• Five transistor version of the low distortion sine-wave oscillator

    From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to All on Sat Apr 12 18:27:57 2025
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave
    oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that you could
    leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked,
    though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice and see roughly
    what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John
    May's four transistor version.

    Version 4
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    TEXT -2792 1560 Left 2 !.tran 0 10 0 1u startup
    TEXT -2792 1504 Left 2 !.options plotwinsize=0 numdgt=15
    TEXT -2248 -112 Left 2 ;Low distortion 1KHz oscillator. Edward Rawde 30
    March 2025.\nBased on designs by JM and BS. Re-worked by JM, getting rid
    of half the transistors,\nand again by Bill Sloman, making Q1A/B and
    Q2A/B close matched transistor pairs\nand adding the cascode transistor
    at Q3, 12th April 2025..
    TEXT -2896 16 Left 2 !.MODEL NSS40301MDR2G NPN\n+is=6.87023e-12
    bf=445.496 nf=1.08926 vaf=60.529\n+ikf=7.23313 ise=2.38192e-09 ne=4 br=23.6872\n+nr=1.10701 var=8.89608 ikr=1.25064 isc=1e-16 \n+nc=1.13174 rb=905.334,irb=2.30349e-07 rbm=1e-10\n+re=0.00600548 rc=0.0300274
    xtb=1.2219 xti=4,\n+eg=1.05 cje=3.80477e-10 vje=0.912237 mje=0.397194,\n+tf=5.90916e-10,xtf=0.0998483,vtf=7.09172,itf=0.010481,\n+cjc=8.35472e-11
    vjc=0.702862 mjc=0.43477 xcjc=0.899998\n+fc=0.414631 cjs=0 vjs=0.75
    mjs=0.5 \n+tr=5.64658e-08 ptf=0,kf=0 af=1

    The circuit works by adding a portion of the sine wave output from U6
    inside the ring oscillator to bigger DC current, and delivering as
    current from Q4 into an asymmetric current mirror formed by the dual
    transistor Q2A and Q2B.

    Q2A and Q1A turned it into a voltage at V(n022) - once the circuit has
    settled this sits around 904mV about ground with a 727uV 1kz ripple,
    driven by the 1.83uA 1kHz current ripple going through Q2A

    The actual voltage is set by the stable (but adjustable) base-emitter
    voltage of Q2A. The stable base-emitter voltage of Q1B applies a
    slightly smaller voltage (but with much the same variation) to the base
    of Q1B, whose output then has the 1.63uA 1kHz current ripple needed to
    keep the ring-oscillator running at a stable amplitude.

    Q3 is a cascode to minimise Early effect distortion of the current
    coming out of Q1B.

    The output of U3 adjusts base emitter voltage drop of Q2A by changing
    the current through it via R28.

    During startup Q1B delivers more current to build up the oscillation.

    The circuit take about 5 seconds to stabilise, and the output sine wave
    has a little harmonic content - the worst offender is a 4hKz spur about
    140dB below the fundamental. Or at least this is what LTSpice 17.0.36
    tells me.

    At this distortion level LTSpice isn't all that credible.

    The only other significant change to the circuit is the string of six
    diode (D1, D3, D4, D5, D6, and D7) which are intended to balance out the temperature dependent forward voltage drops across the rectifier diodes
    D2, D12, D13 and D14, which sit in series with a couple of volts of
    signal, rather less than the 15V from the negative rail.

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to Bill Sloman on Mon Apr 14 18:41:47 2025
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave
    oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that you could
    leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked,
    though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice and see roughly
    what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John
    May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity, I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an
    order of magnitude (R27 down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to
    68k) and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below
    the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at about 157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of
    magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal produces less
    voltage excursion.

    --
    Bill Sloman, sydney

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Edward Rawde@21:1/5 to Bill Sloman on Mon Apr 14 11:56:45 2025
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity,

    Is that allowed Bill? I thought that making component changes to see if the circuit works better was design by evolution?

    Did you mean R20? I don't see R27.

    I think the only way forward with this circuit would be to build and test it.

    I'd do a first prototype with everything through hole except LT1679 and NSS40301MDR2G.

