CHAPTER 7
Power Supplies
Electricity can be dangerous. My nephew tried to stick a penny into a plug. Whoever said a penny doesn't go far didn't see him shoot across that floor. I told him he was grounded.—Tim Allen, comedian
An alternating current (AC) power supply can be thought of as a power converter; its job is to convert the line level AC power to another form which is more useable for the load with as little loss as possible. The first law of thermodynamics is the conservation of energy, which says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only change forms. The main function of a power supply is to convert electrical energy from a certain voltage, current, and frequency to electrical energy with a different voltage, current, ...
Get Automated Lighting, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.