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Driver Circuits
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Last Updated on:
Wednesday, June 02, 2021 01:44 PM

Circuits Designed by Dave Johnson, P.E.

Solid State Relay Requires Only 50ua Drive CurrentThis circuit demands a control current that is 100 times smaller than that needed by a typical optically isolated solid state relays.  It is ideal for battery-powered systems.  Using a combination of a high current TRIAC and a very sensitive low current SCR. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-June, 2000

Square Wave Driver Has Flexible OutputsThis circuit can produce an output signal ranging from DC to 100KHz.  It can source a voltage ranging from 1v to 30v.  It can sink a voltage ranging from zero volts to –30v.  It can drive up to 200ma of current and can even be switched to a floating tristate. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-July, 2000

SSR Requires Ultra Low Control CurrentMost solid state relays require at least 5ma and often more input control current, to fully turn on the device.  But such current levels often force battery powered circuits to use excessively large batteries.  The relay hobby circuit shown below demands only 50uA of input current . . . Hobby Circuit designed by David A. Johnson P.E.-June, 2000


Links to electronic circuits, electronic schematics and designs for engineers, hobbyists, students & inventors:

Sensor Electronic Tracker with H-Bridge Drive -  I decided to make a commercial surface mount PC board using the LED2 sensor concept.  It is quite sensitive and can track to a few degrees of accuracy in bright sunlight.  If a blocking shadowis used the accuracy is better than 1/4 degree, that's about as good as you can get with an active feedback sensor.  The board is a tiny.7"x1.4" __ Contact: Duane C. Johnson

Sequential Turn Lights Driver -  Four-LED left and right sequence; Particularly suited to motorcycles __ Contact: Flavio Dellepiane, fladello @ tin.it

Serial Interface & bias supply for Seiko-Epson G1206B dot Graphics display -  A serial interface and bias supply for the Seiko-Epson G1216N000 using an AT90S2313 because there just aren't enough applications examples for this display on the web.   __ Designed by Dick Cappels

Serial LCD Controller Serial LCD/VFD Controller is a HD44870 based LCD/VFD controller via RS-232.  The control command is compatible with Matrix-Orbital's LCD module.  So, you can use any MO friendly software to control this baby such as LCDC.  

Serial LCD for microControllers using only 3 pins -  Connect an LCD to your microcontroller to make it easy to develop and debug your application.  You can choose which PIC I/O pins you want to use for the interface, and any HD44780 compatible LCD can be controlled.   __ Designed by Peter Jakab

Serial LCD Module -  In most electronic systems, it is necessary to provide information in the visual form for a convenient user interface.  The most commonly used displays in electronic systems are LED, LCD and...__ Electronics Projects for You

Servo Pulse to PWM -  converter connects an H-Bridge to radio control receivers or robotic circuits __ Designed by Bob Blick

Seven-Segment LCD Uses Two-Wire Interface -  09/04/03 EDN-Design Ideas You can connect seven-segment LCDs using only a two-wire interface    (Figure 1) .  The two-wire interface may be at the field-effect, direct-drive LCD or at a serial interface    (such as I2C) that uses an eight-pin microcontroller.  The design in Figure 1 uses an Atmel    (www.  atmel.  com) ATtiny12 microcontroller, IC1.  VCC can range from 2.7 to 5.5V.  Each digit receives drive from an 8-bit 74HC164 shift register, which provIdeas seven outputs for each of the segments and one output for a decimal point or a colon Design by Hans Krobath

Simple Circuit active-matrix-LCD bias supply operates from battery input -  02/03/00 EDN-Design Ideas Many active-matrix-LCD applications need multiple voltages for thin-film-transistor    (TFT]bias.  Typically, three voltages are necessary5V forcolumn driver; a positive voltage, such as 10V; and a negative voltage, such -5V, for  Design by Michael Shrivathson, National Semiconductor Corp, Santa Clara, CA