    I'd also put four more resistors in series with each 68k (maybe reduce them to 56k) for the four diodes so I can make the current
    pulses in the four diodes exactly equal.
    And add a capacitor (100n min) to ground where the resistors join.

    And use the remaining LT4167 (two quad packs) as an output buffer so that whatever is connected to the output doesn't disturb the
    operation of D10.

    I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an order of magnitude (R27 down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to 68k)
    and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at about
    157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal produces
    less voltage excursion.

    --
    Bill Sloman, sydney


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to Edward Rawde on Tue Apr 15 17:03:01 2025
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity,

    Is that allowed Bill? I thought that making component changes to see if the circuit works better was design by evolution?

    I didn't make the change to see whether it worked better - I did it to
    see if I'd correctly understood what it was doing. The fact that it made
    it work better was incidental.

    I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an order of magnitude (R27 down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to 68k)
    and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at about
    157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal produces
    less voltage excursion. >> > Did you mean R20? I don't see R27.

    I did indeed.

    I think the only way forward with this circuit would be to build and
    test it.

    Agreed.

    I'd do a first prototype with everything through hole except LT1679
    and NSS40301MDR2G.

    Why?

    I'd also put four more resistors in series with each 68k (maybe
    reduce them to 56k) for the four diodes so I can make the current pulses
    in the four diodes exactly equal.

    Why? I can see an argument for removing all the 68k resistors so the
    current being fed through R11 is as high as possible, with the smallest possible ripple. There is a risk that the diode current will turn off
    fast enough to drive them into snap-recovery, but it is remote.

    Increasing the 68k resisitors reduces the effect of the tolerance on the forward voltage drop through each diode, but choosing diodes with a
    closer tolerance on the forward voltage drop would be a better way to
    go. The 1N914 doesn't seem to have one at all.

    The Infineon-BAS3007ASERIES diodes at least specify 350mV typical and
    400mV max at 100mA. I think NExperia had something better back when it
    was Philips, but that's a long time ago.

    And add a capacitor (100n min) to ground where the resistors join.

    Adding more phase delay along the feedback path and make the settling
    time even longer.

    And use the remaining LT4167 (two quad packs) as an output buffer so
    that whatever is connected to the output doesn't disturb the
    operation of D10.

    What D10?

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Edward Rawde@21:1/5 to Bill Sloman on Tue Apr 15 09:12:46 2025
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice
    and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity,

    Is that allowed Bill? I thought that making component changes to see if the circuit works better was design by evolution?

    I didn't make the change to see whether it worked better - I did it to see if I'd correctly understood what it was doing. The fact
    that it made it work better was incidental.

    I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an order of magnitude (R27 down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to 68k)
    and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at about
    157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal
    produces
    less voltage excursion. >> > Did you mean R20? I don't see R27.

    I did indeed.

    I think the only way forward with this circuit would be to build and
    test it.

    Agreed.

    I'd do a first prototype with everything through hole except LT1679
    and NSS40301MDR2G.

    Why?

    Changing almost anything in this circuit in LTSPice changes the residual harmonic levels.
    Assuming the same is true in reality I'd want to be able to change components easily.


    I'd also put four more resistors in series with each 68k (maybe
    reduce them to 56k) for the four diodes so I can make the current pulses in the four diodes exactly equal.

    Why? I can see an argument for removing all the 68k resistors so the current being fed through R11 is as high as possible, with
    the smallest possible ripple. There is a risk that the diode current will turn off fast enough to drive them into snap-recovery,
    but it is remote.

    Increasing the 68k resisitors reduces the effect of the tolerance on the forward voltage drop through each diode, but choosing
    diodes with a closer tolerance on the forward voltage drop would be a better way to go. The 1N914 doesn't seem to have one at all.

    The Infineon-BAS3007ASERIES diodes at least specify 350mV typical and 400mV max at 100mA. I think NExperia had something better
    back when it was Philips, but that's a long time ago.

    Changing to schottky diodes changes the distortion but not always down.
    So I'd want to be able to make changes easily on a real prototype.


    And add a capacitor (100n min) to ground where the resistors join.

    Adding more phase delay along the feedback path and make the settling time even longer.

