INTRODUCTION

A power supply needs mainly two things, SOURCE of energy and a REGULATION
MECHANISM to make the power supply meet our needs. Linear Power supply,
taking into considerations the requirements, cost effectiveness, and its
complexity. The Linear supply will be made using mains as its source, and the
output will be regulated.
EAGLE (Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor) by Cadsoft is a flexible and
expandable EDA schematic capture, PCB layout, autorouter and CAM program
widely used since 1988. EAGLE is popular among hobbyists because of its
freeware license and rich availability of component libraries on the web.
Audacity is a free open source digital audio editor and recording computer
software application. In addition to recording audio from multiple sources,
Audacity can be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts
by adding effects such as normalization, trimming, and fading in and out.

REGULATED POWER SUPPLY

Source is the first requirement for a power supply. The sources may include the
following:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Battery
Solar cell
Heat based Power supply
AC mains-220 volts after rectification

The characteristics of a good power supply include -a high energy /stable source
along with a good quality regulator which has a wide range of input voltage with
a small range of output voltage.
Types of regulators:
1) Stabilizers: AC stabilizers which use Autotransformers to regulate the
output with respect to the fluctuating input.
2) Linear Power supply (DC): This type of regulator works in the linear region
of transistor. It can only give the output in step down mode. It is less
efficient as quite a lot amount of power is wasted in this type of regulator.
3) Switching S u p p l y ( DC): Also k n o w n a s S w i t c h i n g M o d e P o w e r
S u p p l y (SMPS), it is the mode widely used type of regulator due to its
various advantages. It is power efficient as it only works in either the
saturation mode or cut-off mode of the transistor. In both the regions, the
ideal power output is zero. Although it keeps on switching, it still gives a
constant output voltage. Moreover, unlike a linear regulator, it can work
in both Buck and Boost modes where buck means step down mode ad
Boost means Step up mode.
Mobile phones use this kind of power supply. Mobiles work on a constant
voltage of 3.3 volts, whereas the battery voltage varies from 2.5 V to 4.2
V. Thus the regulator continuously works to provide the required voltage.
We have made a Linear Power supply, taking into considerations the
requirements, cost effectiveness, and its complexity. The Linear supply will be
using mains as its source, and the output will be regulated.

LINEAR POWER SUPPLY

Schematic of basic AC-to-DC power supply, showing (from L-R) transformer, full-wave bridge rectifier, filter
capacitor and resistor load

Different stages of our power supply

included:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Stepping Down the AC Mains Supply

Rectification of the AC
Adequate filtering of the rectified output
Regulation of the output
Delivery of the output

Stepping Down the AC mains

The Ac Mains 220 V was stepped down through a step down transformer
of appropriate rating; lets say 0-12V, which can provide a maximum DC voltage
of 12 x 1.414 =16.97V.
Rectification of AC

There were a few options of rectifiers available like half wave, full wave, and
bridge. We went for a bridge as it does not require a center tapped transformer
and allows exploitation of the complete range of the transformer. This is the
rectified AC wave. We call this wave as DC but actually is Unipolar AC. This Wave
still did not meet our desired characteristics and needed to be filtered.
3

Filter Action
The Unipolar AC needed to be filtered to convert it into usable DC. Thus a
filter circuit such as RC or LC or Chunks of LC circuit was required. We went
for a RC filter for its easy design, availability and low maintenance.
In spite of the filtering, we had some fluctuations of operating point due to the
non- ideal characteristics of the filter circuit and as a consequence, noise gets
added.
Regulation of the output
Let us consider the regulator as a Black Box, in which we give the filtered DC Vin
as the Input with Iin as the current, and get Regulated DC voltage Vo as the
output along with maximum current Imax.
This regulator also employs a short circuit protection which does not allow
the current to exceed Imax.
At all times, Imax will be less than Iin ,as some part of the entering current goes
into the biasing of the transistor. Let Iq be the current consumed in the circuit at
no load. Thus the power still consumed by the supply at no load is Vcc*Iq. This
power is wasted in the form of heat.
Regulated Output
The regulated output has to be delivered via some means to power some or
the other devices/appliances/circuits. This was done by installing a two pin
standard connector which was left open circuited. To keep an eye on the output
of the dc voltage, we installed a Led in parallel with the output.

%Load Regulation =

/(

))

LINE REGULATION: The ratio of change in output voltage to change in input voltage
at a constant load.

