gerard’s columns
Reliability
By Gerard Fonte (USA)
Arguably, the biggest difference between a hob-
byist-designed project and a commercial product
is reliability. Hobbyists don’t mind if they have to
tinker with it from time to time. After all, we like
to tinker. But you don’t want to tinker every morning to get
your car started, or with the toaster, or with your computer. A reli-
able product is tinker free.
Analyze This
It cannot be overstated that reliability comes from attention to
detail. It’s the small things that count. You need to take the
time to examine all the aspects of any circuit the first time you
design it. After the first time, you will know the important
areas to look at. But for the first time, you have to consider
every part.
My favorite example is the lowly unregulated, power
supply. It’s just a transformer, bridge rectifier and filter capacitor.
Simple, right? If you choose a 24 volt transformer, then a 35 volt
capacitor should be fine, shouldn’t it? That’s a 50% safety margin.
The answer is a resounding, NO!
The transformer is rated in RMS voltage, under load; not peak volt-
age. The peak is 1.414 times the RMS or about 34 volts. Add about
10% for being unloaded and the actual DC voltage at the filter
capacitor is over 37 volts. Capacitor confetti, anyone? And if you
plan on using a common 3-terminal voltage regulator (LM78xx
type) you should know that they have a maximum input of 35 volts
(although there is some variation from manufacturer to manufac-
turer). Another failure in waiting.
You choose to use half-amp rectifiers because your design only
draws 0.1 amps. To be extra safe you use a 2-amp transformer
and high value capacitors you have on hand. There shouldn’t be a
problem here, should there? Yes there is. During turn-on the capaci-
tors act as dead shorts across the transformer. During a short, the
transformer’s output is only limited by the resistance of the wind-
ing, which is typically about 0.5 ohms. In theory, a surge current
of about 75 amps could occur (37 volts into 0.5 ohms). In practice
it’s quite complicated, but the usually accepted value (not guaran-
teed!) is 10 times the transformer rating. In this case, that’s 20 amps
(10 × 2 amps). Most silicon rectifiers are robust and can take very
short surges up to 30 times their continuous rating or 15 amps here
(30 × 0.5 amps). A surge of 20 amps into a 15-amp-surge rectifier
won’t go. Also, the length of the surge depends upon the size of the
capacitors. The bigger the capacitors, the longer the surge. So, the
reliability of the rectifier may depend more on the transformer and
capacitor rather than the down-stream circuit.
It’s important to see the critical need for proper circuit analysis for
every part under every condition. You can’t guess at reliability. You
have to be sure.
More for Your Money
Hobbyists (like me) are perpetually short on cash. So, we tend to
look for the minimum requirements for a part. Sometimes this isn’t
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the best choice. For example,
why use a 1% resistor when
a 5% resistor will work? The
reason is that 1% resistors
are so commonplace now
that the price is virtually
the same. My Mouser catalog shows
1% (through-hole, 1/4 watt) resistors at $0.06 each and
5% resistors at $0.12 each! In hundreds the 1% resistors
are $0.04 each and the 5% are $0.01 each (more sensible).
But in hundreds, the difference is still only 3 cents per resis-
tor. If you use 30 resistors in your design, that’s less than a dol-
lar increase. For surface mount resistors (1206 size) there is no
difference for singles ($0.05) and only about a penny for 100’s
($0.02 vs. $0.032).
Obviously, for a pull-up resistor where any value from 1K to 100K is
usually sufficient, there is absolutely no requirement for a 1% resis-
tor (the once standard 20% resistors don’t exist anymore). But for
any application where a specific resistance is needed (voltage divid-
ers, gain-setting, etc) the question is reversed. Why shouldn’t you
use a 1% resistor? Additionally, 1% resistors usually have better tem-
perature stability.
It’s a similar story for generic power rectifiers (1N400x). Different
manufacturers have different basic prices for the diodes (I saw $0.05
to $0.15 each). But within the series (1N4001 to 1N4007) there was
often no difference in price. The 1N4007 has a PIV (Peak Inverse
Voltage) of 1000 volts where the 1N4001 has a PIV of only 50 volts.
According to my Motorola Data Book, every other specification is
the same. So, there is simply no reason not to buy the better diodes.
You are getting much more for your money.
Look Before You Leap
These examples show the need to know what your design requires
and what parts are available. Using parts that exceed the opera-
tional needs of the circuit will improve performance and reliability.
And we’ve seen that this can be achieved with a minimum increase
in cost or no increase at all.
The point is not to focus only on your needs when looking for parts.
You might be able to find parts that are better than what you need
for a small difference in price. And there are trade-offs. Which is
more important in your design, the actual value of the capacitor or
its working voltage? Will the lower on-resistance of the power MOS-
FET switch reduce heat build-up? Is it worth spending an extra dol-
lar for a relay with 20 amp contacts versus 10 amp contacts? Does
it make sense to use a solid-state relay, instead?
There is clearly much, much more to reliability than I can possibly
cover here. There are many fine books on the subject. But funda-
mentally, designing reliable products is the result of a mind-set. It’s
not enough to make it work, it has to work well. And in order to do
this, you have to consider every aspect of your design as well as the
practical considerations of the parts that go into that design. After
all (one of my favorites), engineering is just common sense with
attention to detail.
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05-2012 elektor