    One of us doesn't care if he has to wait 5 minutes for the purest sinewave.
    The other seems to put higher priority on the circuit settling in a few seconds.
    I think we'll just have to differ there.


    And use the remaining LT4167 (two quad packs) as an output buffer so
    that whatever is connected to the output doesn't disturb the
    operation of D10.

    What D10?

    The one that's D14 in your circuit.


    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney




    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to Edward Rawde on Wed Apr 16 02:50:16 2025
    On 15/04/2025 11:12 pm, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice
    and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity,

    Is that allowed Bill? I thought that making component changes to see if the circuit works better was design by evolution?

    I didn't make the change to see whether it worked better - I did it to see if I'd correctly understood what it was doing. The fact
    that it made it work better was incidental.

    I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an order of magnitude (R2o down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to 68k)
    and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at about
    157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal
    produces less voltage excursion.

    I think the only way forward with this circuit would be to build and
    test it.

    Agreed.

    I'd do a first prototype with everything through hole except LT1679
    and NSS40301MDR2G.

    Why?

    Changing almost anything in this circuit in LTSPice changes the residual harmonic levels.
    Assuming the same is true in reality I'd want to be able to change components easily.

    I never had much trouble changing surface mount parts.

    I'd also put four more resistors in series with each 68k (maybe
    reduce them to 56k) for the four diodes so I can make the current pulses in the four diodes exactly equal.

    Why? I can see an argument for removing all the 68k resistors so the current being fed through R11 is as high as possible, with
    the smallest possible ripple. There is a risk that the diode current will turn off fast enough to drive them into snap-recovery,
    but it is remote.

    Increasing the 68k resisitors reduces the effect of the tolerance on the forward voltage drop through each diode, but choosing
    diodes with a closer tolerance on the forward voltage drop would be a better way to go. The 1N914 doesn't seem to have one at all.

    The Infineon-BAS3007ASERIES diodes at least specify 350mV typical and 400mV max at 100mA. I think NExperia had something better
    back when it was Philips, but that's a long time ago.

    Changing to schottky diodes changes the distortion but not always down.
    So I'd want to be able to make changes easily on a real prototype.

    There are lots of different Schottky diodes. If I remember right they
    don't do step-recovery, which might help. The first thing I'd go for
    would be a tight tolerance on the forward voltage drop.

    You might find that in a quad diode pack. I used to browse Farnell
    catalogue for that sort of stuff. Searching their data-base doesn't work
    as well.

    The best I could do was the BAS40-05 common cathode dual from Nexperia
    and Infineon. That offers 250mV min, 310mV typical and 380mV max at 1mA,
    and looser tolerances at higher currents. Within the part the two diodes
    are matched to better than 20mV.

    And add a capacitor (100n min) to ground where the resistors join.

    Adding more phase delay along the feedback path and make the settling time even longer.

    One of us doesn't care if he has to wait 5 minutes for the purest sinewave.

    What I actually want is critically damped - dead-beat - settling. Having
    a long period while the amplitude is ringing down is evidence that the
    circuit designer doesn't know what they are doing. This isn't the first
    time I've called your attention to this.

    The other seems to put higher priority on the circuit settling in a few seconds.
    I think we'll just have to differ there.

    And use the remaining LT4167 (two quad packs) as an output buffer so
    that whatever is connected to the output doesn't disturb the
    operation of D10.

    What D10?

    The one that's D14 in your circuit.

    If John May didn't bother it's probably not worth doing.

    More to the point, it's easier fit complex layouts around dual op amps
    rather than quad packages, and you'd be better off using the LT1678.

    https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/16789fs.pdf

    A very low distortion sine wave source does call for careful layout, and
    quad packs would be an invitation to disaster.

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Edward Rawde@21:1/5 to Edward Rawde on Tue Apr 15 13:11:13 2025
    "Edward Rawde" <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote in message news:vtlm0g$21p4$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com...
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that
    you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice
    and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.


    As a first prototype I'd build the circuit below using only through hole components except where through hole is either not
    available or not desirable such as ceramic capacitors.
    Resistors may be done with pads so that through hole resistors can be soldered on in such a way that they're rather easier to remove
    than an 0402.