%Line regulation =

/(

(max )
4

(min ) )

ZENER DIODE AS VOLTAGE REGULATOR

A Zener diode can be used as a voltage regulator. It is connected in reverse bias
mode to act as a voltage regulator. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics show
that the voltage remains constant over a range of input voltage and thus helps in
regulation. But the current drawn at any value of load is constant in case of Zener
diode and a part of current of the Zener diode flows in the load at any time. The
total current cannot exceed the max rating of the Zener diode. It is useful in case
where load requirements are significantly low.
To increase the load regulation by some amount in the Zener regulator, we use
the following configuration:

Zener with CC Amplifier configuration

Moreover, When Rc is connected and needs 100 mA, (let =100), the base needs
1mA of current. If Zener diode had 20 mA flowing in it, and now 19mA will still be
flowing in it, thus suggesting that the change in Zener voltage will be very less and
the transistor has also increased the load capabilities of the this regulated supply.
Here the current is increased by times and thus voltage regulation is decreased
by times. For D3 to show the same drop as the T1, take another transistor and
replace D3 with it with its collector and base shorted. This makes sure that the
diode and base emitter junction are exactly identical.
Short Circuit Protection
Now consider the situation where the output is shorted. In this case, the whole
current will be diverted to base and the zener diode will become ineffective thus
increasing the power dissipation tremendously and may even damage the
appliance. Excessive heat may even melt the transistor, making the circuit
useless.
Thus we employ a short circuit protection mechanism in our regulator.

Here we can see that another transistor T2 has been

employed into the circuit. This acts as the short
circuit protector. The resistor R2 is connected
between the base and emitter of the T2. Let the
current flowing in T2 be Ix. If Vbe= Ix*R2 becomes
equal to 0.7 V i.e. the forward drop voltage of the BE junction of T2, the T2 starts conducting, thus taking
a major part of base current of base of T1, and
depriving T1 from base current, ultimately forcing T1
into the cut-off region.
Thus, Imax= Vbe/R2, even in the case of short
circuit. Thus we can independently set the value of
Imax on the basis of its deciding factor, i.e. the value
of R2.

Characteristics of the output voltage w.r.t Current. We see that the at Imax , voltage becomes zero.

USE OF OP-AMP
Op-Amps or operational amplifiers are a breakthrough in electronics. They have a
wide application in the field of electronics. Op-amps are amplifiers which have
characteristics that are very close to the characteristics of ideal amplifier. They
have very high input impedance and very low output impedance, which are the
basic desired characteristics of an amplifier. Although they have very high open
loop gain (ideally infinity), but their closed loop gain can be controlled very
precisely according to our needs just by using two resistors.
In op-amp has three terminals, mainly an Inverting
terminal, A Non-inverting terminal and An Output
terminal.
We had used op-amp in closed loop gain form to
achieve a controlled gain.
We can use the following rules while using an op amp in closed loop configuration.
1) The voltage difference between inverting and non inverting terminal is
zero.
2) The current going in/out of the inverting or non-inverting terminals of the
op- amp is zero.
This is the diagram of op-amp used as an
amplifier in non-inverting configuration.
The Vout can be calculated by using
Kirchhoffs voltage and current laws.
The total amplifier gain is found out to be:
A0=1 + .

We provide Vin by the means of Zener diode. We used the second configuration
of zener for a wider range, stability and less deviation of the zener voltage, i.e.
this configuration , as explained earlier is very
useful.

Now, although the output we were getting was regulated, the current
requirements were still high. The average and maximum current provided by
an op-amp is very low, i.e. of the order of 20mA and thus needed to be
amplified further. Thus we used a Transistor in Common Collector
configuration to achieve the desired characteristics of the current without
any amplification in voltage.
The modified circuit diagram is as follows :

Although this configuration takes care of the current requirement but this
configuration leads to loss of voltage V developed at the output terminal of the opamp.

The main objective of using an op-amp fails with this. Thus we make a further
modification to take care of the Vout developed at the end output across load
R6.

We took the feedback from the

emitter leg of transistor T1
instead of taking from the opamp. This took care of any
voltage drop that occurred
between Output terminal of opamp and load resistor R6.

The Modified Circuit is As follows:

Thus
Vout= Vout+ Vbe and
Vout should be well
within the limits of Vcc
sothat saturation does not
occur.

Now to make the Vout variable and achieve any value, we make one of the feedback
resistors variable.
Short Circuit Protection
Here, transistor T2 acts as a short circuit protector and RC is the maximum current
deciding factor.

