Project Overview

This project involved researching and laying out a 16V AC to bipolar, +/- 15V DC converter designed to interface with the power rails of a standard breadboard. The goal was to create such a converter to use for prototyping modular synthesizer modules for the synth I planned on building which required a positive and negative 15V DC rail. The end result was several fried prototypes and finally, a working device. The steepest learning curve was surrounding the heat sinks and how they would interface with the linear voltage regulators they're attached to. Unfortunately, I did not realize that the pinout on these two regulators (a 7915 and 7815) were NOT the same. The center pin on the 7815 is ground along with the tab that connects to the heat sink. I assumed the 7915 to be the same, but the tab and center pin of that regulator actually connects to the input, meaning that I was sending the 16V AC through the heat sink and straight to ground which happily fried several components in its path. An insulating shoulder washer and insulating pad between the regulators and the heat sinks resolved this issue. Sadly, I made some sort of mistake soldering in the LED current-limiting resistors on the working device and lifted a pad as I was desoldering them. I ended up simply soldering them on the reverse side of the board which is ugly, but works.

I've regrettably lost the Gerber files for this project along with all documentation - both schematic and research sources. If I run across them in any of my file storage, I'll be sure to upload them.