Astral Driver - Buck, Boost, & Buck-Boost

[Astralist]

I'm anxious to see what you've come up with. I will be buying at least one of each to test.

Which specific things makes you anxious?



BTW,
Thread updated!
Added: EZ Drive, an "everyday" linear driver

 

[paul1598419]

I think you misunderstood my meaning by anxious. I'm anxious in as much as I want these drivers as they don't have an equal at this moment for people on the LPF to just buy an adjustable driver. Most of what we have now are preset drivers and they are getting fewer and farther between. So, I don't have anxiety about them,only excitement.

 

[Benm]

It sure is, and not to mention those adapter is quite pricey.
for me, creating something in breakout is more difficult than just printing & mounting all the things in one PCB.
because when the things works in breakout, doesn't mean it will works in real PCB, and vice versa.
especially with frequency/noise-sensitive circuit

If you have the facilities to quickly make proper PCBs that would be preferable, but i guess many people do not.

And you're right that there can be a huge difference in performance, putting something on a breakout board and then into a prototyping board adds large amounts of additional inductances, capacitances and (contact) resistance compared to mounting it on a prober PCB or even soldering it into some experimenting grid board.

I used to work on radio transmitters and such, and in those cases protoyping boards are completly useless for anything that works at RF speed. They're still fine to do the digital part of things, but i had to move the oscillator and prescaler to real pcb's to get usable results, and that was running at just 80-150 MHz or so.

 

[paul1598419]

I used to work on radio transmitters and such, and in those cases protoyping boards are completly useless for anything that works at RF speed. They're still fine to do the digital part of things, but i had to move the oscillator and prescaler to real pcb's to get usable results, and that was running at just 80-150 MHz or so.

Rf speed, last time I checked was the speed of light. I believe you meant to say "at RF frequency" It's a small thing, but important to people who might not know.

 

[Benm]

Yeah, i mean the sort of frequency where an ordinary piece of wire becomes a signficant inductor, and where capative coupling between breadboard tracks start to act like links.

These problems start to present at about 10 MHz and become real problems at 100 MHz and beyond... not the typical range of most laser devices, though some switchmode supplies run at such speeds and cannot be reliably be prototyped on breadboards.

 

[Astralist]

@Paul:
Yeah understood
BTW at 22-july, the only completed driver are the first three on the thread
the later design will be produced after all first three driver are tested/sold out.

I have other two true buck-boost driver currently in a design process,
i'll post it on this thread later.


@Benm:
Indeed, high frequency circuit needs a very careful layout, even the PCB material could influence the performance.
Additionally, designing things in analog signal is more difficult IMO, even if it's only in MHz.

 

[paul1598419]

That's ten days away, astralist. Make sure you hang on to at least one of each for me to test.

 

[Benm]

@Astralist: the analog part is the hard one indeed.

I'm still amazed how we get GHz speed processors and even bus interfaces these days, considering how difficult it is to make a board that works well yourself even if only 100 MHz is required. Obviously there is a much engineering fund available, but i guess i'm still old enough to be amazed by the speed of simple interfaces like USB.

 

[CDBEAM777]

OK !!!! Can we reserve units ???

If so...Please put me down for two
(2) Astral SuperDrive LV units. :bowdown::bowdown:

Thanx,
CDBEAM



QUOTE=astralist;1485534]@Paul:
Yeah understood
BTW at 22-july, the only completed driver are the first three on the thread
the later design will be produced after all first three driver are tested/sold out.

I have other two true buck-boost driver currently in a design process,
i'll post it on this thread later.


@Benm:
Indeed, high frequency circuit needs a very careful layout, even the PCB material could influence the performance.
Additionally, designing things in analog signal is more difficult IMO, even if it's only in MHz.[/QUOTE]

 

[Astralist]

Sure you can reserve here,

FYI the stocks are:
SDHV: 50 units
SDLV: 25 units
Pico: 25 units

This is the reserve list, even though it's tentative and some not confirmed clearly
I just want to make sure they get the units

Reserve (chronological order):
dden4012: 2 units each
BobMc: a few (?)
badboybilly: SDLV/Pico a few (?)
hakzaw1: at least 1 unit each
paul1598419: at least 1 unit each
CDBEAM777: SDLV 2 units

 

[paul1598419]

Thanks, astralist. I'd like to talk about discounts for quantity orders too.

 

[dden4012]

Got my finger on the PayPal button. Make sure packaging is real good. Last package was the meter and that box took a good beating. I would expect no less from our carriers this time around. :beer:

 

[Benm]

It's fairly hard to say how well something gets abused in international mail really.

The one i got shipped domestically was packaged really well though - and yeah i collected it from a friend in indonesia as i go there at times. It still was on another island though and i doubt they are that careful with domestic parcels.

 

[Astralist]

Thanks, astralist. I'd like to talk about discounts for quantity orders too.

Yeah sure, after all the boards are meets the specification, we can talk about the quantity discount later on.

Got my finger on the PayPal button. Make sure packaging is real good. Last package was the meter and that box took a good beating. I would expect no less from our carriers this time around. :beer:

Actually about these driver, i think even we don't need a box (to save shipping cost), i'll just wrap it in an antistatic bag wrapped in bubble envelope. :can:

It's fairly hard to say how well something gets abused in international mail really.

The one i got shipped domestically was packaged really well though - and yeah i collected it from a friend in indonesia as i go there at times. It still was on another island though and i doubt they are that careful with domestic parcels.

Those box are smaller one, on the beginning of me selling the LPM, i used a larger box.
I've observed the bigger the box is (compared to the goods it contained), the more beaten it will.

 

[paul1598419]

Thanks, astralist. I am patiently waiting for the arrival of these completed, tested drivers.

 

[Astralist]

News from assembly house:

SuperDrive HV

SuperDrive LV