Ok. Got the MAX1044s today.
Used one of them in a breadboarded TL082 comparator circuit, as configured in post #70, and the whole thing
worked as advertised cool
.
I did not check for ripple but should you get some noise (from your radio, for instance) add the lead from pin 1 to pin 8 (as shown) and that should eliminate it.
I used
both electrolytic AND tantalum 10uf caps in the MAX1044 circuit and both worked well.
Interestingly though, the tantalum caps provided a very slightly lower output from the +5Vdc input, i.e., -4.80Vdc with the tantalum vs. -4.78 Vdc with the electrolytics. Don't know why. Maybe different ESRs. Of course, that difference has
absolutley no effect on the circuit.