Hi, I need help here. I was designing the power supply of my laptop and I noticed that some power bucks and step up/down converters (Which both seem to do the same thing. Please tell me otherwise.), produced a more stable power supply than others. In order to find out if they are truly suitable for suppling power to sensitive electronics I've heard that I need an oscilloscope. I currently own:
1. #222634543946 "DC-DC 10/12/15/20A 150/250/300/400/1200W Step up Step down Buck Boost Converter"
2. #152710861245 "2A DC Boost Step-up Adjustable Converter Module 3v-24v to 3.3v 5v 6v 9v 12v 24v"
After learning that some guy with an oscilloscope reviewed these, I'm planning to get: #122923215542 "6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck M2H3 6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck"
I've seen many oscilloscopes online on crowd funding campaigns. I've never been certain of which to get, if any. The real professional ones are out of my budget range of about $100. *I'll pay more if I must*, but I already did not anticipate the need to actually evaluate what should be solid products. I probably should find a solid adjustable DC power supply to test these with vs. an old laptop power pack or some batteries. What I need some of these things to do is to take a dynamically variable voltage as input (Li-Ion batteries in series), and produce a constant voltage as output. Others I need to just convert to the correct voltage from the old laptop power pack.
Thanks! David
Pardon a top post, plz, I'm on my phone again...
Oscilloscopes are a great tool for either (a) analyzing analog waveforms, if you know what you're doing, or (b) looking like the absolute incarnation of technological tomfoolery, if you don't.
Mostly I fall into the second category. My scope is a secondhand, pre-moonshot Tektronix 422. It weighs about as much as a good stout WW2 battleship and probably has just as much metal... it certainly has almost as many controls, and the dizzying array of knob and levers and buttons means I have virtually no idea how to work it. I do have the manual and a lot of bad excuses, though!
...anyways...
These links may be of some use. The first couple are a little outdated, but all should be serviceable...
https://hackaday.com/2016/01/27/a-tale-of-two-sub-100-oscilloscopes/
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/09/review-jye-tech-dso150-oscilloscope-kit/
https://hackaday.com/2017/11/18/ds212-oscilloscope-review-open-source-and-gr...
...and, if you're "Robinson Crusoe on a Desert Island" desperate (note, I wouldn't trust myself with this one!)...
https://hackaday.com/2017/04/06/hacking-a-vintage-tv-into-an-oscilloscope/
There are also dead-simple recipes out there (Forrest Mims, /et al/) for o-scope builds using (literally) a few chips and a double-fistful of LEDs... but those badly lack the sort of display resolution you need for this.
HTH...
Chris
On Sun, Sep 9, 2018, 11:26 PM David Niklas doark@mail.com wrote:
Hi, I need help here. I was designing the power supply of my laptop and I noticed that some power bucks and step up/down converters (Which both seem to do the same thing. Please tell me otherwise.), produced a more stable power supply than others. In order to find out if they are truly suitable for suppling power to sensitive electronics I've heard that I need an oscilloscope. I currently own:
- #222634543946
"DC-DC 10/12/15/20A 150/250/300/400/1200W Step up Step down Buck Boost Converter"
- #152710861245
"2A DC Boost Step-up Adjustable Converter Module 3v-24v to 3.3v 5v 6v 9v 12v 24v"
After learning that some guy with an oscilloscope reviewed these, I'm planning to get: #122923215542 "6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck M2H3 6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck"
I've seen many oscilloscopes online on crowd funding campaigns. I've never been certain of which to get, if any. The real professional ones are out of my budget range of about $100. *I'll pay more if I must*, but I already did not anticipate the need to actually evaluate what should be solid products. I probably should find a solid adjustable DC power supply to test these with vs. an old laptop power pack or some batteries. What I need some of these things to do is to take a dynamically variable voltage as input (Li-Ion batteries in series), and produce a constant voltage as output. Others I need to just convert to the correct voltage from the old laptop power pack.
Thanks! David
arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook Send large attachments to arm-netbook@files.phcomp.co.uk
On Sunday, September 09, 2018 11:25:42 PM David Niklas wrote:
I've seen many oscilloscopes online on crowd funding campaigns. I've never been certain of which to get, if any. The real professional ones are out of my budget range of about $100. *I'll pay more if I must*, but I already did not anticipate the need to actually evaluate what should be solid products.