Simple Circuit LCD interface takes two wires -  EDN-Design Ideas March 26, 1998    [ NOTE : File has multiple design, scroll for this one.]  Alphanumeric LCD modules can provide an attractive display for a project, but their parallel I/O lines require a large number of outputs from a µC. For example, a direct LCD interface would consume all of the I/O pins of a small µC, such as the eight-pin PIC12C508 from Microchip Technology  (Chandler, AZ) . Design by Ed Maste, Jem Designs, Pickering, ON, Canad

Simple Circuit RS422 Converter for Minilogger -  Build a simple RS422 converter for the Minilogger.   __ Designed by Wichit Sirichote

Simple Circuit Smoothly Drives Stepper Motors -  05/28/09  EDN-Design Ideas Adding an analog switch make the motor bidirectionalThe circuit in This design idea     drives low-power, unipolar stepper motors using only a shift register, a few resistors, and low-power transistors.  Adding an inexpensive 4053 an Design by Uwe Schuler

Simple Circuit Solenoid Driver Is Adaptable & Efficient -  06/04/12  EDN-Design Ideas Use capacitive reactance to save energy while holding a solenoid in the energized position.   Solenoid loads generally exhibit large hysteresis.  Application of the rated voltage actuates these loads.  Once they are in position, however, you can use a significantly lower voltage to thereafter reliably hold them on.  A lower sustaining voltage results in less heat production and higher efficiency. Design by Jessica MacNeil

Simple Circuit Solenoid Driver Reduces Power & Cost -  07/18/96 EDN-Design Ideas Solenoid  valves commonly control the flow of low-pressure gases and fluids in biological applications.  A typical valve may operate at 12V and draw 1A.  In systems using such valves, these power requirements can cause cost and space problems, even though a well-regulated supply is unnecessary Design by TG Barnett, Queen Mary College, London England

Simple Circuit stepper Motor driver for PC parallel port -  A stepper motor has four coils.  The direction of rotation  (clockwise or anti-clockwise) depends on the order in which the currents supplied to the coils are switched on.  If you use the motors type 55SI-25 DAYA, having a connector as shown below,  __ Designed by © David Hoult

Simple Circuit Tester Check LCDs -  10/03/02 EDN-Design Ideas RF oscillator uses current-feedback op ampManufacturers of electronic equipment use LCDs for calculators, watches, mini-videogames, and pagers, for example.  In comparison with LED-based displays, which consume power on the order of tens of milliwatts, an LCD consumes only a few microwatts.    Design by D Prabakaran, NL Polytechnic College, Tamil Nadu, India

Simple Circuit VCOM adjustment uses any logic-supply voltage -  09/30/04 EDN-Design Ideas All TFT [thin-film-transistor] LCD panels require at least one appropriately tuned VCOM signal to provide a reference point for the panel’s backplane.  The exact value of VCOM  varies Page includes several designs.  Scroll to find this one Design by Peter Khairolomour and Alan Li, Analog Devices, San Jose, CA

Simple, Low-Cost, 1-Kv Driver -  05/13/04  EDN-Design Ideas High-voltage drivers have recently received much attention, because they play an important role in driving piezoelectric and electro-optical components, for example.  Figure 1 shows a simple, low-cost, 1-kV driver.  The circuit uses  Design by Tai-Shan Liao and Prasit Champa, National Science Council, Hsinchu, Taiwan

Sinewave Generator -  Scroll down.  The last circuit is a simpler R-C phase shift oscillator, but this is one with a difference: it is gated, i.  e.  it can be turned on by an input signal.  Earth the input and the oscillator stops, connect it to 5v and the oscillator starts.  The oscillator will always start in the same fashion, with a positive edge  __ Designed by Richard Torrens

Single IC Biases LCD & GaAsFET Amplifier -  04/09/98 EDN-Design Ideas -  (File ,contains several circuits, scroll to this one) Operating from a lithium-ion cell or a four-cell NiCd battery, the circuit in Figure 1  provIdeas 6V bias for LCDs and a separate, quiet negative bias for a GaAsFET power amplifier.  This bias combination exists in cell phones Design by John Wettroth, Maxim Integrated Products, Apex, NC

