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17mm buck-boost driver (TPS63020 and LT6106)

tsteele93 said:
And the hard parts, it has to fit on the very small landing pad and be available. Coilcraft makes a very good, reasonably priced, low DCR 1.5uH inductor that would be great - except they don't let anyone else sell it and they aren't in stock right now.
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Many thanks again Tom for your efforts.
You are in the right and constructive spirit :beer:
 
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laserluke said:
Many thanks again Tom for your efforts.
You are in the right and constructive spirit :beer:
Click to expand...

Thanks Luke, if you think that inductor is a good one then I will try to put together and order and get some parts to send out to everyone ASAP.

-Tom
 
tsteele93 said:
Thanks Luke, if you think that inductor is a good one then I will try to put together and order and get some parts to send out to everyone ASAP.

-Tom
Click to expand...

Yes, at this moment it seems the better you have found.
When you, anthot and foulmist have decided where to build the first board, it could also be useful to have there the coilcraft original inductors from anthot, so you can plan extensive testings and a comparation of the performances with your inductor and the coilcraft model.
Anthot says he has a reflow oven which i think it could be a very useful tool to rapidly mount the components of one or more boards.
...and about me... i have access to a laboratory to help the testing if you agree... and also foulmist can do some testing...
...and... don't forget we must decide a name for this new baby... official opening of the proposals... at this moment i'm running out of imagination :thinking:
 
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laserluke said:
Yes, at this moment it seems the better you have found.
When you, anthot and foulmist have decided where to build the first board, it could also be useful to have there the coilcraft original inductors from anthot, so you can plan extensive testings and a comparation of the performances with your inductor and the coilcraft model.
Anthot says he has a reflow oven which i think it could be a very useful tool to rapidly mount the components of one or more boards.
...and about me... i have access to a laboratory to help the testing if you agree... and also foulmist can do some testing...
...and... don't forget we must decide a name for this new baby... official opening of the proposals... at this moment i'm running out of imagination :thinking:
Click to expand...

yup i got a reflow :D it works like a charm, im hoping to order the PCB's with the rest of the parts on the weekend:)
 
Hey Anthot, be very very careful on that reflow. I've used various DFN chips in my drivers and they are quite hard to solder correctly. You absolutely have to use reflow or hot air, it is nearly impossible to solder a DFN with a regular iron.

I really like how this is open source! Tps63020 drivers get pretty expensive though. If you mess it up like $15 in parts are gone, then your next one cost $30.

If you haven't reflowed DFN before don't expect your first one to work. I wish you guys the best of luck in the reflow, it is very frustrating when they don't work!
 
I have a hot air solder station, so I may try that. I also bought a high-tech reflow oven from Goodwill for $3.50 - a nice small 1,000 watt toaster oven and I have an IR thermometer so I could try that route as well.

P.S. Thanks for the well-wishes! We will probably need them!
 
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benmwv said:
Hey Anthot, be very very careful on that reflow. I've used various DFN chips in my drivers and they are quite hard to solder correctly. You absolutely have to use reflow or hot air, it is nearly impossible to solder a DFN with a regular iron.

I really like how this is open source! Tps63020 drivers get pretty expensive though. If you mess it up like $15 in parts are gone, then your next one cost $30.

If you haven't reflowed DFN before don't expect your first one to work. I wish you guys the best of luck in the reflow, it is very frustrating when they don't work!
Click to expand...

my first DFN reflow was just completely bridged :crackup: every single pin was connected except the GND pad underneath the chip lol... anyway about 15 DFN chips later i thing i got the hang of it :yh:

I love SOIC8 packaged ic's they're so easy to solder :D i wish there were more packaged like that
 
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Luke (or anyone)

How do you use the TINA-SPICE simulation?

I have TINA-SPICE and even have drawn up a schematic on another board I am working on - but I'm not sure what to do with it once I've drawn it up.

I also put an ammeter on my schematic where you have the stack of diodes. I guess the diodes make sense considering that is how we test the loads in real life... I wonder if Nichia has spice files for the laser diodes?
 
AnthoT said:
my first DFN reflow was just completely bridged :crackup: every single pin was connected except the GND pad underneath the chip lol... anyway about 15 DFN chips later i thing i got the hang of it :yh:

I love SOIC8 packaged ic's they're so easy to solder :D i wish there were more packaged like that
Click to expand...

Haha, I had a similar experience with my first try. Well I didn't bridge every pin but I bridged a lot of them. I can get them to work basically every time now, but it takes a long time to get the paste on there just right. These no-pin ICs just aren't very hobbyist friendly.

Tom, maybe you can find some really cheap DFN ICs to get some practice in on without wasting any tps63020's. Make some random breakout boards or something like that.
 
tsteele93 said:
Luke (or anyone)

How do you use the TINA-SPICE simulation?

I have TINA-SPICE and even have drawn up a schematic on another board I am working on - but I'm not sure what to do with it once I've drawn it up.

I also put an ammeter on my schematic where you have the stack of diodes. I guess the diodes make sense considering that is how we test the loads in real life... I wonder if Nichia has spice files for the laser diodes?
Click to expand...

Very important is the transient analysis. Use the menu "analysis"-"transient" and set the time interval. You can observe the time evolution of currents and voltages at the circuit nodes you are interested.

Hey, no proposal yet for the name of this driver?
 
laserluke said:
Very important is the transient analysis. Use the menu "analysis"-"transient" and set the time interval. You can observe the time evolution of currents and voltages at the circuit nodes you are interested.

Hey, no proposal yet for the name of this driver?
Click to expand...

The laserluke driver! :D
 
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