[sdiy] Onboard regulation vs. re-design

[David Ingebretsen]

I have a design (maybe redesign) philosophy question. Again, this relates to
the Steiner modules I'm trying to build.

Nyle used +12/-10 volts for his supplies for reasons I never did, nor do I
now understand. When this was a "one-off" project for me alone, it didn't
matter. I found a commercial supply which is easily converted to +12/-10
volts and I was going to use power connectors consistent with MOTM/Blacet
style power distribution. 

That all changed when Nyle said he wanted to see people have fun with his
designs and that I should share the work I'm doing. The dilemma is there are
several people interested in building these modules and I'm sure they will
be wanting to put them into +/- 12 and +/- 15 volt systems. From some off
list correspondence I've had, I'm pretty sure they will simply run on +/- 12
volts with no changes. I'm not so sure about +/- 15, especially the diode
filter. I figure I have a few choices and I'd like to poll the opinion of
the list as to the "best" way to approach this;

One of my goals is to make this resurrection true to the original. I do not
want to re-design the circuit; the bias resistors and other circuit
components. I want to keep these running on +12 and -10.

1. Thumb my nose at everyone and tell them they have to work out the power
conversion on their own. Rude, inconsiderate, and clearly a solution I will
not choose, but have to consider as it is a real solution.

2. Try the modules at +/- 12 and +/- 15 and see what happens. If it works, I
guess the rest of the choices are moot. Except, I am obsessive/anal enough
that I really want these modules to bring to life the timbre and texture of
the original design and want them to operate as the real ones did.

3. Build a single "conversion" board with +12 and -10 volt regulators. 
    3a. I could make it a "plug and play" type design that could either be
wired to take +/- 15 or +/- 12 and turn it 
        into +12 and -10. This would be a small PCB that has a 4 pin MOTM
and 10 pin Doepfer type male connectors and one 4 or 10 
        pin female connector. You'd need one for each module. This actually
has some appeal and I'm leaning here.
    3b. a bigger conversion board designed to run several modules. I would
follow the mounting pattern John Blacet uses so it 
        could easily be used in his racks or adapted to other mounting
schemes.

4. Build the conversion on each board and just plan on at least a -12 volt
supply with an optional 12 volt regulator for 15 volt systems.

I'm pretty sure most people building these won't want to deal with having to
modify these PCBs to use them, but I also don't want to try to make these
PCBs I'm laying out work for everyone in every system.

I'm really appreciative of any thoughts here.

David

David M. Ingebretsen M.S., M.E.
Collision Forensics & Engineering, Inc.
2469 East Fort Union Blvd. STE 114
Salt Lake City, UT 84121
www.CFandE.com

801 733-5458 Office
801 842-5451 Cell

dingebre at CFandE.com
dingebre at 3dphysics.net