10

Use of IC LM723
As we have seen above, the regulator circuit requires a lot of components to
work properly.
But, we have an IC LM723, which has most of the above components bundled in it.
The Zener Input configuration, Op-amp, and Short Circuit Protection is bundled in
itself, thereby reducing the size and labour and also increasing the reliability of the
circuit. The device can be connected to operate as a positive or negative voltage
regulator with an output voltage ranging from 2 V to 37 V, and output current
levels up to 150 m A. The maximum supply voltage is 40 V, and the line and
load regulations are each specified as 0.01%.

The rectified and filtered ac signal is used to power LM 723. The 6th pin of this IC is
Vref. It provides the reference voltage of 7.15V. The 5th and 4th pin are noninverting and inverting terminal of comparator respectively.
11

Delivery of Output
Consider a situation with above circuit but with output delivery at a physically large
distance from the power supply. This will lead to high voltage drop across the long
conductors and thus the actual voltage delivered to the load will be less than that
of desired value. Thus we go for a 4 terminal solution.
The 4 Terminal solution suggests that the op-amp sensing terminals should be taken
along with the delivery wires at the load and must be connected very near to load,
which compensates for the voltage loss.
Use Of capacitors
In the above circuits, capacitors have been used at some places in parallel with load
resistor. These capacitors are known as frequency compensators. The transients
that may occur due to noise during the operation of power supply may also result
in phase change and the negative feedback could be changed to positive feedback.
To avoid that, capacitors are used.
Component Value Selection for Output Value
R1 & (R5+Rx1) form a potential divider at the 5th pin. Similarly, R2 & (R4+Rx2)
forms a potential divider at the inverting terminal. Voltage at +IN terminal =
Vref*(R1+RX)/(R1+R5+RX) Voltage at IN terminal = Vout*(R4+RY)/(R2+R4+RY) If
R2=R5=0, then
Vout = Vref = 7.15V
If only R2=0, any voltage less can be made, if only R5=0, any voltage above 7.15V
can be achieved. For Vout=5V, we put, R2=0. Therefore, Voltage at -IN terminal =
5V.
We, therefore, choose R1, R5, RX such that (R1+RX)/(R1+R5+RX)=5/7.15.

12

PCB FABRICATION
Printed circuit boards are electronic circuits boards created for mounting
electronic components on a nonconductive board, and for creating conductive
connections between them. The creation of circuit patterns is accomplished
using both additive and subtractive methods. The conductive circuit is generally
copper, although aluminium, nickel, chrome, and other metals are sometimes
used. There are three basic varieties of printed circuit boards: singlesided,
doublesided, and multilayered.
1. Single sided PCB: conductors on only one surface of a dielectric base.
2. Double sided PCB: conductors on both sides of a dielectric base, usually the
two layers are interconnected by platedthroughholes (PTHs).
3. Multilayer: conductors on 3 or more layers separated by dielectric material
and the layers are interconnected by PTH or pads 4 layer PCB is a sandwich of 2
double layered PCBs. Likewise 6 layer PCB is a sandwich of 3 double layered PCB.
This sandwiching is done by placing oxidizing material between double layered
PCBs. The spatial and density requirement, and the circuitry complexity
determine the type of board to be produced.
CAD System
Recommended software for the CAD system is EAGLE. This software has
enhanced features like improved interactive routing, user selectable track
width, internal routing loops, PCB routing completion detector, preserving track
angles while dragging, designing bottom layer layout just by flip and editing the
board etc.
Note: Minimum track width requirement is 0.2 mm and minimum spacing
between tracks is 0.2 mm.
We used a very simple and fast technique to make Printed Circuit Boards at Home.
This technique works reliably for thin tracks down to 10 mils, and is suitable for most
surface-mount parts. Though this technique is not scalable but it is a very efficient
way to help learners bring their ideas into practicality. We use this technique to
make our Power Supply.

13

COMPONENTS REQUIRED:
For PCB Fabrication
1) Laser Printer
2) Glossy Paper
3) Household Iron
4) Copper Clad Laminate
5) Etching Solution (FeCl3 Solution)
6) Kitchen Scrubs
7) Thinner
For Power Supply
1) IC 723
2) 14 Pin IC Base
3) 1N5399
4) Resistors
5) Capacitors
6) Heat Sink
7) MJE3099
8) DC Power Jack
9) LED
PRINCIPLE
Laser printers and photocopiers use plastic toner, not ink, to draw images. Being
plastics, toner is resistant to etching solutions used for making PCBs. Like most
plastics, toner melts with heat, turning in a sticky, glue-like paste. So print the board
layout on paper as usual, place the sheet face-down on PCB copper, and melt toner
on copper applying heat and pressure. This can be achieved using household iron.
Now when we remove paper from copper clad we are left with copper clad with
tracks of toner on it. When we etch it a FeCl3 solution, the result is a board with
black tracks of toner on it. Remove the toner using Scrub. And the Printed Circuit
Board is ready.

