The phase-shift problem revisited...

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 18:04:31 -0000, "john jardine"
<john@jjdesigns.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

"Steve Evans" <smevans@jif-lemon.co.mars> wrote in message
news:rtiup090nmm9d3mg5ak7knnmpnvun6i529@4ax.com...
On 19 Nov 2004 14:38:54 GMT, cbarn24050@aol.com (CBarn24050) wrote:

For a series circuit it's best to use the current as the reference as the
current is the same throughout the cicuit. The voltage accros the
resistor will
allways be in phase with the current,

This is at odds to what I believe others here are saying. Perhpas I
havent explained it clearly what I'm getting at. I'll restate the
question:
Say an AC signal leaves a reactive chain of components with a phase
difference between its voltage and its current. The signal is fed over
an arbitrary length of PCB tracking, then through a (non-inductive)
carbon resistor and down to ground.
Now, there is clearly a phase difference across the last reactive
component in the chain. What I need to know - is this phase difference
*still* present:

a) along the PCB track?
b) across the end resistor?

(ignoring paracitic effects and treating all parts as 'ideal')

the volage accros the capacitor will lag
by 90deg for any non electrolitic cap

What\s the difference with an electrolytic?? I've never heard of this
before.
--

Fat, sugar, salt, beer: the four essentials for a healthy diet.

Steve. Your queries are perfectly logical. I know cos I've been down the
same path and never got a straightforward answer.
Problem is that VI phasing is a circuit aspect that's quite awkward to
mentally grasp or visually model what's going on in the first place, even
less to describe it in words.

The resistor doesn't care about any phase difference that exists elsewhere.
The resistor will develop a voltage across itself in sympathy with the
current through it. I.e Its volts and amps are in phase, measured -at- the
resistor.
But ... to complicate things, adding that resistor changes all the other VI
phasing angles throughout the whole of the rest of the network :)

Electrolytics are not perfect and electrically look like a cap and (small)
resistor in series. Here though, it just confuses the issue.

Getting ones head round the VI phase displacements in even a very simple
reactive network is nigh on impossible. -Everything- depends on everything
else in the circuit. Mentally you have forget Ohms law and try to step
rotate your imagery, through parts of a circle as each component is looked
at in turn. Sinewaves are an appalling shape to mentally deal with.
With massive effort it is sometimes possible to get a grip.
Most humans drop out at this point and either give up the electronics
subject completely, start to draw phasor diagrams or turn to the maths such
as J notation, Laplace etc. Which although giving little understanding does
at least give answers.
Add just a couple more reactive components and even the most hair shirted
mathematicians start to run for their Spice programmes.

regards
john
No, it's really not bad, but you do have to accept vectors as a way to
describe both the amplitude and the phase angle of a sine wave.
Vectors aren't bad to visualize with a little practice, just think in
terms of "how far" and "which direction"; any time you deal with
locations on a 2-d surface, vectors become pretty obvious.

The three impedances add up: Resistance, capacitance, inductance are
in series. The resistance vector is R long and, at zero degrees,
points due east. The inductor is Xl long (Xl=2*pi*f*L) and points 90
degrees, north. The cap is Xc long and points -90, south. Draw the
vectors end-to-end on a map and you get the total impedance, Z

The current is Vsource/Z, just another vector. Dump that current into
the resistor and you have the voltage across the resistor, as a vector
(voltage and angle.)

This is fairly instinctive. And then if you express the vectors as x-y
coordinates (rectangular notation, instead of polar) the math is a
little easier. The real axis is just east-west, and the imaginary, j,
axis is just north-south. It's just like pacing off distances with a
compass.

John
 
"Steve Evans" <smevans@jif-lemon.co.mars> wrote in message
news:m72vp0pr93nhfjhnbe4ttivv9pit38744m@4ax.com...
On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 18:04:31 -0000, "john jardine"
john@jjdesigns.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

[clip]

tnx, John. it's nice to know I"m not alone, anyway. I had decided if I
coudn't get my head around something as fundamental as phase shift and
reactance, i might as well call it a day because you *must* be
familiar with this stuff or esle forget the whole thing. But
"fundamental" and "simple" are not the same thing. This is a
fundamental problem, but not a simple one, obviously! :-(
--

Fat, sugar, salt, beer: the four essentials for a healthy diet.
Never say die!.
Half the battle in electronics seems having the nous to know which are the
questions needing to be asked.
Bit of a wide ranging statement but generally phasing is only of direct
relevance in maybe 20% of analogue design work.(90% if filters are
involved). Maybe concentrate on the bulk of the subject and allow the
phasing aspects just to creep up on you.

Btw. One thing I noticed going back through a few posts is that your Spice
doesn't appear to be cleanly showing the direct, absolute, perfect, 90deg,
1/4 cycle, VI phase shift that occurs across all reactive components.
(Disregarding the relative phase shifts compared to the signal source).
You may be doing this correctly already (so ignore following) but for
'floating' components the 90deg shifts can -only- be seen and measured
across the component itself and not wrt the Spice ground point. I.e a
capacitor voltage graph should be plotted as the -difference- between the
voltages at either side of the cap (eg plot vc1-vc2), only then compare that
'differential' waveform to the current running through the component.
regards
john
 
Subject: Re: The phase-shift problem revisited...
From: "john jardine" john@jjdesigns.fsnet.co.uk
Date: 21/11/2004 00:27 GMT Standard Time
Message-id: <cnon5p$1m9$1@news6.svr.pol.co.uk


"CBarn24050" <cbarn24050@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20041120180633.06305.00000555@mb-m23.aol.com...
Subject: Re: The phase-shift problem revisited...
From: Steve Evans smevans@jif-lemon.co.mars
Date: 20/11/2004 18:31 GMT Standard Time
Message-id: <m72vp0pr93nhfjhnbe4ttivv9pit38744m@4ax.com

[clip]

Getting ones head round the VI phase displacements in even a very simple
reactive network is nigh on impossible. -Everything- depends on
everything
else in the circuit.

No it doesn't, the overall effect does but that applies to everything in
life.


Yes, components each act individually but I think I'd defy anyone to figure
out what point X in (say) this simple two capacitor circuit is liable to do
when the input is swept, just from a mental inspection of the individual
parts. Unless one has a Stephen Hawking mindset, then it's out with a pencil
and paper. (or the Spice!)
Although you will have come across this type of arrangement before and also
the Wein bridges, Twin Ts, lattices etc, many newcomers haven't and can
waste much energy trying to get to grips with it from a mental model POV.
1u
||
.--||-----------.
| || |
| |
| || ___ |
o--o--||-o-|___|---o
AC || | 100k |
IN 1u | .-.
o o | |100k
| Point X | |
| o '-'
| | |
=== === ===
GND GND GND

regards
john
Hi John, I can't read you circiut, no matter, you don't need anything more than
a few resistors to make a circuit that is mentally incomprehensable and needing
a pencil and paper.
 

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