On Fri, 17 Oct 2003
Robert.Wultsch@asu.edu wrote:
> First off, I am not an Electrical Engeneer (yet) and it has been a while since
> I have had a class that dealt with electricty so if anyone notices an error
> please correct me.
>
OK
> Generally
> A capacitor is like a little rechargeble battery. First off a cap always is
> usally acting as a resistor. Now lets assume that you have a some what
> constant voltage DC. If the voltage drops then the cap lets out some of it's
> stored up power. If there is too much power it absorbs some.
>
To DC a cap looks more or less like an open circuit (minus leakage
currents). AC, of course, sees it a little differently. I'll let someone
else do the math.
> Most computers
> use 3 capacitors next to the CPU to do the job of supplying power (tri-phase
> is the term I
> think). The way this works is that one powers the cpu until the voltage starts
> to drop, and then the next takes over, and the first begins to recharge.
>
Um, yes and no, leaning strongly towards no. The caps on the DC output
of the power supply are there to filter out ripple (AC component riding
on a DC signal, bad for digital) in the power supply output and get you
closer to pure DC (good for digital).
> The voltage regulator in the PSU does not look like a cap, but I assume that
> it works the same way as there are bunch of cap's in there.
>
Not really, as a voltage regulator is an active device. It can be a
simple transistor or a complex integrated circuit. One thing it most
definately is not is a capacitor. Not even close.
>
> On Fri, 17 Oct 2003, Bryce C wrote:
>
> > Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't a voltage regulator a voltage
> > regulator and a capacitor a capacitor and neither look all that similar?
> > You can, of course, attach a capacitor to a voltage regulator as is done
> > on the common, home-brew IR receiver but the voltage regulator still
> > looks more like a transistor than a capacitor.
>
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