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	<title>Comments on: Build video isolator</title>
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	<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/</link>
	<description>All about electronics and circuit design</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2026 16:43:06 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>By: Tomi Engdahl</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-1741556</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tomi Engdahl]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2021 13:01:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-1741556</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[EEVblog #1104 - Omicron Labs Bode 100 Teardown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpI-cGU6-FY&amp;t=7s

Viewer comments:

In RF land we call that a transmission line transformer.  At low frequencies, the ferrite coupling does the heavy lifting, and at high frequencies, the transmission line coupling does the heavy lifting.  Simple in principle, but getting the crossover really flat in amplitude and phase takes a good bit of experimentation.

this starts to make sense now

Lots of people claiming they could make a wideband injection transformer for a few bucks. Time for a competition perhaps Dave?

It is one thing to make 1 of those.
Producing lots of them is a completley different thing!

$15 for the parts, $485 for the virgins..

I actually did a &quot;mini-internship&quot; at Omicron in Austria a few years back. No nude virgins assembling the devices though :/
Clothed virgins, males.

Its a specific piece of test equipment. If you need one you don&#039;t particularly worry about the cost; it&#039;s a drop in the bucket compared to all your other test gear

Btw you can make directional couplers, hybrids ,circulators etc with good opamps at arbitrary impedances. At 10 Mhz this is no big deal!

The term you were looking for on the transformer was &quot;bifilar windings&quot;  it is a common trick for making a broad band transformer.
As an injection transformer, it is usually better to have a 10:1 step down so that the 50 Ohm output impedance of your generator looks like 0.5 Ohms on the system under test.
I was slightly surprised by the small cross section of the core.  Generally, the more massive the core the more energy it can store.  On the high current side of the transformer, you can have significant DC current leading to significant stored energy in the transformer&#039;s core.

Top tip for anyone wanting to make a transformer with better performance than this: Use binocular ferrites. Hard to get, but if you are serious about being a manufacturer of quality test gear, it is viable when you are charging hundreds of bucks for a wideband flat transformer. If you are being really snazzy, use a pair of binocular ferrites.

The transformer is bifilar wound.  The capacitive coupling  aids the high end of the BW.

The twisted pair is a type of bifilar winding. It insures the two transformer coils occupy on average exactly the same magnetic space as each other allowing for an almost perfect one-to-one ratio. A typical accuracy of such a winding can be better than 1 PPM.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>EEVblog #1104 &#8211; Omicron Labs Bode 100 Teardown<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpI-cGU6-FY&#038;t=7s" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpI-cGU6-FY&#038;t=7s</a></p>
<p>Viewer comments:</p>
<p>In RF land we call that a transmission line transformer.  At low frequencies, the ferrite coupling does the heavy lifting, and at high frequencies, the transmission line coupling does the heavy lifting.  Simple in principle, but getting the crossover really flat in amplitude and phase takes a good bit of experimentation.</p>
<p>this starts to make sense now</p>
<p>Lots of people claiming they could make a wideband injection transformer for a few bucks. Time for a competition perhaps Dave?</p>
<p>It is one thing to make 1 of those.<br />
Producing lots of them is a completley different thing!</p>
<p>$15 for the parts, $485 for the virgins..</p>
<p>I actually did a &#8220;mini-internship&#8221; at Omicron in Austria a few years back. No nude virgins assembling the devices though :/<br />
Clothed virgins, males.</p>
<p>Its a specific piece of test equipment. If you need one you don&#8217;t particularly worry about the cost; it&#8217;s a drop in the bucket compared to all your other test gear</p>
<p>Btw you can make directional couplers, hybrids ,circulators etc with good opamps at arbitrary impedances. At 10 Mhz this is no big deal!</p>
<p>The term you were looking for on the transformer was &#8220;bifilar windings&#8221;  it is a common trick for making a broad band transformer.<br />
As an injection transformer, it is usually better to have a 10:1 step down so that the 50 Ohm output impedance of your generator looks like 0.5 Ohms on the system under test.<br />
I was slightly surprised by the small cross section of the core.  Generally, the more massive the core the more energy it can store.  On the high current side of the transformer, you can have significant DC current leading to significant stored energy in the transformer&#8217;s core.</p>
<p>Top tip for anyone wanting to make a transformer with better performance than this: Use binocular ferrites. Hard to get, but if you are serious about being a manufacturer of quality test gear, it is viable when you are charging hundreds of bucks for a wideband flat transformer. If you are being really snazzy, use a pair of binocular ferrites.</p>
<p>The transformer is bifilar wound.  The capacitive coupling  aids the high end of the BW.</p>
<p>The twisted pair is a type of bifilar winding. It insures the two transformer coils occupy on average exactly the same magnetic space as each other allowing for an almost perfect one-to-one ratio. A typical accuracy of such a winding can be better than 1 PPM.</p>
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	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Tomi Engdahl</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-1741553</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tomi Engdahl]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2021 12:51:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-1741553</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Inductance values for various designs
http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/temp/gdt/gdt1.html