If you want to, write to me privately and give me an idea of where you live -- I have an old osciloscope (in a closet that is hard to access ;-) that I'd probably be willing to sell at a reasonable price.
I can't remember the brand offhand, it is approximately 40 years old, I never used it hard, and the original cost was over $1000 (I bought it new). I'm sure the bandwidth is at least 20 MHz., and may be higher. (I just don't remember -- I know I wanted to find something that would be suitable for the clock speed of the Digital Group computer I was building (from a kit).)
Reasonable price -- well, I'm thinking about that. I used it to work on my Digital Group computer kit that had some problems (back around 1977), and haven't used it since. I sort of like having it sit in the closet in case I need it (or I get my son interested in something for which he'd use it), but, if I'm realistic, neither will probably happen.
Hmm, I guess I might be willing to sell the DG computer as well, if anyone is interested (uses a Z-80 CPU) and has some problems.
On Sun, 9 Sep 2018 23:25:42 -0400 David Niklas doark@mail.com wrote:
Hi, I need help here. I was designing the power supply of my laptop and I noticed that some power bucks and step up/down converters (Which both seem to do the same thing. Please tell me otherwise.), produced a more stable power supply than others. In order to find out if they are truly suitable for suppling power to sensitive electronics I've heard that I need an oscilloscope. I currently own:
- #222634543946
"DC-DC 10/12/15/20A 150/250/300/400/1200W Step up Step down Buck Boost Converter"
- #152710861245
"2A DC Boost Step-up Adjustable Converter Module 3v-24v to 3.3v 5v 6v 9v 12v 24v"
After learning that some guy with an oscilloscope reviewed these, I'm planning to get: #122923215542 "6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck M2H3 6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck"
I've seen many oscilloscopes online on crowd funding campaigns. I've never been certain of which to get, if any. The real professional ones are out of my budget range of about $100. *I'll pay more if I must*, but I already did not anticipate the need to actually evaluate what should be solid products. I probably should find a solid adjustable DC power supply to test these with vs. an old laptop power pack or some batteries. What I need some of these things to do is to take a dynamically variable voltage as input (Li-Ion batteries in series), and produce a constant voltage as output. Others I need to just convert to the correct voltage from the old laptop power pack.
Thanks! David
Alternatively, does anyone know a good place to ask?
I searched a lot online and found a forum www.electro-tech-online.com which I signed up to and was rejected. It was a very weird sign up process. You're supposed to input your name but the form will only take one character (and allows white space as that one!) You also have to tell what education level you're at (I choose student), and what your expertise is, which being a student was none, but they did not have that choice and the others were things like "PCB layout engineer," so I selected everything. After being rejected I wrote to the admin asking the reason and have yet to get a response after about a week... In other news, I found a couple of guys on youtube who did a review of the 300W buck converter I own and it seems to be a good model with a 168mhz switching freq and 218ma voltage variation independent of load, but I must confess that I have not done any work with computer circuits until now so they might have stricter requirements than I think. So, I think I'll add a 3.3uf capacitor onto the leads and call it quits from there. 3.3uf should be able to reach saturation at 168mhz unless my calculations of the time constants are incorrect. Feel free to check me on that, I did use a calculator this time (I learned via pencil and paper and I still have my notes!)
Still, I think I could use a good place to ask these questions on because although this list is called "arm netbook" it seems that a lot of questions I post on the subject go unanswered, but that might just be my perception :)
Status update: other than the above, I'm still trying to find genuine Li-Ion batteries (both my stock of Li-Ion and my Ni-Mh batteries are duds. I did replace the Ni-Mh ones), and I managed to fry a pair of my tester leads (turns out that the tester is rated for 10A and the leads for 8A? So I'm building an open source set of leads. :) They "mind melded" to each other when I decided to test if my 300W buck converter would work. Another annoying thing is that it turns out that electrolytic capacitors are being faked in addition to batteries. I never needed a capacitor tester before because the ones that were not bulging were marked and the ones that are bulging are not safe. So I am getting a little TC1 multi-function tester that was reviewed here: https://lygte-info.dk/review/ComponentTester%20Multifunction%20Tester%20T1%2... The gentlemen also reviewed a bunch of batteries, but most of them are no longer available or are very expensive.
