15 Nov
2004
15 Nov
'04
12:07 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote of crowbar protection circuits thus:
I'd rather not trust a protection device if I
don't have to. Sure I like
crowbar circuits, and they have saved my chips a few times, but I don't
like to depend on them.
Ah, twice in one week I get to expose my wanton ignorance. :) What
typically makes up a crowbar circuit? How are they triggered? If I'm
understanding this correctly, a crowbar quickly kills the PSU and then
drains power from the system rapidly and nondestructively... but how it
accomplishes this, or knows it _should_, I don't yet understand.
O'course, one could accomplish this with an actual crowbar applied
across the PSU output... but I suspect this would not be described as
"nondestructive". :)
-O.-