14

STEPS INVOLVED
Step 1: Creating PCB layout of your circuit
This is done by converting your circuit's schematic diagram into a PCB layout
using PCB layout software like EAGLE.
Step 2: Take printout of PCB layout
Take a print out of your PCB layout using the laser printer and the A4 photo
paper/glossy paper. Keep in mind the following points:
1. You should take the mirror print out.
2. Select the output in black both from the PCB design software and printer
driver settings.
3. Make sure that the printout is made on the glossy side of the paper.
Step 3: Cutting the copper plate
Cut the copper board according to the size of layout.
Step 4: Make it smooth
Rub the copper side of PCB using steel wool or abrasive spongy scrubs. This
removes the top oxide layer of copper as well as the photo resists layer.
Sanded surface allow image to stick better
Step 5: Iron on Glossy paper method
Transfer the printed image from the photo paper to the board. Make sure to
flip top layer horizontally. Put the copper surface of the board on the printed
layout. Ensure that the board is aligned correctly along the borders of the
printed layout. Put tape along the two sides of the board non-copper side.
This will help to hold the board and the printed layout in position.
Step 6: Iron it!
After printing on glossy paper we iron it image side down to copper side.
Heat up the Electric iron to the maximum temperature.
Put the board and photo paper arrangement on a clean wooden table and
clothes with the back of the photo paper facing you.

15

 Hold one end of it by the Towel and put the hot iron on the other end for
about 10 seconds. Now, iron the photo paper all along using the tip and
applying little pressure for about 5 to 15 mins.
Pay attention towards the edges of the board you need to apply pressure,
do the ironing slowly.
Long hard press seems to work better than moving iron around.
Here iron heat melts ink printed on glossy paper and get transfer to copper
plate.
CAUTION: Do not directly touch copper plate because it is very hot due to ironing.
Step 7: Peeling
After ironing, place printed plate in Luke warm water for around 10 minutes.
Paper will dissolve and remove paper gently. Remove the Paper off at low
angle & traces.
Step 8: Etching
1. Take a plastic box and fill it up with some water.
2. Dissolve 2-3 tea spoon of ferric chloride power in the water.
3. Dip the PCB into the Etching solution (Ferric chloride solution, FeCl3) for
approximately 30 mins.
4. The FeCl3 reacts with the unmasked copper and removes the unwanted
copper from the PCB.
5. This process is called as Etching. Use pliers to take out the PCB and check
if the entire unmasked area has been etched or not. In case it is not etched
leave it for some more time in the solution.
Gently move plastic box to and fro so that etching solution react with exposed
copper and form iron and copper chloride.
After every 2-3 minutes check whether all copper is etched or not.
Step 9: Spray with anti-oxidant
Spray an anti-oxidant on it so as to prevent copper from oxidation. Now we
have our PCB complete.
Step 10: Dry
Let PCB dry for 15 mins.
16

Step 11: Drilling

Drill holes in PCB with suitable drills.
Step 12: Finishing
Smooth the edge of PCB to prevent cutting, clean any dust present on PCB
by blowing air without touching copper. Screw corner holes
Step 13: Soldering
Put the soldering station on your right hand for soldering without
hindrance.
Use mildly wet sponge for cleaning soldering iron.
For easy soldering make right angle between body base and leg and
insert in PCB.
First warm the legs of component then apply soldering wire.
Remove extra metal with clipper.
Clean soldering iron again.
Repeat above method for soldering every component.
You can also repair any broken circuit route with soldering wire.
Step 14: Take the Reading
Test the power supply for various load voltages and currents.
Note down the readings.

17

SCHEMATIC

Board Layout

18

Component used in PCB fabrication

19

Print-out of board layout on a Glossy Magazine paper

Cleaned surface of copper clad

Iron used on a wooden block for transferring glossy magazine paper tone to copper clad

FeCl3 solution for removing exposed copper from copper clad

20

Drill used for making 3mm holes

PCB before installing components

Soldering Station

Completed Power Supply

21

OBSERVATIONS
The Power Supply when tested gave the following readings when connected to an
electronic load
S.NO.