Single microcontroller pin senses Ambient light, controls illumination -  26-Oct-06 EDN-Design Ideas LED circuit senses light and controls its own brightness Design by Loren Passmore, Berkeley, CA

Single NiCd Cells Drives Op Amp -  12/05/96 EDN-Design Ideas Low-supply-voltage op amps, such as the LMC6582 and LMC6681 families, feature rail-to-rail I/O with a gain-bandwidth product greater than 1 MHz operating from just 1.8V.  Although impressive, this voltage is not low enough to power these amps using a single alkaline or NiCd/NiMH cell, which have typical voltages of 1.25 to 1.5V.  It is rather tempting to bridge this gap by designing a DC/DC converter Design by Alexander Belousov, Rego Park, NY

Single Transistor Flyback Driver -  This is by far the best project for someone who is already familiar with High Voltage, but wants to take their experiments to the next level: It requires very little previous experience and skills with soldering and identifying components, and there are virtually no adjustments to be made.  The danger is minimal, as fly back transformers are intrinsically low power devices, not capable of outputting lethal currents  (due to the hair-thin secondary windings) , and yet it will give a careless experimenter a nasty RF burn if he accidentally touches the HV wire  (nothing beats learning from your mistakes) .  If you have never experimented with HV before though, I recommend you start off with an electrostatic project.  This circuit is not a toy! __ Designed by Sam Barros

Single-ended driver for a Circlotron OTL -  Originally, this circuit was driving a 6B4G PP output stage.  Transformer-coupled, naturally.  I started with cap-coupled Mullard splitter using three 4P1L direct-heated loktal pentodes.  Not bad at all, but had insufficient gain.  Then I tried a plain Loftin-White configuration with a LL1660 interstage  (this one is a one-of-a-kind custom 30mA version __ Contact: klausmobile @ yahoo.Com

Siren Driver -  Zetex Semiconductors have a siren driver IC Type ZSD100 available that is suitable for use in alarm systems for cars and model craft.  With the addition of only a few components as shown in the diagram, the device produces an ear-splitting sound of 120 dB.  The IC contains an a.  f.  rectangular-wave generator that is driven by a __ Designed by Popescu Marian

Smart gate-drive optocoupler with integrated flyback controller -  EDN-Design Ideas 03/13/2015   A smart gate-drive optocoupler for FETs & IGBTs is ideal for distributed power supplies, power inverters, motor drives, and more Design by Avago Tech Note

Smoothly Drive Stepper Motors -  05/28/09  EDN-Design Ideas Adding an analog switch make the motor bidirectionalThe circuit in This design idea     drives low-power, unipolar stepper motors using only a shift register, a few resistors, and low-power transistors.  Adding an inexpensive 4053 an Design by Uwe Schuler

Soldering iron driver bridge controls temperature -  09/06/13   EDN-Design Ideas With a power supply and a replacement soldering handle you can implement this temperature-controlled soldering iron driver.  One way you can control the temperature of a soldering iron is with a microcontroller, using temperature feedback from the thermistor in the handle near the iron's tip.  This Design Idea presents a soldering iron driver that does this using only analog components.   Design by Kiril Karagiozov

Solenoid Driver Is Adaptable & Efficient -  06/04/12  EDN-Design Ideas Use capacitive reactance to save energy while holding a solenoid in the energized position.   Solenoid loads generally exhibit large hysteresis.  Application of the rated voltage actuates these loads.  Once they are in position, however, you can use a significantly lower voltage to thereafter reliably hold them on.  A lower sustaining voltage results in less heat production and higher efficiency. Design by Jessica MacNeil

Solenoid Driver Reduces Power & Cost -  07/18/96 EDN-Design Ideas Solenoid  valves commonly control the flow of low-pressure gases and fluids in biological applications.  A typical valve may operate at 12V and draw 1A.  In systems using such valves, these power requirements can cause cost and space problems, even though a well-regulated supply is unnecessary Design by TG Barnett, Queen Mary College, London England

