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From: spcecdt@deeptht.santa-cruz.ca.us (John DuBois)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: looking for part
Keywords: LP1000
Message-ID: <52@deeptht.santa-cruz.ca.us>
Date: 20 Nov 90 08:20:30 GMT
References: <3288@phred.UUCP>
Reply-To: spcecdt@deeptht.santa-cruz.ca.us (John DuBois)
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Armory
Lines: 22

In article <3288@phred.UUCP> earl@phred.UUCP (choo choo earl) writes:
...
+The circuit worked using a negative resistance principle.  A capacitor
+was charged through a resistor, and when it reached the trigger voltage,
+the IC would discharge it through the load.  I know there are other IC's
+that do this, but this one worked just off the capacitor voltage, and didn't
+draw any quiescent (sp?) current.  The basic operation was like a neon
+lamp oscillator, but this all happened at 4V.  

     Try a PUJT (Programmable Unijunction Transistor).  It will do what
you want, and can be programmed to trigger at any voltage in its range.
It draws essentially no current in itself; the only current that flows is
the capacitor charging current.  Also, input impedance is extremely high
(except when it's triggerred!) so you can get very long delays (several
hours) with miniscule currents.  A "drip" circuit based on this is
pretty nasty  :-)  Anyway, PUJTs are cheap and plentiful.
     I've never heard of a "mizer"; perhaps it was actually a UJT
(unijunction transistor, a nonprogrammable device)?

-- 
John DuBois
spcecdt@deeptht.santa-cruz.ca.us