Comment on [discussion] DC (direct current) power network
lemming741@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoIs a square wave not AC? Current is flowing in and out of an inductor 100k times a second.
Could that 100khz square wave excite a transformer and produce usable current on the secondary? Absolutely it could, and that’s how a bigger SMPS works.
If you’re looking for a “pure DC to pure DC” converter, that’s called a linear regulator and it’s wildly inefficient. They work by varying the conductance of a transistor but are useful for low currents. The extra voltage is converted to heat.
nixcamic@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s more pulsed than alternating IMO. It never goes negative, and there isn’t a consistent frequency.
lemming741@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It depends where you measure. If you measure across the inductor, it absolutely goes negative.
The frequency is generally fixed, the duty cycle will vary.
A variable speed drive can be fed with DC. Is the output AC or DC? I know you need a three phase AC motor to wire up to it.
Is audio DC? It doesn’t have a fixed frequency. Amplifiers pulse DC and then remove or ‘block’ the DC offset so speakers see AC.
It seems like people in this thread have a very strict definition of AC being a 60Hz sine wave, and everything else must be DC.