#printedcircuitboard — Public Fediverse posts

More custom PCBs for the pager system arrived! These header PCB for Pi are for our additional new transmitters so we'll be able to cover all of #39c3.

Designed by one of our engineers.

#DIYPager #transmitter #PCB #CustomPCB #PrintedCircuitBoard #ChaosPager #POCSAG

Okay, everything's installed. I had a few little hiccups, like picking a footprint with the wrong pitch (1.27 mm, needed 2.54 mm) for the programming header, so I got creative and attached a 2.54 mm header I had with wires. I also neglected the courtyard for the big inductor, so it hangs off the board. The two MOSFETs could use a little more space, but at least they're insulated to the heatsinks...

So this thing won't be passing vibe anytime soon. But, so far it seems okay electrically - as in, the housekeeping supply still puts out 5 V, and about 14.2 V for the gate driver. Nothing seems to be pulling it down, like a solder bridge or something. I should be able to get started on programming it, starting with a constant, open-loop PWM signal to the MOSFETs. Then I can look at RS485 comms, and proper control loops.

For those who've only seen bits and pieces of my postings on this, this circuit is just a buck converter. Or a boost converter, in the opposite direction. I just wanted to play around with one, and will probably revise the board in the future.

Basically, it's mean to work with a 12 or 24 VDC nominal bus on the low voltage side, and a 24 or 36 VDC bus on the high voltage side. (In other words, voltage you'd see from a 12, 24, or 36 VDC lead acid battery.) It's mostly to play around, but I intend to add extra logic to make it charge a higher voltage battery from a lower voltage one (or vice versa). Could also be used for photovoltaic maximum power point tracking (MPPT) I guess, but that's not the main intent right now.

#electronics #BuckConverter #PrintedCircuitBoard #kicad6 #PowerElectronics

Looks like it's working with about 37.5 V, from 3 12 volt #batteries. So not too bad. Once again, I have the shield just in case.

#electronics #PowerConversion #BuckConverter #PrintedCircuitBoard #LeadAcidBatteries #36v