Linear Power Supply Building Block. Starting from the left, we have a fuse, a transformer, a bridge rectifier, smoothing capacitor, and 'the load'.

It is very seductive to increase the capacity in order to have a low ripple, but doing so will increase the inrush current (green). If it is too high, you may hear it (the 'ka-woom' when switching on) and you do stress the components, so they will die earlier :-(
The situation gets even worse, when not switched on while the voltage crosses zero ...

This website was inspired by Ken's Web Site.

Highly recommended : John Errington's tutorial on Power Supply Design.

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