Voltage Regulators
A voltage regulator is an electrical regulator designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage level. more...
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It may use an electromechanical mechanism, or passive or active electronic components. Depending on the design, it may be used to regulate one or more AC or DC voltages.
With the exception of shunt regulators, all modern electronic voltage regulators operate by comparing the actual output voltage to some internal fixed reference voltage. Any difference is amplified and used to control the regulation element. This forms a negative feedback servo control loop. If the output voltage is too low, the regulation element is commanded to produce a higher voltage. For some regulators if the output voltage is too high, the regulation element is commanded to produce a lower voltage; however, many just stop sourcing current and depend on the current draw of whatever it is driving to pull the voltage back down. In this way, the output voltage is held roughly constant. The control loop must be carefully designed to produce the desired tradeoff between stability and speed of response.
Electromechanical regulators
In older electromechanical regulators, voltage regulation is easily accomplished by coiling the sensing wire to make an electromagnet. The magnetic field produced by the voltage attracts a moving ferrous core held back under spring tension or gravitational pull.
As the voltage increases, the magnetic field strength also increases, pulling the core towards the field and opening a mechanical power switch.
As the voltage decreases, the spring tension or weight of the core causes the core to retract, closing the switch allowing the power to flow once more.
If the mechanical regulator design is sensitive to small voltage fluctuations, the motion of the solenoid core can be used to move a selector switch across a range of resistances or transformer windings to gradually step the output voltage up or down, or to rotate the position of a moving-coil AC regulator.
Early automobile generators and alternators had a mechanical voltage regulator using one, two, or three relays and various resistors to stabilize the generator's output at slightly more than 6 or 12 V, independent of the engine's rpm or the varying load on the vehicle's electrical system. Essentially, the relay(s) employed pulse width modulation to regulate the output of the generator, controlling the field current reaching the generator (or alternator) and in this way controlling the output voltage produced.
The regulators used for generators (but not alternators) also disconnect the generator when it was not producing electricity, thereby preventing the battery from discharging back through the stopped generator. The rectifier diodes in an alternator automatically perform this function so that a specific relay is not required; this appreciably simplified the regulator design.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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