any way except for the higher voltage due to less losses on the diodes. Not sure about those with miliamps of Ir but maybe those were the old ones?
I want your T-shirt mate!!
ASMR circuit explanations is what that is.
I don't really see a problem with the exposure.
What happens if you increase the switching frequency, still get the same results for the 1k resistor?
It may be a silly question, but how can I easily get this kind of squarewave or i have to run something else and use a microcontroller. Or just to use some sort of chip or oscillator, (like mc34063 but i don't want to use an inductor) i don't know. For example if only want to double the voltage to power something up.
Just what I need Dave here in 2024. Got a 3V supply and need 3V3 minimum for an LED.
What's the best option to get 18V ~500mA from a 9V 1A power supply?
Could we use a 555 timer in a stable mode too create the square wave to drive this circuit ?.
What I don't understand is the PWM is 3V with reference to ground, point 1 is 3V to ground. So across the first cap coming from the PWM is 3V and 3V so where is the current coming from?
I see later in the video on the Agilent UI that you maybe used a dc offset of 1.5 to get the full 3. Is that in fact how you achieved the full 3V?
There seems to be some ghosting or screen burn in the lower left hand corner of your DaveCAD screen there - should have used an amusing screensaver....
Dave on the cat walk... he should have dubbed in Right Said Fred - "I`m Too Sexy" for that, lol maybe next time
"Please renew license" LOL
Is the capacitor time constant required to be > the PWM width?
I would really like to see you read the AC Line frequency vs a RTC or your rubidium clock with a micro-controller! That would be very interesting to see....
A method to increase the power of this kind of charge pump is to multi-phase interleave them, I got a 3-phase voltage inverter charge pump in my product and it just works fine, transformer eliminated!
Thankd dave...very Educative. I actually had an issue with a low dc voltage in my latest design..this will surely help out.
I was thinking....do you have any video on how to perfectly use Oscilloscopes, especially when powered by AC mains...to avoid damaging your circuits by a blast..tnks
Were you an electrician, basic wireman, and then master, or did you go right into electronics as career path?
i have no idea what the heck hes talking about, but i subscribed to him
hey dave how about explaining joule thieves next? to continue white the voltage multipliers/converters idea. Also really useful what you dont have a clock signal or a really low voltage source like a single 1,5v AAA
Dave, can I power it from a sine RF signal of say 15MHz, or does it need to be a square wave? I would like to use this as a DC-DC doubler for feeding a 14V varicap from 12v. I choose 15MHz so that the second harmonic is just above the HF (30MHz) to avoid interference to my RF circuit.
So when you replaced the 0.47uF cap by a 47uF cap, you replaced the film cap by a electrolytic cap?
Prefer these over tear downs from a learning perspective - wish you did more
I'm interested in how you'd handle 3.3v to 5v for ttl serial interfacing (extending on this video topic)
Hi Dave just trying to replicate your circuit. At 24min you say oops wrong polarity. Does that mean I should be using a negative signal. I was under the impression from the beginning that it was a positive signal inducing a negative charge on the capacitor? I am using a SSR 40d as my signal so I can do either.
Any help appreciated Thanks Raef
would a fundamentals friday on decoupling caps be beneficial? is their enough information to cover for a video? if anyone could do it dave can! ;)
Hey Dave!
Why can you use your standard 1N4007 diodes at 10 kHz ? Isn't the reverse recovery time too high for 10 kHz ?
i don't see the link for the coch. walton voltage * vid that you mentioned in this vid, or whatever it is called. Just FYI
lol that gets crazy... in lab at university it took 2 months just to learn how to use the software and its design rule checks to build a simple bandpass filter.. fyi you can do the same filter i did on that chip with only a few resistors, caps and transistors
Great new series you started here, I like it a lot! (Though I hope the videos don´t get even longer...). Do you take suggestions for future topics?
How come the voltage increases at pt.2? When batteries are in paralell only the current increases. Batteries in serial increases voltage. It's a bit unclear to me.
Hi Dave, great tutorial. Question, how do did you connect the voltage multiplier to your o-scope? The doubler does not appear to have one common ground reference and it does not look like you used differential probes. Thanks!
Have a play with the circuit. Both inputs and output do have a common gnd reference.
I see the light, thanks.
Can you drives circuit like this from a 3V3 microcontroller that has 12 VDC rails available (to get 24 VDC)? I assume you just replace the direct pin connection a “2” with a MOSFET.
Google is your friend. Can be done so many ways. Using an opamp or an NE555 or inverters. The heck even the basic 2 transistor a-stable will do it.
Excellent video - can you focus on microcontroller voltage inverter next time? How to make -5V from +5V?
Why the ripple is getting bigger along with the load? I predict it has something to do with discharging the capacitor, but could someone explain it precisely?
Could I take the doubled voltage and recenter it around 0 for a dual power supply +/-3v? That would be useful!
Just reverse the diodes and feed from ground, not +3V . No extra components and you can still use a 3 pin double diode package .
Well.... what if you used significantly larger capacitors and transistors to increase the current?... how much could we get?
I found a torrent that will provide DaveCad licence keys.
I love this segment, Dave. Please, keep them coming.
Cockcroft-Walton multiplier, Dickson voltage doubler.. is it basically a prerequisite to have a name like that to name one of these things?
Also looks like a great way for me to generate a higher voltage to switch on my N-Channel high side MOSFETs...
Please renew licence, Love it.....
hi thanks for your explanation of voltage doubler. i wonder that is voltage doulber effect current ? i mean normalla monitor lighting of small inverters consume 12 v 1,5 a because of transformer. Can i use it instead of inverter ? i want less current consumption.
that shirt scene got me laughing me heart out lmao , i love you man.
Embarrassing when your Dave CAD license expires right in the middle of a video.
Thank you for this very educational video.
I've done a video on caps, a long time ago. #33
How would I make a voltage doubler for a 500mV input? What should clocks HIGH voltage be?
+Adriano Vianna Fonseca should match your dc input, so 500 mv also.
*6 years ago! that's like vintage or classic in the days of youtube. By now the technology he is talking about is totally obsolete and we don't even use such things now with the simplest 3 cent micro having 8 cores running at 0.1v at 4GHz with 256Gb of onboard memory. This video is so old Instead of black and white the video is in old school 1080p; so primitive... surprised you can even watch it at such a low resolution. a 1080p camera has a crank on the side, it's so old in todays terms* !!!! Good to know to work on vintage electronics like 1080p cameras.
A bright future in modelling me thinks.
Dave, please do a review of the Hioki 4282. Looks like a nice meter.
12:30 Nice ad break. It could have used some cheesy music, though.
Dave, it looks as though you are running 50% duty cycle on the PWM. How do you get a 3V DC value out of the 3Vppk with 50% duty cycle? I see that you get almost the full 9 volts, so I know I must be missing something.
Hi EEVblog!
I would use 2 transistors, 1 PNP and 1 NPN for a Inverter Circuit. What do you think?