[sdiy] Ring Modulators with Zener Rings.

[alfred.pear at gmail.com]

Well, I've tried the 1N60, which is spec'd as both Germanium and a
Schottky.  Everything works (with slightly different bleeds to compensate
for) -but I'm mainly just poking around looking for strange results.

It brings up a bigger question that I have, also - which relates to
differences in diodes. What sort of difference is there between a 1N81 and
a 1N34, for instance? Is there a different material used? It seems like
there are many different varieties within a certain "type", but I'm not
sure how they are distinguished from each other.





On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 7:48 PM, <rsdio at audiobanshee.com> wrote:

> This is just a hunch, but if you're sending square waves into your Ring
> Modulator, then I'd expect that the different diode types would have little
> or no effect. Non-square waves would probably be necessary to start seeing
> different wave shapes come out of the RM circuit, and in that case the
> lower threshold and faster switching of the Schottky type could produce
> different results from a non-Schottky diode.
>
> Keep in mind that Zener diodes are not Schottky diodes (and certainly not
> Germanium). Zener diodes only differ in that they allow reverse current to
> flow (usually at a much higher voltage threshold), and I doubt that the
> typical RM circuit would even produce the possibility of reverse currents
> (unless the reverse voltages were over the threshold). Of course, I'm
> saying this without actually checking through a wide variety of RM
> topologies.
>
> Have you tried literal Schottky diodes yet?
>
> Brian
>
>
> On Apr 20, 2016, at 4:39 PM, <alfred.pear at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I was just experimenting with Ken Stone's "Active Ring Modulator"
> design, substituting different groups of diodes (still matching them, more
> or less, by hand)...
> > I'm curious what sorts of results people get with different diodes. The
> design suggests germanium or schottky - I'm not sure what the advantage of
> one over the other is.
> >
> > I also experimented with some 5.1 zener diodes and it didn't seem that
> different from a non-zener..any ideas?
>
>
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