[cleanspeed1]

Originally Posted by MPaulHolmes

Fran explained to me today how he does a sort of home made DC-DC. I'm going to build my own version, and then the vla501 or whatever will no longer be necessary. And the AC control board will be dramatically simplified too. The cost is going to be WAY WAY cheaper. I believe less than $10 for the near equivalent of the vla501:

Digi-Key Part Search

Digi-Key Part Search

IXDF604PI Clare MOSFET & Power Driver ICs

4 of these:
VS-MBR160 Vishay Schottky (Diodes & Rectifiers)

15v zener diode to clamp the voltage.

Bulk capacitor to turn the output voltage into DC.

A couple resistors and a couple MLCC capacitors for the 555 timer above.

Basically, you run the 555 timer at around 50 to 100kHz, and that 5v signal goes to the mosfet driver. The mosfet driver makes a square wave on the primary side of the line filter above. The output side then gets a similar square wave. YOu use the zener diode to clamp the output voltage, and the 4 schottkys to rectify it. Bam!

Your genius scares me! I'm just waiting to see how you are going to do next.