Forum Discussion
pnichols
Dec 28, 2017Explorer II
Sam Spade wrote:
Sorry but they don't "do the same thing" at all.
The external ferrite bead does NOTHING to voltage variations or long period "spikes". They are there for RF suppression.
Chokes typically are in series with a power source and do various things, depending on the design, value and application. RF suppression of only one application for them.
Depending upon what frequency one is talking about relative to voltages that are varying (i.e. not DC voltages) ... they both "do the same thing".
Chokes are usually used to dampen out lower frequency voltage variations/disturbances and ferrite beads are usually used to dampen out higher frequency voltage variations/disturbances.
However, I've seen plenty of radio frequency circuits that were using small air-core chokes to dampen out or eliminate unwanted radio frequency disturbances.
Read up again on descriptions describing what ferrite beads are used for and you'll see the word "choke" - used interchangeably with the phrase "ferrite bead" - appearing quite a bit. The main difference in when to use one or the other has to do with the frequency of the unwanted electrical energy that one wants to control.
I haven't cut open the little plastic cylinder in my CPAP machine's power cord to see if it's a small choke or a ferrite bead inside but it could possibly be either, depending upon what type of voltage spikes that the designers wanted to keep from entering the machine.
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