The pictures below show various different pulse transformers that were tested. The core type and winding method are listed along with the measured inductances.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Inductance values for various designs<br />
<a href="http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/temp/gdt/gdt1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.richieburnett.co.uk/temp/gdt/gdt1.html</a></p>
<p>The pictures below show various different pulse transformers that were tested. The core type and winding method are listed along with the measured inductances.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Tomi Engdahl</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-1741547</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tomi Engdahl]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2021 12:44:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-1741547</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Homemade Injection Transformer for PSU Loop Analysis
https://adilmalikn.wordpress.com/2019/07/07/homemade-inject-transformer-for-psu-loop-analysis/

Recently, I have been designing some SMPS and required some hardware to measure the actual loop response of the complete converters. People familiar with this area will probably know this can be done breaking the feedback loop of the converter and injecting a small AC signal and measuring the loop response at the output of the converter.  However, such a measurement requires a mechanism to inject this signal differential across a small resistor inline with the normal feedback network. Unfortunately, as most signal generators are ground referenced we need special hardware to convert this output to a floating output.

Commercial PSU analysers come with expensive injection transformers that allow us to do that. These transformers are designed to have a very flat response in the region of conventional loop bandwidths of SMPS converters, these range from a few Hz to upto a few MHz.

For example this transformer for the Bode-100 costs $500!

The reason these transformers are so expensive is the use of exotic cores that result in high inductance with minimum turns. This way the low frequency behaviour of the transformer is improved without degrading the high frequency. Simply speaking, we need to add more turns to the transformer to improve low frequency behaviour, but the increased parasitic capacitance then degrades the high frequency behaviour.

I experimented with a few DIY transformers by purchasing some cheap £10 cores from RS. I wound around 5m of differential cabling scavenged from an old Ethernet cable.

The results are surprisingly flat, and both transformers work well from about 10 Hz upto 5 MHz, and should be usable upto 10 MHz. Not bad for £10!

Make your own insertion transformer for measuring loop gain-phase of power converters
http://www.simprojects.nl/images/DIY_signal_injection_transformer.pdf]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Homemade Injection Transformer for PSU Loop Analysis<br />
<a href="https://adilmalikn.wordpress.com/2019/07/07/homemade-inject-transformer-for-psu-loop-analysis/" rel="nofollow">https://adilmalikn.wordpress.com/2019/07/07/homemade-inject-transformer-for-psu-loop-analysis/</a></p>
<p>Recently, I have been designing some SMPS and required some hardware to measure the actual loop response of the complete converters. People familiar with this area will probably know this can be done breaking the feedback loop of the converter and injecting a small AC signal and measuring the loop response at the output of the converter.  However, such a measurement requires a mechanism to inject this signal differential across a small resistor inline with the normal feedback network. Unfortunately, as most signal generators are ground referenced we need special hardware to convert this output to a floating output.</p>
<p>Commercial PSU analysers come with expensive injection transformers that allow us to do that. These transformers are designed to have a very flat response in the region of conventional loop bandwidths of SMPS converters, these range from a few Hz to upto a few MHz.</p>
<p>For example this transformer for the Bode-100 costs $500!</p>
<p>The reason these transformers are so expensive is the use of exotic cores that result in high inductance with minimum turns. This way the low frequency behaviour of the transformer is improved without degrading the high frequency. Simply speaking, we need to add more turns to the transformer to improve low frequency behaviour, but the increased parasitic capacitance then degrades the high frequency behaviour.</p>
<p>I experimented with a few DIY transformers by purchasing some cheap £10 cores from RS. I wound around 5m of differential cabling scavenged from an old Ethernet cable.</p>
<p>The results are surprisingly flat, and both transformers work well from about 10 Hz upto 5 MHz, and should be usable upto 10 MHz. Not bad for £10!</p>
<p>Make your own insertion transformer for measuring loop gain-phase of power converters<br />
<a href="http://www.simprojects.nl/images/DIY_signal_injection_transformer.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.simprojects.nl/images/DIY_signal_injection_transformer.pdf</a></p>
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	</item>
	<item>
		<title>By: Tomi Engdahl</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-1620839</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tomi Engdahl]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Jan 2019 22:07:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-1620839</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[https://www.canford.co.uk/Products/22793/90-542_CANFORD-VIDEO-ISOLATOR-Analogue-video-isolation-transformer-single-channel

