Please help me understand dual rail power supplies?

Alphonso Brake: Previous answer was maybe a bit deep, though I have huge empathy with it.Electrons is bits of atoms that are negatively charged by nature, they flow in one direction (in direct current applications) and they want to get to the positive side of a circuit. It's just the way they are. Flow, by the way, is not real, it is just an idea to imagine each electron crawling along his wire, or maybe, hers.Everything tries to equal out (water finds it's own level) so the neggy 'trons climb along the wires towards the positive (charged) side of things.So if we have a rail joined to battery "PLUS" and t'other rail joined to battery "MINUS" the electrons will crawl thru whatever is on the rails to get from one to t'other, till all the juice is gone (battery exhausted).In crawling thru a motor, say in a train which joins the rails, they meet resistance (Think of it a s a lot of heavy swing doors) so they will have to shoulder their way thru and do hard work (called el! ectro motive force). To get to the other side, they thus make the motor spin up, which, if it's attached to the wheels properly, will move the train. Simple innit?...Show more

Bettye Arre: Hey anon 23..There is not really much to understand here so don't let the idea of dual anything confuse you its like this example...you have a power supply a DC unit. Normally you would have one pos and one neg... In the dual rail supply you have only added a second point from the original to acquire the positive output ..the neg feeds right through...look here http://www.redcircuits.com/Page114.htmNow here's the advantage and sometimes disadvantage...the advantage is that the second point source is more stable because its being better regulated ..now how many could you have ? well a bunch! and that's where the disadvantage comes in..whenever you add complexity to a circuit you add more to break. If you need to trim the noise from a section you can go (seriously) crazy with regulati! on. So for all practical purposes since you really didn't acco! mplish much it might be better to just hang on to the single rail (point source) idea...that's just my idea though you make up your own mind on this based on the function of the circuit..So to recap if you look at it with all the bells off you have just paralleled the positive and used the same negative ..Well there ya go from the E......Show more

Toby Caswell: The positive rail sucks electrons out of the ground or common rail (through a load connected between them) and the negative rail dumps electrons into the ground or common rail (through a load connected between them).-- Regards,John Popelish...Show more