ATRAC was fine for what it was. And it lives on in Sony hardware lol
Sure. If it works within desired specification in some niceproduct, why not.
But we should really stay with the subject of preventing man made pollution and preventing destruction of nature and therefore our habitat.
This deviation is fun and interesting but we should really get back to subject.
I once heard a story long ago, when Econcern, a company with as mission to make a clean planet , reduce waste and generate clean energy, recycle waste and more... Was still existing.
Unfortunately, just at the moment that Econcern was gaining momentum just like many really green companies determined to change the behavior the corporate part of humanity has regarding nature and the general misguided view of the public.
Something awful happened : The subprime mortgage crisis during 2007-2008. And a lot of banks had no longer any funding available for large scale "green" projects. And had to withdraw from the "green" market.
Leaving a lot of companies without any investors who would be willing to invest, which resulted in a lot of bankruptcy and companies taking over other companies for a very low price.
And so, the step to a clean future was delayed, my opinion about that is that it was a great misfortune for many and a great fortune for some because those companies gained time to prepare...
Back to the story that is the subject and is very real, even today.
From a very important person within Econcern that explained how much energy is wasted by doorbel transformers.
He received a research paper that explained doorbel transformer power use EU wide. He mentioned numbers in the GigaWatthour range just by standby power usage when no one is pressing any doorbel.
He explained that if all those doorbel transformers had a little bit of electronics in them that would only connect the transformer to the AC mains power supply of the grid when the doorbelswitch was actually pushed to make the doorbel ring...
It was possible to shut down several powerplants in the hundreds of Megawatts range. Just by reducing standby power usage.
And that is just the EU (European Union). Imagine if this is done over the whole world where this problem applies. Many powerplants can be shut down.
Nowadays, there are a lot of specially designed chips to be as energy efficient as possible. Some just to switch devices on and some as SMPS AC-DC converter.
For reliability and years of maintenance free service , to prevent for example drying out electrolytic capacitors a good old AC -transformer doorbel works best.
Also, the specification should be : No rechargeable batteries, no batteries at all. This increases longetivity and lowers bill for customers and the total BOM (Bill Of Material).
The mains power is already there.
A phototriac (A kind of solid state AC switch) where the led is powered by a pressed doorbel with for example a small piezo crystal to generate the desired voltage to trigger the phototriac to momentary connect the transformer to the mainsupply by making use of a small internal timing unit and make an (AC) doorbel ring for a second.
The time delay like for example a second of course can be set by an external capacitor or resistor or both. One can make the resistor a potentiometer or just a few resistors and solderbridges or a jumper. As an idea.
The led is powered for a short moment, activating a phototransistor that triggers a monostable multivibrator that activates a triac for a short moment.
A simple RC time circuit called a monostable multivibrator, which generates a momentary pulse with a long pulsewidth. Of course when triggered by a pulse with very short pulsewidth.
A triac-gate needs to be triggered constantly when there is not enough hold current flowing between A1 and A2.
This gate triggering can be done with a constant current or a constant pulsed current.
A solution to keep the power consumption low is to let the monostable multivibrator activate an astable multivibrator AKA an oscillator to generate constant narrow triac-gate pulses for the duration of the momentary pulse from the monostable multivibrator.
The added advantage of constant gate triggering with short pulses :
Is that the inductive load which has a typical theoretical phase angle of 90 degrees between peak voltage and peak current, no longer can make the triac turn off.
The triac wants to turn off but the circuit keeps triggering the gate of the triac.
It is also possible to use photovoltaic switches preferably the ones with integrated mosfets.
Photovoltaic switches are semiconductor devices where the led shines upon devices that are a bit like photodiodes and like solar cells and this result in current flow and an output voltage , enough to drive a mosfets or a pair of mosfets. If one puts two mosfest in antiseries with added bleeder resistors on the gates, these mosfets can pass through AC current.
Remember that the photovoltaic device in such an integrated circuit is tiny.
Then an electronic designer or even a chip designer only needs a oneshot monostable multivibrator.
