I was curious what the input and output traces looked like and this is the result:

The upper is at the input and the lower is the output. The sweep was 1ms/division and the volts were 5mV/division. Its interesting to me that the distortion seems to be only doubled while the current is amplified by 350 to 1.

The JFET as a current regulator was brought up in another thread and I thought it would be interesting to apply that in place of my second current mirror. The results:

Figuring out the program resistance was trial and error. It seems strange to me that going to either side of the 2KΩ resulted in similar numbers. I am still stuck at approximately one amp of output. I didn't think this would improve that though. It is nice to have the rejection of detrimental thermal effects. The distortion was pretty much the same as with the current mirror.

BTW, here is my little setup:

 

I have stepped up to an integrated circuit for my voltage regulator. I used the precision voltage follower experiment as a guide and came up with approximately twenty times my previous output current for the same input. Amazing what such a tiny little chip can do. Here are the results:

My next step will be the 317, but I think its capabilities will exceed my breadboard's. So I will probably try to put it in an enclosure and hardwire everything.

 

Well the fall semester has begun and I have been busy, but I had some time to play today. Here's what I've got now:

The output is 12.14 volts while powering a 10 watt bulb for 824mA. This is what it looks like:

The input under load shows a little over sixteen volts on my multimeter. Here are the input (bottom) and output traces:

I am satisfied with this for now and think I will begin playing with some other experiments for a while.