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Breaktru Forum  |  eCigarette Forum  |  Modding  |  Topic: Voltage vs. current regulation
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Author Topic: Voltage vs. current regulation  (Read 6936 times)

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Offline asnider123

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Voltage vs. current regulation
« on: July 02, 2011, 01:36:53 AM »
I know we always make 3.7, 5, 6, VV mods because the parts are cheap and readily available. I am wondering, however, why we don't use current regulators instead. You switch to a LR atty, you have to turn the voltage down, a HR requires more voltage. If a mod was built around current regulation instead, you could set it for like 1.5 amps and it would automatically adjust the voltage based on the atty or carto you have on your mod. Wouldn't that be cool?

Offline jd4x4

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Re: Voltage vs. current regulation
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2012, 06:02:09 PM »
Umm.. I was thinking the same thing. I guess from the lack of response this isn't a good idea??

Offline CraigHB

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Re: Voltage vs. current regulation
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2012, 06:41:19 PM »
It's not a bad idea, but it's not a good one either.

The problem is that current regulators are not nearly as common and inexpensive as voltage regulators.  You can actually use a voltage regulator with a feedback circuit comprising a current sense resistor to implement a current regulator, but then you loose efficiency due to the current sense resistor.  It needs to be of high value (as far as current sense resistors go) which means wasted power and additional heat.  It also adds bulk since the required part would need to be relatively large.

Practically, it's cheaper and easier to regulate voltage.  With current regulation, you still have the dependability on load resistance in determining output power so you're not really gaining anything with it.  Current regulators do have their applications, but powering an atomizer would not be a particularly good one.

Offline asnider123

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Re: Voltage vs. current regulation
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2012, 06:52:23 PM »
Since I wrote this OP about a year ago, it was brought to my attention that the Darwin does precisely this, so I guess it was not such an original idea after all LOL

Offline CraigHB

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Re: Voltage vs. current regulation
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2012, 08:03:21 PM »
I didn't notice the date on the OP.  It's on old post, but still an interesting topic.

The Darwin uses voltage regulation based on the product with current measurements, which of course, is power regulation.  It' not the same thing as current regulation.  If you meant power regulation in the OP, then yes, that's obviously a good idea based on the success of the Darwin.

If done properly, it's a fairly efficient thing to measure current and use it to process voltage regulation via a micro-controller.  In that case, you can use a very low value current sense resistor then amplify the signal which greatly mitigates the efficiency hit and size of the current sense resistor. 
« Last Edit: February 15, 2012, 08:17:26 PM by CraigHB »

Offline jd4x4

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Re: Voltage vs. current regulation
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2012, 09:54:19 PM »
Thanx guys! .. And I'm glad I stirred this up  :D

Yes, I guess in my head I was thinking of power regulation. But being old school & not very electronically inclined I extrapolated that to current regulation. These wiz-bang teeny-weeney microprocessors .. what WILL they use them for next.

Thanx for showing me a tree or two to bark up now.

Offline CraigHB

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Re: Voltage vs. current regulation
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2012, 06:32:18 PM »
It's the processors like the Intel 4004 designed for consumer electronics in the early 1970s that gave rise to the ones you see in personal computers.  They all got their start with little 4 bit jobs used for the first digital consumer electronics like pocket calculators.  Everything else evolved from there.  Microprocessors formed one branch enabling personal computers. Micro-controllers formed the other enabling digital consumer electronics like cell phones and VCRs.

Micro-controllers and microprocessors are similar, but not the same thing.  A microprocessor is just that, a processor.  A micro-controller has a processor on-chip, though generally not as powerful.  It has additional circuitry that provides functions like data memory and program memory.  Micro-controllers also have various peripheral interfaces like analog to digital converters.  Consumer electronics other than personal computers do not have memory modules and hard drives so those functions have to be carried on-chip, though on a much smaller scale.

Pretty much the only time you see a microprocessor is in something that can be called a computer.  Anything else it going to use a micro-controller.  Though, some cell phones are blurring the distinction by using state-of-the-art processors with larger amounts of peripheral memory.

It's not an outright misnomber to call the digital electronics in an e-cig mod a processor, but more correctly, we're using micro-controllers in these devices.  It's not anything innovative, simply a traditional application for a new type of device.

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