Afterwards, the solid state AC-switch disconnects again. One can make a simple internal timing circuit by using the circuitry design of a good old 555 or the improved version : The 7555. The 555 was designed by the late Hans Camenzind.
There are plastic capacitors available for many years now that retain the capacity for at least 100 years. No problem there...
One could even design Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS) version in electronic circuit and even as part of an Integrated Circuit (IC) design. An IC that just needs a trigger voltage , to momentary power the led to activate. The IC derives power from the mains voltage. But when designed properly is just microwatts or nanowatts. Or even fully off, = 0 watts.
Think of how depleted versions and enhanced versions of mosfets work, and how photovoltaic mosfet drivers function. And this startup part of the circuit provides startup power for a real smps part inside the IC. Just how conventional AC-DC smps converters work. Only there it is a large value series resistor, if that may be integrated or external.
Perhaps it is possible to startup a conventional for sale smps with a photvoltaic mosfet driver. But that is something to think about and go traverse the internet and traverse many datasheets from many manufacturers. Panasonic for example has photovoltaic mosfet drivers, just as IXYS.
But then generated EMI and EMC compliance becomes more of a concern. Sometimes a 50Hz sinewave transformer is just easier and almost impossible to destroy.
But do keep the electrical isolation in mind...
Use this for a more sophisticated circuit as described below as an example.
Another option is to use good old induction by electromagnetism instead of a piezo crystal for the doorbel button to momentary power the led. An D-RC filter behind it.
Just move some core through a coil when pressing the doorbel button to momentary power the led. This will activate the circuit. An D-RC filter behind it.
Best options :
So a piezocrystal in a doorbel would be a good option to generate a voltage by use of the piezoelectric effect to power momentarily the led .
So a movable small iron core through a coil in a doorbel would be a good option to generate a voltage by use of induction to power momentarily the led .
The advanced audio version :
Of course, some want a more sophisticated circuit that plays for example an audiofragment. That is also possible of course, just power the audiofragment doorbel circuit, of course with added rectifier and bulk capacitor on the secondary side of the transformer...
And place the circuit that is capable of storing and playing audiosamples behind it.
I have shown examples in this section of the forum : A small microcontroller with an SPI interface to an SD card and flash storage and some firmware.
Use the sd card to store the audiosample in flash storage. When compression is used, it may be possible to use internal flash for storage, saving on the BOM (Bill Of Material), lowering the total cost.
Would be great if we could use a twinVQ codec under a GPL license, like a 100kB sample would sound similar to MP3 at 320kbitrate but fit into internal flash storage.
And use a led to blink a few times to show different status messages. Nothing more than RTFM.
And an I2S interface to connect a D-class amplifier like for example the MAX98357A or MAX98357B. Which is 3 watts of power into a 4 Ohm speaker, And a good cabinet with a proper baffle, or an open baffle mounted somewhere, a horn model. Just to mention some ideas.
Add glue logic and glue analog electronics to finish it all.
Keep EMI and EMC in mind for proper certification...
The effect on world power usage :
Imagine if that would be done world wide...
How much energy reduction would be gained. Way less standby power usage.
It is crazy these days how much standby ac-dc adaptors and powersupplies are present in every households..
Wasting energy, and are possible firehazards. Many people complain about gas leaks, but the most often cause of fire is still ac-dc powersupplies, especially when people push powersupplies between the cushions of the couch, sofa or bed.
Go pequeños, show some love for the Earth and life around you...
As a notice : I do not comply to that KiB nonsense, it has always been powers of 2 until some manager from some HDD manufacturer lied so much, that the devil wanted that manager to teach him how to lie even better... . Should have been kB^10 for decimal notations, powers of 10. And plain good old kB (and MB, GB) for powers of 2.
Almost every logical device works with powers of 2. With the exception of some trinary devices (But this is mostly used as input : To set up multiple strap options through the use of limited amount of IC pins : Like for example High level, Floating or Low level , allowing for 3 settings for each pin. For example 3^2 settings (9 settings) for just 2 pins.
(11-04-2024 edit : Added some text.)