throbscottle
Well-Known Member
I finally got some extremely cheap (definitely fake, they fail far too easily, but 10 of these were a lot cheaper than 1 real one) LM2576HVT-ADJ buck converters. Input 45-55 volts, output adjusts from about 5v to 45v when the supply allows it.
But the one that's built up at the moment seems to be working properly, except when loaded with more than about 750mA, it gets audibly noisy (kind of mid-high pitched bubbling sound) and the output starts dropping. The output ripple gets massive too (the current at which this occurs varies a bit depending on the output voltage setting). Though I'm sure at one point it worked properly. It will actually deliver well over 3A, just with all this noise and ripple.
It's build on a piece of plain FR2, smallish heatsink attached (about 7c/w maybe?) doesn't get terribly warm anyway. Gnd and enable pins bent down soldered direct to the copper, diode soldered to the copper and close the o/p pin, i/p and o/p caps soldered as close as I could get them, resistors strung around like xmas lights. I/p cap I can't remember value, but it's supplied down about 7" of wire at the other end of which is the rectifier and 6800uF main cap. Output cap is 3300uF, inductor is 150uH toroid rated for 3A, cheap off eBay (actually it's 160uH).
Load is connected direct to the main rectifier at gnd, output cap at the output.
Voltage control is a little unusual, the resistors of the p/d are fixed, but the gnd end is adjusted over a range of about 0-1.1v, and is decoupled to gnd with 10uF alu. electrolytic + 10nF ceramic in parallel.
I thought it was unstable because of the linear regulator it feeds into, but with this disconnected (so just the voltage control part is used) the same problem occurs (perhaps with an extremely marginal improvement).
Fed up with scratching my head now - any thoughts on this instability?
Cheers
But the one that's built up at the moment seems to be working properly, except when loaded with more than about 750mA, it gets audibly noisy (kind of mid-high pitched bubbling sound) and the output starts dropping. The output ripple gets massive too (the current at which this occurs varies a bit depending on the output voltage setting). Though I'm sure at one point it worked properly. It will actually deliver well over 3A, just with all this noise and ripple.
It's build on a piece of plain FR2, smallish heatsink attached (about 7c/w maybe?) doesn't get terribly warm anyway. Gnd and enable pins bent down soldered direct to the copper, diode soldered to the copper and close the o/p pin, i/p and o/p caps soldered as close as I could get them, resistors strung around like xmas lights. I/p cap I can't remember value, but it's supplied down about 7" of wire at the other end of which is the rectifier and 6800uF main cap. Output cap is 3300uF, inductor is 150uH toroid rated for 3A, cheap off eBay (actually it's 160uH).
Load is connected direct to the main rectifier at gnd, output cap at the output.
Voltage control is a little unusual, the resistors of the p/d are fixed, but the gnd end is adjusted over a range of about 0-1.1v, and is decoupled to gnd with 10uF alu. electrolytic + 10nF ceramic in parallel.
I thought it was unstable because of the linear regulator it feeds into, but with this disconnected (so just the voltage control part is used) the same problem occurs (perhaps with an extremely marginal improvement).
Fed up with scratching my head now - any thoughts on this instability?
Cheers