Solid State Relay Requires Only 50ua Drive Current -  This circuit demands a control current that is 100 times smaller than that needed by a typical optically isolated solid state relays.  It is ideal for battery-powered systems.  Using a combination of a high current TRIAC and a very sensitive low current SCR. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-June, 2000

Solid State Tesla Coil Chapter 7 -  In this chapter, we deal with the design of the Tesla coil driver.  We will discuss several components or subsystems, including the power supply, the controller, the gate driver and inverter, the fast fuse, and the current sense resistors __ Designed by Solid State Tesla Coil Dr. Gary L. Johnson

Square Wave Driver Has Flexible Outputs -  This circuit can produce an output signal ranging from DC to 100KHz.  It can source a voltage ranging from 1v to 30v.  It can sink a voltage ranging from zero volts to –30v.  It can drive up to 200ma of current and can even be switched to a floating tristate. . . Circuit by David Johnson P.E.-July, 2000

SSR Requires Ultra Low Control Current -  Most solid state relays require at least 5ma and often more input control current, to fully turn on the device.  But such current levels often force battery powered circuits to use excessively large batteries.  The relay hobby circuit shown below demands only 50uA of input current . . . Hobby Circuit designed by David A. Johnson P.E.-June, 2000

Stepper Motor Controller -  The direction of rotation is determined by the FORWARD and REVERSE switches and the motor does not take any current when a switch is not pressed.  __ 555-Timer

Stepper Motor controller -  On these pages, I will introduce a control circuit for stepper motor.  The software of this project is adapted to Embedded Systems  (Lab13) for 2002 of Cleveland State University.  PIC16F84A __ Designed by Seiichi Inoue

Stepper Motor Controller Connection Diagrams -  Four-Wire Connection The ULN2003 / MC1413 is a 7-bit 50V 500mA TTL-input NPN darlington driver.  This is more than adequate to control a four phase unipolar stepper motor such as the KP4M4-002

Stepper Motor Driver -  A stepper motor has four coils.  The direction of rotation  (clockwise or anti-clockwise) depends on the order in which the currents supplied to the coils are switched on.  If you use the motors type 55SI-25 DAYA, having a connector as shown below,  __ Designed by © David Hoult

Stepper Motor Driver using TEA3718/3717 -  The stepper motor driver circuit is using a pair of TEA3718/3717 to drive the stepper motor in bipolar chopper configuration.  The U3 555 timer provides the clock pulse.  The U1 and U2 form a two-direction TTL full step generator.  If only one direction is needed then the circuit below can be used.   __ Contact: info @ wzmicro.com

Stepper Motor driver with PBM3960 & TEA3721 -  This Microstepping motor driver offers a short cut to get familiar with microstepping.  It is a complete system to driver the bipolar stepper motor in micro-stepping mode as well as the half step and full step modes.  This board is built around the Ericsson PBM3960  (NJR NJU39610) microstepping controller and TEA3718 stepper motor driver __ Contact: info @ wzmicro.com

Stereo Line Driver -  A stereo line driver for feeding long cables or buffering an audio source.   __ Designed by Andy Collison

Switching (PWM) Solenoid Driver -  This is a very simple circuit to interface a current loop sensor to an input which is designed for a voltage, such as that from a standard potentiometer.  This page is technical so that interested persons can build the circuit themselves, but 4QD can also supply the interface on a 'postage stamp' sized  (22mm x 27mm) board as shown in the first diagram.  It is a relatively trivial circuit!  __ Designed by Richard Torrens

Switching regulator drives robot Motor -  05/13/99 EDN-Design Ideas The circuit in Figure 1 shows an example of how you can use an integrated switching regulator (ISR] to efficiently vary the speed of a permanent-magnet dc motor.  In this application, the rotating head of a robot senses the presence of an oncoming object (perhaps a human].  If the robot senses an object, it slows the rotationPDF contains many circuits, scroll to find this one.    Design by Donald Comiskey, Power Trends Inc, Warrenville, IL

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