Thanks!
Sounds like you're taking your plunge at the deep end of the pool, and you're getting a bit lost along the way because you're in over your head.
Get this book. Read it. Study it. Build things. (Don't trust eBay for parts! I know this from experience.) You will LEARN.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0945053282
Alternatively, if you dig around, you may be able to find a PDF copy of "MAKE: Electronics" online. That would also be a good book to start with.
First learn to swim. Then learn to dive. Then you can truly get out of the shallows...
On Sun, Sep 23, 2018 at 3:54 PM David Niklas doark@mail.com wrote:
On Sun, 9 Sep 2018 23:25:42 -0400 David Niklas doark@mail.com wrote:
Hi, I need help here. I was designing the power supply of my laptop and I noticed that some power bucks and step up/down converters (Which both seem to do the same thing. Please tell me otherwise.), produced a more stable power supply than others. In order to find out if they are truly suitable for suppling power to sensitive electronics I've heard that I need an oscilloscope. I currently own:
- #222634543946
"DC-DC 10/12/15/20A 150/250/300/400/1200W Step up Step down Buck Boost Converter"
- #152710861245
"2A DC Boost Step-up Adjustable Converter Module 3v-24v to 3.3v 5v 6v 9v 12v 24v"
After learning that some guy with an oscilloscope reviewed these, I'm planning to get: #122923215542 "6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck M2H3 6 Pack MP1584EN ultra Small DC-DC 3A power Step-Down Adjustable Module Buck"
I've seen many oscilloscopes online on crowd funding campaigns. I've never been certain of which to get, if any. The real professional ones are out of my budget range of about $100. *I'll pay more if I must*, but I already did not anticipate the need to actually evaluate what should be solid products. I probably should find a solid adjustable DC power supply to test these with vs. an old laptop power pack or some batteries. What I need some of these things to do is to take a dynamically variable voltage as input (Li-Ion batteries in series), and produce a constant voltage as output. Others I need to just convert to the correct voltage from the old laptop power pack.
Thanks! David
Alternatively, does anyone know a good place to ask?
I searched a lot online and found a forum www.electro-tech-online.com which I signed up to and was rejected. It was a very weird sign up process. You're supposed to input your name but the form will only take one character (and allows white space as that one!) You also have to tell what education level you're at (I choose student), and what your expertise is, which being a student was none, but they did not have that choice and the others were things like "PCB layout engineer," so I selected everything. After being rejected I wrote to the admin asking the reason and have yet to get a response after about a week... In other news, I found a couple of guys on youtube who did a review of the 300W buck converter I own and it seems to be a good model with a 168mhz switching freq and 218ma voltage variation independent of load, but I must confess that I have not done any work with computer circuits until now so they might have stricter requirements than I think. So, I think I'll add a 3.3uf capacitor onto the leads and call it quits from there. 3.3uf should be able to reach saturation at 168mhz unless my calculations of the time constants are incorrect. Feel free to check me on that, I did use a calculator this time (I learned via pencil and paper and I still have my notes!)
Still, I think I could use a good place to ask these questions on because although this list is called "arm netbook" it seems that a lot of questions I post on the subject go unanswered, but that might just be my perception :)
Status update: other than the above, I'm still trying to find genuine Li-Ion batteries (both my stock of Li-Ion and my Ni-Mh batteries are duds. I did replace the Ni-Mh ones), and I managed to fry a pair of my tester leads (turns out that the tester is rated for 10A and the leads for 8A? So I'm building an open source set of leads. :) They "mind melded" to each other when I decided to test if my 300W buck converter would work. Another annoying thing is that it turns out that electrolytic capacitors are being faked in addition to batteries. I never needed a capacitor tester before because the ones that were not bulging were marked and the ones that are bulging are not safe. So I am getting a little TC1 multi-function tester that was reviewed here:
https://lygte-info.dk/review/ComponentTester%20Multifunction%20Tester%20T1%2... The gentlemen also reviewed a bunch of batteries, but most of them are no longer available or are very expensive.
Thanks!
arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook Send large attachments to arm-netbook@files.phcomp.co.uk
arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk
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Christopher Havel -
David Niklas -
rhkramer＠gmail.com