    In recent years I've been asked if I can repair equipment such as a music keyboard.
    If the internals are surface mount and the problem isn't an obvious one (eg wrong power adapter) I will generally decline to try.
    Find someone who can get the dried up surface mount electrolytics off without damaging the board, if it hasn't been damaged already
    by leaking electrolyte.
    There may well be equipment which can do it but I don't have it.

    The second prototype for this circuit would be all surface mount.

    Unless I win a lottery I won't be either building it or figuring out what I need to test it.

    I'm done with sinewave oscillators except for being curious about how to design a suitable sample and hold circuit in the other
    circuit JM posted.
    Use of a comparator to obtain the sampling signal might reintroduce all the harmonics we want to get rid of.

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    WINDOW 3 32 56 VTop 2
    SYMATTR InstName R27
    SYMATTR Value 10k
    TEXT -2792 1560 Left 2 !.tran 0 10 0 1u startup
    TEXT -2792 1504 Left 2 !.options plotwinsize=0 numdgt=15
    TEXT -2248 -112 Left 2 ;Low distortion 1KHz oscillator. Edward Rawde 30 March 2025.\nBased on designs by JM and BS. Re-worked by JM,
    getting rid of half the transistors,\nand again by Bill Sloman, making Q1A/B and Q2A/B close matched transistor pairs\nand adding
    the cascode transistor at Q3, 12th April 2025..
    TEXT -2896 16 Left 2 !.MODEL NSS40301MDR2G NPN\n+is=6.87023e-12 bf=445.496 nf=1.08926 vaf=60.529\n+ikf=7.23313 ise=2.38192e-09 ne=4
    br=23.6872\n+nr=1.10701 var=8.89608 ikr=1.25064 isc=1e-16 \n+nc=1.13174 rb=905.334,irb=2.30349e-07 rbm=1e-10\n+re=0.00600548
    rc=0.0300274 xtb=1.2219 xti=4,\n+eg=1.05 cje=3.80477e-10 vje=0.912237 mje=0.397194,\n+tf=5.90916e-10,xtf=0.0998483,vtf=7.09172,itf=0.010481,\n+cjc=8.35472e-11 vjc=0.702862 mjc=0.43477
    xcjc=0.899998\n+fc=0.414631 cjs=0 vjs=0.75 mjs=0.5 \n+tr=5.64658e-08 ptf=0,kf=0 af=1

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to Edward Rawde on Wed Apr 16 03:46:10 2025
    On 16/04/2025 3:22 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm2og$4v8e$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 11:12 pm, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that
    you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice
    and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity,

    Is that allowed Bill? I thought that making component changes to see if the circuit works better was design by evolution?

    I didn't make the change to see whether it worked better - I did it to see if I'd correctly understood what it was doing. The
    fact
    that it made it work better was incidental.

    I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an order of magnitude (R2o down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to
    68k)
    and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at
    about
    157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal
    produces less voltage excursion.

    I think the only way forward with this circuit would be to build and
    test it.

    Agreed.

    I'd do a first prototype with everything through hole except LT1679
    and NSS40301MDR2G.

    Why?

    Changing almost anything in this circuit in LTSPice changes the residual harmonic levels.
    Assuming the same is true in reality I'd want to be able to change components easily.

    I never had much trouble changing surface mount parts.

    Then you haven't changed very many or you have better equipment than I do.


    I'd also put four more resistors in series with each 68k (maybe
    reduce them to 56k) for the four diodes so I can make the current pulses in the four diodes exactly equal.

    Why? I can see an argument for removing all the 68k resistors so the current being fed through R11 is as high as possible, with
    the smallest possible ripple. There is a risk that the diode current will turn off fast enough to drive them into snap-recovery,
    but it is remote.

    Increasing the 68k resisitors reduces the effect of the tolerance on the forward voltage drop through each diode, but choosing
    diodes with a closer tolerance on the forward voltage drop would be a better way to go. The 1N914 doesn't seem to have one at
    all.

    The Infineon-BAS3007ASERIES diodes at least specify 350mV typical and 400mV max at 100mA. I think NExperia had something better
    back when it was Philips, but that's a long time ago.

