trigger signal sequencer

[timeruins]

i am building a sequencer that outputs trigger signals to control analog gear, i know some use 5v and some use larger voltages... is there a good, general voltage ammount that i should use that wont hurt anything?

 i'm thinking 5v would be ideal but i dont have an exact 5v source, so i was going to go with 6v @ 300 m.a.

sound ok?  any problems you can foresee with this?

[expanoncolin]

Like you said, it depends on the gear.  Stick with 5V to begin with, if you put in 6v and you hit a chip powered by 5V you will blow something.  Some analog gear (+/-15V) expects much bigger signals - the MFOS ADSR expects a 15V trigger.

-Colin

[aen]

IS there an easy way to drop a 9v battery's power down to 5v in a circuit?  So one ocudl make his or her own LFOs to drive synthy things?

[jalien21]

yeah, man. just do a voltage divider or use something like a 5V voltage regulator. voltage regulator probably consumes less current, though. (i don't really know how they work)

[expanoncolin]

yeah, man. just do a voltage divider or use something like a 5V voltage regulator. voltage regulator probably consumes less current, though. (i don't really know how they work)

Definitely use a regulator.  Powering an entire circuit with a voltage divider is a bad idea, it is far from an ideal power source.

Check out 5V regulator circuits, there are a ton out there - they are pretty quick to construct.

-Colin

[jalien21]

can you explain to me why a voltage divider isn't an ideal voltage source? i get that it would consume way more current because like half of it is going to go to ground. but beyond that, i dunno. thanks, man (not to push things off-topic...)

[dach]

can you explain to me why a voltage divider isn't an ideal voltage source? i get that it would consume way more current because like half of it is going to go to ground. but beyond that, i dunno. thanks, man (not to push things off-topic...)

The voltage divider has a resistor to ground, and this is actually in parallel with your whole device. So, if the resistance of the device changes, the resistance in the voltage divider is changing, and so it'll change the supply voltage.

Things like voltage regulators are self-correcting, in that they will maintain a constant output voltage, where as a voltage divider depends on the resistance of the load to not change. Also, if you set the voltage divider to exactly 5v, unloaded, and now connect a device, it'll no longer be delivering 5v. And what it will deliver will vary from device to device

[jalien21]

i understand perfectly. thanks a lot