@
saturation,
tom66 Thank you
,
Any other advantages/disadvantages?
If I understand this correctly the discrete components are preferred because they can offer
better performance (lower noise/ripple, better transient response etc ...) and easier maintainability (easier repair).
For example if you want to design a very low noise power supply (in the uV range) then you would probably go for discrete components.
But then again if you don't select your discrete components very carefully or if your design is not carefully thought-out, you could end up with an even worse performance than that
offered by a modern regulator IC.
On the other hand, I think, there is nothing wrong in designing a power supply around a regulator IC as long as you are aware of its performance limitations (noise, power, etc ...)
and you are satisfied with this limitations.
It's like in the case of cars: you can't expect from a family car to have the same performance, in terms of acceleration or speed, as a sport car
.
In the past days I've tried to find more objective info on this subject, but without much luck.
Reading all those "regulator ICs suck" opinions (not backed up by arguments), almost made me believe that there is something really wrong with regulator ICs
.
But I don't think that is the case.
Please do correct me if I am wrong. I am a beginner and I want to learn. But I don't want to end up saying that regulators "suck" just because most of the people on the net say that.
I want to be able to back up that claim (if it is indeed the case) with real arguments.
Maybe this anti-regulator wave was started by those copy-paste power supply builders who later on realized that the regulator based supply they have copied was not
able to "handle" their requirements. Next, they copied a well-proven, discrete component based, supply which met their requirements.
So they concluded that regulator ICs suck
, without thinking that maybe the regulator based supply was designed with lower requirements in mind.
I don't know. Maybe I am just talking nonsense
Thank you