    Changing to schottky diodes changes the distortion but not always down.
    So I'd want to be able to make changes easily on a real prototype.

    There are lots of different Schottky diodes. If I remember right they don't do step-recovery, which might help. The first thing
    I'd go for would be a tight tolerance on the forward voltage drop.

    You might find that in a quad diode pack. I used to browse Farnell catalogue for that sort of stuff. Searching their data-base
    doesn't work as well.

    You might still want to equalise the currents because the four diodes aren't driven 100% exactly the same.


    The best I could do was the BAS40-05 common cathode dual from Nexperia and Infineon. That offers 250mV min, 310mV typical and
    380mV max at 1mA, and looser tolerances at higher currents. Within the part the two diodes are matched to better than 20mV.

    And add a capacitor (100n min) to ground where the resistors join.

    Adding more phase delay along the feedback path and make the settling time even longer.

    One of us doesn't care if he has to wait 5 minutes for the purest sinewave. >>
    What I actually want is critically damped - dead-beat - settling. Having a long period while the amplitude is ringing down is
    evidence that the circuit designer doesn't know what they are doing. This isn't the first time I've called your attention to this.

    There's no need to state the obvious, which is that I don't care if it takes 5 minutes for the circuit to settle.
    You have it heavily damped, under damped, over damped, lightly damped, critically damped, slightly damped or whatever damped you
    want. I'm ok with that.

    Then you don't know enough about what's going on. This low distortion
    sine wave exercise is - to an appreciable extent - an exercise in
    keeping audiophools happy, and you need to give them a product that
    doesn't make them anxious.

    The other seems to put higher priority on the circuit settling in a few seconds.
    I think we'll just have to differ there.

    And use the remaining LT4167 (two quad packs) as an output buffer so
    that whatever is connected to the output doesn't disturb the
    operation of D10.

    What D10?

    The one that's D14 in your circuit.

    If John May didn't bother it's probably not worth doing.

    John May did show that separately buffering the signals to the four diodes improves performance.

    Loading the op amps in the ring oscillator with a rectifier diode is
    going to affect the output current a little - op amps don't have zero
    output impedance. Buffering everything might be the ideal, but it is extravagant and offers extra interactions which you may have to tame separately.

    This is similar to equalising the currents through them.

    It isn't. Even if you equalise the current drawn (and they should be
    very similar) the current is only being drawn during when the sine wave
    is appreciably positive, and that's going to generate some distortion,
    though probably not enough to get excited about.

    More to the point, it's easier fit complex layouts around dual op amps rather than quad packages, and you'd be better off using
    the LT1678.

    https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/16789fs.pdf

    A very low distortion sine wave source does call for careful layout, and quad packs would be an invitation to disaster.

    Yes I have to agree that use of the dual version (four packages or five with some unused) would be a good idea here.

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Edward Rawde@21:1/5 to Bill Sloman on Tue Apr 15 13:22:09 2025
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm2og$4v8e$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 11:12 pm, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that
    you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice
    and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity,

    Is that allowed Bill? I thought that making component changes to see if the circuit works better was design by evolution?

    I didn't make the change to see whether it worked better - I did it to see if I'd correctly understood what it was doing. The
    fact
    that it made it work better was incidental.

    I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an order of magnitude (R2o down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to
    68k)
    and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at
    about
    157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal
    produces less voltage excursion.

    I think the only way forward with this circuit would be to build and
    test it.

    Agreed.

    I'd do a first prototype with everything through hole except LT1679
    and NSS40301MDR2G.

    Why?

    Changing almost anything in this circuit in LTSPice changes the residual harmonic levels.
    Assuming the same is true in reality I'd want to be able to change components easily.

    I never had much trouble changing surface mount parts.

    Then you haven't changed very many or you have better equipment than I do.


    I'd also put four more resistors in series with each 68k (maybe
    reduce them to 56k) for the four diodes so I can make the current pulses in the four diodes exactly equal.

    Why? I can see an argument for removing all the 68k resistors so the current being fed through R11 is as high as possible, with
    the smallest possible ripple. There is a risk that the diode current will turn off fast enough to drive them into snap-recovery,
    but it is remote.

