On 7-26-2011 20:34, JIMMIE wrote:
30 year old piece of equipment operating pretty much flawlessly for
that entire period. VCC and VEE on the 1448 is +/- 15 volts and the
chip is overheating..... even with inputs and outputs disconnected the
chip still overheats(130 F). I noticed that the manufacturer's sets
the MAX power supply voltages at +/- 15 and understand this was
probably designed on the hairy edge of failure but like I said its
been working for 30 years and replacement chips work no better, what
gives. Power supply can not be adjusted and there are other chips on
the board that require the +- 15. d BTW cooling the chip makes it
work. operating the chip from an external +- 12V power supply makes it
work but modifying the circuit may not be an option. I saw where there
are some CMOS versions of the 1488, I was wondering if they would
handle the +- 15 volts better.


TIA
Jimmie

Can you cut the circuit trace of the voltages (Vcc, Vee) feeding the IC
and strap in a pair of diodes (in series) such as IN914 types in each
supply line? Each diode drops about .7V, so you would end up with about
+/- 13.5V at the IC. If you want even lower voltage at the IC, add in
another diode or two in each supply line. Ensure proper polarity...in
the Vcc supply lines, the diode cathodes would go toward the IC and the
Vee diodes would have the anodes toward the IC. Just a thought. Or, if
you know how much current the device draws through each supply (Vcc and
Vee), you could place a single zener diode in series with the supply
voltages to the IC and the polarities would be opposite of using 1N914
diodes. Just find a zener of about 2.5-3V that is rated at about twice
the current the IC draws from each supply.



N0EDV