https://www.amazon.com/slp/ground-loop-isolator-for-audio-video/yjyw4vfsybns4h2]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.canford.co.uk/Products/22793/90-542_CANFORD-VIDEO-ISOLATOR-Analogue-video-isolation-transformer-single-channel" rel="nofollow">https://www.canford.co.uk/Products/22793/90-542_CANFORD-VIDEO-ISOLATOR-Analogue-video-isolation-transformer-single-channel</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/slp/ground-loop-isolator-for-audio-video/yjyw4vfsybns4h2" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/slp/ground-loop-isolator-for-audio-video/yjyw4vfsybns4h2</a></p>
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	<item>
		<title>By: Tomi Engdahl</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-1475686</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tomi Engdahl]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Feb 2016 06:48:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-1475686</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You are right. For less demanding applications there are cheaper options.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You are right. For less demanding applications there are cheaper options.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>By: stentor</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-1475360</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[stentor]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Feb 2016 22:18:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-1475360</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I think for less demanding applications cheap ($5-10) off-the-shelf baluns or even DIY made from the junk heap will do.  Those Lundahl transformers aint cheap.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I think for less demanding applications cheap ($5-10) off-the-shelf baluns or even DIY made from the junk heap will do.  Those Lundahl transformers aint cheap.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>By: Gregory</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-6682</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gregory]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2013 01:40:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-6682</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You really know what you are talking about. I will definitely show this to my friend.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You really know what you are talking about. I will definitely show this to my friend.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>By: Video over UTP &#171; Tomi Engdahl&#8217;s ePanorama blog</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-6680</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Video over UTP &#171; Tomi Engdahl&#8217;s ePanorama blog]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Sep 2013 09:50:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-6680</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[...] is inside those baluns? Let&#8217;s start with the most obvious solution: isolation transformer. Build video isolator shows a construction of video isolator [...] ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] is inside those baluns? Let&#8217;s start with the most obvious solution: isolation transformer. Build video isolator shows a construction of video isolator [...] </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>By: Audio and video signal susceptibility classes &#171; Tomi Engdahl&#8217;s ePanorama blog</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-6677</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Audio and video signal susceptibility classes &#171; Tomi Engdahl&#8217;s ePanorama blog]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-6677</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[...] solution is to add audio isolation transformer. For analogue video signals the normal solutions are video isolator and humbugging transformer. Those additional tools can usually increase in the best case the [...] ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] solution is to add audio isolation transformer. For analogue video signals the normal solutions are video isolator and humbugging transformer. Those additional tools can usually increase in the best case the [...] </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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	<item>
		<title>By: tomi</title>
		<link>https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/09/15/build-video-isolator/comment-page-1/#comment-6670</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[tomi]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:12:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.epanorama.net/blog/?p=543#comment-6670</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am utilizing WordPress for this blog.
Most other parts of the site run on a custom built web publishing system.]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I am utilizing WordPress for this blog.<br />
Most other parts of the site run on a custom built web publishing system.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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