    Increasing the 68k resisitors reduces the effect of the tolerance on the forward voltage drop through each diode, but choosing
    diodes with a closer tolerance on the forward voltage drop would be a better way to go. The 1N914 doesn't seem to have one at
    all.

    The Infineon-BAS3007ASERIES diodes at least specify 350mV typical and 400mV max at 100mA. I think NExperia had something better
    back when it was Philips, but that's a long time ago.

    Changing to schottky diodes changes the distortion but not always down.
    So I'd want to be able to make changes easily on a real prototype.

    There are lots of different Schottky diodes. If I remember right they don't do step-recovery, which might help. The first thing
    I'd go for would be a tight tolerance on the forward voltage drop.

    You might find that in a quad diode pack. I used to browse Farnell catalogue for that sort of stuff. Searching their data-base
    doesn't work as well.

    You might still want to equalise the currents because the four diodes aren't driven 100% exactly the same.


    The best I could do was the BAS40-05 common cathode dual from Nexperia and Infineon. That offers 250mV min, 310mV typical and
    380mV max at 1mA, and looser tolerances at higher currents. Within the part the two diodes are matched to better than 20mV.

    And add a capacitor (100n min) to ground where the resistors join.

    Adding more phase delay along the feedback path and make the settling time even longer.

    One of us doesn't care if he has to wait 5 minutes for the purest sinewave.

    What I actually want is critically damped - dead-beat - settling. Having a long period while the amplitude is ringing down is
    evidence that the circuit designer doesn't know what they are doing. This isn't the first time I've called your attention to this.

    There's no need to state the obvious, which is that I don't care if it takes 5 minutes for the circuit to settle.
    You have it heavily damped, under damped, over damped, lightly damped, critically damped, slightly damped or whatever damped you
    want. I'm ok with that.


    The other seems to put higher priority on the circuit settling in a few seconds.
    I think we'll just have to differ there.

    And use the remaining LT4167 (two quad packs) as an output buffer so
    that whatever is connected to the output doesn't disturb the
    operation of D10.

    What D10?

    The one that's D14 in your circuit.

    If John May didn't bother it's probably not worth doing.

    John may did show that separately buffering the signals to the four diodes improves performance.
    This is similar to equalising the currents through them.


    More to the point, it's easier fit complex layouts around dual op amps rather than quad packages, and you'd be better off using
    the LT1678.

    https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/16789fs.pdf

    A very low distortion sine wave source does call for careful layout, and quad packs would be an invitation to disaster.

    Yes I have to agree that use of the dual version (four packages or five with some unused) would be a good idea here.


    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney



    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to Edward Rawde on Wed Apr 16 03:58:17 2025
    On 16/04/2025 3:11 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Edward Rawde" <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote in message news:vtlm0g$21p4$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com...
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that
    you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under LTSpice
    and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.


    As a first prototype I'd build the circuit below using only through hole components except where through hole is either not
    available or not desirable such as ceramic capacitors.
    Resistors may be done with pads so that through hole resistors can be soldered on in such a way that they're rather easier to remove
    than an 0402.

    In recent years I've been asked if I can repair equipment such as a music keyboard.
    If the internals are surface mount and the problem isn't an obvious one (eg wrong power adapter) I will generally decline to try.
    Find someone who can get the dried up surface mount electrolytics off without damaging the board, if it hasn't been damaged already
    by leaking electrolyte.
    There may well be equipment which can do it but I don't have it.

    The second prototype for this circuit would be all surface mount.

    Unless I win a lottery I won't be either building it or figuring out what I need to test it.

    I'm done with sinewave oscillators except for being curious about how to design a suitable sample and hold circuit in the other
    circuit JM posted.
    Use of a comparator to obtain the sampling signal might reintroduce all the harmonics we want to get rid of.

    Too true. I once got stuck with cleaning a comparator-heavy board in
    fairly old Cambridge Instruments electron microscope.

    Final test hated it because the comparators tended to talk to one
    another, and burst into collective oscillation. The original prototype
    might not have done it, but as the manufacturer improved the parts and
    built them with smaller dies the design got more and more twitchy.

