the simplest way of creating ac from dc
the simplest way of creating ac from dc
(OP)
I'm am trying to understand electronics by playing around with them, and I want to know the very simplest way of creating any periodically time varying current (AC)from a DC power source. I don't care about the shape or amplitude of the AC currnet as long as it has a periodic frequency...
Ive seen lots of diagrams in google searches about the above but i want to have an even more basic understanding of electronics than what I've found. They had a bunch of other stuff in the circuits to produce a certain voltage but for my knowledge level that distracts me from how an electronic device can convert a direct current to an alternating...So i am basically looking for a circuit design that has a battery and a couple wires and if you only add some simple electronic device (transistor, capacitor, etc...) than you can measure an alternating current.
thanks i hope that made sense...
Ive seen lots of diagrams in google searches about the above but i want to have an even more basic understanding of electronics than what I've found. They had a bunch of other stuff in the circuits to produce a certain voltage but for my knowledge level that distracts me from how an electronic device can convert a direct current to an alternating...So i am basically looking for a circuit design that has a battery and a couple wires and if you only add some simple electronic device (transistor, capacitor, etc...) than you can measure an alternating current.
thanks i hope that made sense...





RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
xnuke
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RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
As I said, creating the AC waveform requires switching, at least in any sense that I can think of. I know you said a simple circuit, but I still sense that you are wondering about how does one create useable (sinusoidal) AC power from DC. This gets into a lot more complexity in implementation, but the underlying principles are the same, in that a DC source is applied to the load in an on-off fashion. In most applications, the DC is switched on and off at a rapid frequency (several kHz) and the duty cycle (time on - off) is varied, or rather modulated at the desired AC output frequency (much like AM Radio, but in this case at 50 or 60 Hz). The resulting waveform is then usually passed through a transformer to provide isolation which lets you pick a new zero/ground reference (typically the center of the transformer). So for example, if you had big batteries in series and the switching process gave you 0 and 200Vdc and you passed this through a 1:1 transformer, relative to the center of the transformer coil, you would have 0 and 200V which would be -100 and +100 with respect to the center of the transformers output coil. (In reality this is a bit of an over simplification as the transformer has a frequency dependent response and probably won't pass a square wave which consists of a lot of higher frequency elements - see Fourier Series).
RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
It's a good teaching tool for inductance and capacitance, especially if you have access to an oscilloscope or graphing multimeter.
Example: http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/oscillator/osc...
Read more about L-C and resonance here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LC_circuit
Best to you,
Goober Dave
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RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
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RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
B.E.
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RE: the simplest way of creating ac from dc
Bill
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