Would this idea work?

[Ripthorn]

Hi guys, so in my quest for different bipolar power supply options, I was looking at the MAX1044 and noticed that they have a positive voltage multiplier and voltage inverter using a single chip.  My logical next thought was "can I multiply the negative voltage as well?"  So I drew up this schematic and wanted to see if anyone knows whether it might work.  The baby is sleeping in the room that he and I share, so I can't breadboard it and I wanted to ask before blowing a chip.  So here is the schem.  Any thoughts?

[Myriad Society]

Ripthorn, I tried this for you as I was really hoping it would work since I have some non stompbox related projects that could benefit from a +/- 18V supply. I have a dozen or so 1044's laying around to work with and the reduced cost of using one IC + PCB real estate savings would have been major advantages.

I am very sorry to say that this yields exactly the same output as the Combined Positive/Negative Converter on the MAX1044 datasheet, just uses more components to get there. I used 1N5818's for the diodes so did not get much voltage drop on the outputs. Measurements were +17.8V on the pos out and -8.8V on the neg out, this using a 9V regulated bench supply. One thing to note though is that the diodes going to pin 5 in your schem would need to be reversed so that the cathodes are facing the IC or you will essentially get nothing from the neg out (being reverse polarity and all).

For what it's worth your idea didn't blow the chip when I hooked it up. Tried a few variants of my own also but never got any better than the afore mentioned output. IC still works too! Looks like the 17V will have to be taken from IC1 and then the -8V from IC1 cascaded to a second 1044 (IC2) to get the -17V.