    I worked over the layout to minimise the interactions as much as I
    could, but while final test liked what I'd done, it merely reduced the
    problem and made it easier to fix when it did show up.

    --
    Bill Sloman, sydney

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Edward Rawde@21:1/5 to Bill Sloman on Tue Apr 15 14:13:49 2025
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm616$6vpo$1@dont-email.me...
    On 16/04/2025 3:22 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm2og$4v8e$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 11:12 pm, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that
    you
    could leave out half the transistors.

    I couldn't immediately see exactly how either of the circuits worked, though I could get the simulations to run under
    LTSpice
    and
    see roughly what was going on.

    I've now dug a bit deeper. Here is a five transistor version of John May's four transistor version.

    Out of curiousity,

    Is that allowed Bill? I thought that making component changes to see if the circuit works better was design by evolution?

    I didn't make the change to see whether it worked better - I did it to see if I'd correctly understood what it was doing. The
    fact
    that it made it work better was incidental.

    I upped the currents through Q1A and Q1B by about an order of magnitude (R2o down to 27k, R17 down to 22kk and R28 down to
    68k)
    and the worst case harmonic became the second at 2kHz, 155dB below the the fundamental. The fourth was close behind at at
    about
    157dB down.

    Essentially, their incremental resistance has dropped by an order of magnitude, and the ripple on the gain-control signal
    produces less voltage excursion.

    I think the only way forward with this circuit would be to build and >>>>> test it.

    Agreed.

    I'd do a first prototype with everything through hole except LT1679 >>>>> and NSS40301MDR2G.

    Why?

    Changing almost anything in this circuit in LTSPice changes the residual harmonic levels.
    Assuming the same is true in reality I'd want to be able to change components easily.

    I never had much trouble changing surface mount parts.

    Then you haven't changed very many or you have better equipment than I do. >>

    I'd also put four more resistors in series with each 68k (maybe
    reduce them to 56k) for the four diodes so I can make the current pulses in the four diodes exactly equal.

    Why? I can see an argument for removing all the 68k resistors so the current being fed through R11 is as high as possible,
    with
    the smallest possible ripple. There is a risk that the diode current will turn off fast enough to drive them into
    snap-recovery,
    but it is remote.

    Increasing the 68k resisitors reduces the effect of the tolerance on the forward voltage drop through each diode, but choosing
    diodes with a closer tolerance on the forward voltage drop would be a better way to go. The 1N914 doesn't seem to have one at
    all.

    The Infineon-BAS3007ASERIES diodes at least specify 350mV typical and 400mV max at 100mA. I think NExperia had something
    better
    back when it was Philips, but that's a long time ago.

    Changing to schottky diodes changes the distortion but not always down. >>>> So I'd want to be able to make changes easily on a real prototype.

    There are lots of different Schottky diodes. If I remember right they don't do step-recovery, which might help. The first thing
    I'd go for would be a tight tolerance on the forward voltage drop.

    You might find that in a quad diode pack. I used to browse Farnell catalogue for that sort of stuff. Searching their data-base
    doesn't work as well.

    You might still want to equalise the currents because the four diodes aren't driven 100% exactly the same.


    The best I could do was the BAS40-05 common cathode dual from Nexperia and Infineon. That offers 250mV min, 310mV typical and
    380mV max at 1mA, and looser tolerances at higher currents. Within the part the two diodes are matched to better than 20mV.

    And add a capacitor (100n min) to ground where the resistors join.

    Adding more phase delay along the feedback path and make the settling time even longer.

    One of us doesn't care if he has to wait 5 minutes for the purest sinewave.

    What I actually want is critically damped - dead-beat - settling. Having a long period while the amplitude is ringing down is
    evidence that the circuit designer doesn't know what they are doing. This isn't the first time I've called your attention to
    this.

    There's no need to state the obvious, which is that I don't care if it takes 5 minutes for the circuit to settle.
    You have it heavily damped, under damped, over damped, lightly damped, critically damped, slightly damped or whatever damped you
    want. I'm ok with that.

    Then you don't know enough about what's going on. This low distortion sine wave exercise is - to an appreciable extent - an
    exercise in keeping audiophools happy, and you need to give them a product that doesn't make them anxious.

