Input is about 0.11 A at 38.47 V for 4.23 W, and output is 0.17 A at 12.48 V for 2.12 W into the light bulb. (I only have the one meter handy, so I had to measure these at different times, values might be off by a few 10s of mA or mV.)

That's 50% efficient. Not great, but it's also at very low power. I designed this to handle 5 A on the low voltage side (could be 12 or 24 V nominal), and I haven't taken it that high yet. I'm going to work on the firmware some more and then take it up gradually.

It does work well in both directions, (step up or step down), though. Ideally it will be able to charge one battery from another so long as one is a higher voltage.

#electronics #BuckConverter #power #PowerElectronics #PowerConversion

Alright, I have part of this assembled, now to apply power. This is just the housekeeping supply, so I'm really just trying to see if I can get 5 volts out.

#electronics #PrintedCircuitBoard #PowerConversion

Haven't posted anything about my DC-DC converter project in a while... Basically I've been mauling over a couple issues that could come back to bite me later on - precharging the input/output capacitors, and blocking current when boosting. I have some ideas about how to address this, which I'll put up here after I've had some sleep.

#powerconversion #powerelectronics

I'm just throwing a little bit at this each night before bed, just a few components here or there. Here are some bits on the current sense circuit, just a voltage divider on the output of the Allegro current sensor. It's output is in proportion to its supply voltage, with 0 Vcc x 0.5. So I'll compare this with half of the 5V supply in software.

Still need to design the inductor, and work on the circuit protection...

#powerelectronics #powerconversion #kicad #buck #boost #electronics

A little late-night circuit design on my power converter. This time I added some sense resistors for the high- and low-voltage sides. Next I'll mess with the current sense feedback, and then start looking at the low voltage section (controls, comms, safety circuit, housekeeping power).

#powerconversion #buck #boost #kicad #powerelectronics #electronics #DC-DC

I'm trying to make some progress on some projects this weekend. Here's part of a buck converter I'm working on. Actually, it's a boost converter too, in the other direction. I plan to build several of these as part of a sort of DC microgrid, and as practice for doing the layout for a power inverter.

This converter will go between 12 and 24, 24 and 36, or 12 and 36 VDC, with the low voltage side able to handle 10 amps.

#power #electronics
#powerconversion
#kicad #pcb
#buck #boost