Current(mA)

Voltage(V)

1.

88.59

11.99

2.

197.8

11.98

3.

223.25

11.95

4.

250.62

12.00

5.

285.23

11.97

6.

305.62

11.93

7.

332.35

11.91

8.

425

11.45

9.

545

1.35

10.

565.3

0.53

11.

599.36

0.32

Graph between Current and Voltage

22

EAGLE CAD
EAGLE (Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor) by Cadsoft is a flexible and
expandable EDA schematic capture, PCB layout, autorouter and CAM program
widely used since 1988. EAGLE is popular among hobbyists because of its
freeware license and rich availability of component libraries on the web.
Schematic Editor
In this we can create circuit schematics in the symbolic form. The various
commands used in this are:

INFO
MOVE
GROUP

Shows information about an object (component, signal, trace, etc.)

Allows components to be moved (same as schematic.)
Groups a collection of objects into a "group" that can be
manipulated.

DELETE

Delete an object. Items created in schematics need to be deleted there.

SMASH

Separate the text labels of a part from the part itself, so they can be
moved independently.

BREAK
ROUTE
LINE
VIA
HOLE
RATSNEST

Add a corner to a line (or trace.)

Turn an air wire into a trace
Draw lines (usually in non-copper layers. ROUTE is for drawing copper.
Create a hole and pad associated with some signal
A hole that isn't associated with a signal, i.e. for mounting.
Recomputes air wires and polygons, example after components
have been moved.
CHANGE Changes an object's properties.
RIPUP
Changes a routed trace back to an air wire.
TEXT
Add text
POLYGON Create a polygon (actually, we'll use a text command.)
DRC
Invoke the Design Rule Check and parameter setting.

23

Board Layout Editor

Up in the file menu, there's a "Switch to board" selection. If we do that from a
bare schematic, it will offer to create the board from the schematic for us (say
"yes"), and then leave us sitting in the Board Editor.
The various commands used in board layout editor are:
AIR WIRES All the signals you created in the schematic are currently airwires;
thin yellow lines that are drawn in the shortest possible way, crossing each
other as needed. They stay connected to component pins even when you move
the component around.
RATSNEST Recomposes and redraws these after you move things around
(and, say, make two connected pins closer together than they used to be.)
ROUTING A signal consists of turning an air wire into an actual copper trace
on some layer(s) of the board, and positioning that trace so that it doesn't short
against other traces on the same layer of the board.
AUTOROUTE Invokes the auto router.
POWER PLANES are large areas of copper that carry an actual signal, usually
power and ground. On multi-layer boards, it's common to have entire layers
mostly dedicated to such a power plane. Even on a single layer board there are
some advantages to doing something similar:
1) Use less etchant
2) Carries heavier current, just in case
3) Makes it easier to attach test leads

24

AUDACITY
Audacity is a free open source digital audio editor and recording computer
software application. In addition to recording audio from multiple sources,
Audacity can be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts
by adding effects such as normalization, trimming, and fading in and out.
Features
Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize
recordings from other media. With some sound cards, and on any recent
version of Windows, Audacity can also capture streaming audio.
Import sound files, edit them, and combine them with other files or new
recordings. Export your recordings in many different file formats, including
multiple files at once.
Supports 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit (floating point) samples (the latter
preserves samples in excess of full scale).
Sample rates and formats are converted using high-quality resampling and
dithering.
Tracks with different sample rates or formats are converted automatically in
real time.
Adjusting audio pitch while maintaining speed and adjusting audio speed
while maintaining pitch
Conversion of cassette tapes or records into digital tracks by automatically
splitting the audio source into multiple tracks based on silences in the source
material
Cross-platform operation Audacity works on Windows, Mac OS X, and
Unix-like systems (including Linux and BSD)
Audacity uses the wxWidgets software library to provide a similar graphical
user interface on several different operating systems

25

Lissajous Curve

Lissajous curves are the family of curves described by the parametric equations

sometimes also written in the form

They are sometimes known as Bowditch curves after Nathaniel Bowditch, who
studied them in 1815. They were studied in more detail (independently) by JulesAntoine Lissajous in 1857. Lissajous curves have applications in physics, astronomy,
and other sciences. The curves close if

is rational. Lissajous curves are a

special case of the harmonograph with damping constants

26