    LOL I'm no audiophool but I do know that you would seize on any opportunity to tell someone else that they don't know what they're
    doing Bill.

    Actually the low distortion sine wave exercise was an exercise in finding out whether you can make a low distortion 1Khz oscillator
    without using lamps, thermistors, opto devices or FETs as voltage variable resistors.
    It has nothing whatsoever to do with audiophoolery.
    If any aspects of the circuits make you anxious then I'd advise consulting a doctor for the appropriate meds.


    The other seems to put higher priority on the circuit settling in a few seconds.
    I think we'll just have to differ there.

    And use the remaining LT4167 (two quad packs) as an output buffer so >>>>> that whatever is connected to the output doesn't disturb the
    operation of D10.

    What D10?

    The one that's D14 in your circuit.

    If John May didn't bother it's probably not worth doing.

    John May did show that separately buffering the signals to the four diodes improves performance.

    Loading the op amps in the ring oscillator with a rectifier diode is going to affect the output current a little - op amps don't
    have zero output impedance. Buffering everything might be the ideal, but it is extravagant and offers extra interactions which you
    may have to tame separately.

    This is similar to equalising the currents through them.

    It isn't. Even if you equalise the current drawn (and they should be very similar) the current is only being drawn during when the
    sine wave is appreciably positive, and that's going to generate some distortion, though probably not enough to get excited about.

    More to the point, it's easier fit complex layouts around dual op amps rather than quad packages, and you'd be better off using
    the LT1678.

    https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/16789fs.pdf

    A very low distortion sine wave source does call for careful layout, and quad packs would be an invitation to disaster.

    Yes I have to agree that use of the dual version (four packages or five with some unused) would be a good idea here.

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney



    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Joe Gwinn@21:1/5 to invalid@invalid.invalid on Tue Apr 15 15:56:42 2025
    On Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:13:49 -0400, "Edward Rawde"
    <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm616$6vpo$1@dont-email.me...
    On 16/04/2025 3:22 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm2og$4v8e$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 11:12 pm, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:
    Edward Rawde posted an eight-transistor low distortion sine wave oscillator circuit recently, and John May pointed out that
    you

    DO NOT FEED THE TROLL

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to Edward Rawde on Wed Apr 16 15:28:08 2025
    On 16/04/2025 4:13 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm616$6vpo$1@dont-email.me...
    On 16/04/2025 3:22 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtm2og$4v8e$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 11:12 pm, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtl0bc$364bt$1@dont-email.me...
    On 15/04/2025 1:56 am, Edward Rawde wrote:
    "Bill Sloman" <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in message news:vtihob$sfdm$1@dont-email.me...
    On 12/04/2025 6:27 pm, Bill Sloman wrote:

    <snip>

    There's no need to state the obvious, which is that I don't care if it takes 5 minutes for the circuit to settle.
    You have it heavily damped, under damped, over damped, lightly damped, critically damped, slightly damped or whatever damped you
    want. I'm ok with that.

    Then you don't know enough about what's going on. This low distortion sine wave exercise is - to an appreciable extent - an
    exercise in keeping audiophools happy, and you need to give them a product that doesn't make them anxious.

    LOL I'm no audiophool but I do know that you would seize on any opportunity to tell someone else that they don't know what they're
    doing Bill.

    Like John Larkin, you are fishing for flattery, and resent it when you
    don't get it.

    Actually the low distortion sine wave exercise was an exercise in finding out whether you can make a low distortion 1Khz oscillator
    without using lamps, thermistors, opto devices or FETs as voltage variable resistors.

    It's an interesting intellectual exercise, but it wouldn't be all that interesting if there weren't audiophools out there to buy an eventual
    product.

    It has nothing whatsoever to do with audiophoolery.

    Nothing that you can see.

    If any aspects of the circuits make you anxious then I'd advise consulting a doctor for the appropriate meds.

    More bad advice, and it reflects - once again - your poor grasp of
    message you think you are responding to. The anxiety was in the
    audiophool potential customers. I do get mildly anxious from time to
    time, but it's a rational and appropriate response to imperfectly
    predictable reality and no doctor (certainly not my admirable GP) would prescribe anything to reduce it.

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney




    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)