Hi gents, I am a total amateur when it comes to electronics but need a voltage controlled current source signal conditioner.

Input +/- 10V with linear
Output +/- 50mA ( the impedance of the driven input is max. 10Ohm)

what OP amp product would you use and what would the circuit look like.

 

hi felix.
Welcome to AAC.
This is one option if you want to use a OPA, also note the Load current is referenced to 0V.

E

 

Thanks so much Eric, what software did you use to simulate this?

 

hi,
It is LTSpice, I will post the LTS asc file.
E

Note: I used a zero resistance +/-10v voltage source,

 

thanks so much, I just tried this model. somehow the lm 324 couldnt be loaded. is there an alternative IC which works which is in the library.

 

You could try a LT1007 in the OPA's lib, or any low noise, dual supply OPA that can operate with a +/-15V supply

 

epic! thanks a lot, big help!

 

? Re #2 but this just mirrors input to FET.sources and thus puts ±10V / 210Ω = ±47.6mA to the load chain ?

the LM324 manages some 30kH at best , while using faster opAmp with output current sense would do likely better

. . . if you use Fets like this there likely should be some source resistors to remove possible ringing (try random stepping your control input ...)

 

hi c139,
I do not see any mention of switching in the TS's opening opening post., he states a linear +/-10V input drive.???

If you have an alternative circuit, please post it, so that we can check it out.

E

 

it depends on precision required . . . since the near zero will have a huge error with simple output node current sensing
? it could be perhaps better to sink some current in parallel so I.LOAD = I.Source - I.PARALLEL SINK() -- the least being either const. or fn.()
?? perhaps there're some other tricks to get higher precision . . .

. . . If the control is low varying linear the feedback 1:1 only need's to be adjusted a bit
______

? https://www.analog.com/en/design-ce...ion-nanoamp-bidirectional-current-source.html

by : Google's image search

 

OK,
So post a circuit and we can check your concerns.
If you use LTSpice, an asc file would help.

 

Hi Eric, I just played around with the LT spice, the setup is not accurate enough unfortunatelly, is there a way to make it more accurate._? see in the plot, its at 47.7mA.

 

hi felix,
Are you saying you want the +/-50mA to exactly track the +/-10V input.?

What will be source of the +/-10V in.? , need to know the source impedance etc ...
E

 

hi felix,
Look at this modified circuit, uses a buffer OPA from the +/-10V source, this allows the use of a variable pot to set the Vin.
Note the trim pot to set the +/-50mA tracking/span

E

Added stepped plot

 

Hi gents, I am a total amateur when it comes to electronics but need a voltage controlled current source signal conditioner.

Input +/- 10V with linear
Output +/- 50mA ( the impedance of the driven input is max. 10Ohm)

what OP amp product would you use and what would the circuit look like.

What aspects are important? How accurate does the mapping need to be? How linear?

Is the load referenced to ground, or is it a differential output?

How fast does it need to respond? How much overshoot is tolerable? How long can it take to settle?

What the maximum frequency of the control signal?

 

Hi WBahn,

its for a setpoint of an actuator. the actuator has an input of +/- 50mA and I only can delivery +/- 10V therefore accuracy is quite importan, many of the points arent so critical.

How accurate does the mapping need to be. >> would be nice to achieve 0.1mA

How linear? linearity is important, as linear as possible.

Is the load referenced to ground, or is it a differential output? it is a differential input at the actuator side.

How fast does it need to respond? >> not critical

How much overshoot is tolerable? >> not critical

How long can it take to settle? >> not critical

What the maximum frequency of the control signal? >> not critical

 

hi felix,
The upper plot shows the tracking error over the +/-10V inp versus the +/-50mA range.

I am sure you realise that due to manufacturing tolerances in an actual built unit, it may require component value changes from the simulation values.

E

Added asc file..

 

oh ok I see, can you attach the LTspice model as in your cc4 screenshot.? this looks actually great.!

 

Hi WBahn,

its for a setpoint of an actuator. the actuator has an input of +/- 50mA and I only can delivery +/- 10V therefore accuracy is quite importan, many of the points arent so critical.

How accurate does the mapping need to be. >> would be nice to achieve 0.1mA

So, at full scale, that's 0.2%. That will have a significant impact on the design and component selection. Your system performance will vary with things like temperature and supply voltage and with this tight of a requirement this will likely need to be taken into account.

How linear? linearity is important, as linear as possible.

If this is important enough to say that it is important, it is important enough to put in the effort to quantify it. Just saying "as linear as possible" is an unachievable specification. Give me enough more money and I can make it more linear -- give me a million dollars and I can made it damn linear, but it would still not be as linear as possible.

So give it some thought. Pick a linearity spec and determine if that spec is good enough. If it is, loosen the spec and ask again. If it is not, tighten the spec and ask again.

Is the load referenced to ground, or is it a differential output? it is a differential input at the actuator side.

How fast does it need to respond? >> not critical

How much overshoot is tolerable? >> not critical

How long can it take to settle? >> not critical

What the maximum frequency of the control signal? >> not critical

It's good to know that these are not critical, but it would still be useful to have some feel for what is tolerable. Performance against one spec is often a compromise involving loss of performance against others. So if you want it to be super linear, that may well entail a much slower response. If it takes ten minutes to respond to a change in input signal, is that tolerable? If it can't respond to input signals above 0.01 Hz, is that tolerable?

 

Here's the LTspice simulation of a modified Howland current source.
It uses a high-current (65mA) op amp so doesn't require any buffer transistors on the output.
The simulation shows no visible variation in load current for loads of 1, 10 and 100 ohms.

(Note that the input is differential so you can interchange the V1 and V2 connections to invert the output signal polarity).

If you want to drive it with a pot, then you can add a buffer follower op amp at the input.