I'm looking to make some "spooky" LED attachments to the kids' Halloween costumes, and I'm wondering about good choices for a small switching regulator to supply a few 10s of mA at around 3.3V from a 9V battery. Any recommendations?
Yeah, I could use a pair of AAAs, but I wouldn't mind playing around with some small high-efficiency regulators just for the heck of it.
Mike
Linear Tech has some nice, low current switchers. Not too much money, either. None, particularly, to recommend.
Jim
MC34063, easy to get and relatively efficient for step down from 9V.
oddbudman
MC34063, easy to get and relatively efficient for step down from 9V.
Mike
Been digging a bit on the MC34063, since I also have a need of a switching psu that is "reusable" in battery powered designs. It looks great!
Anyway, found this, wich makes it even better : http://www.nomad.ee/micros/mc340...
I ordered some of these parts, they look really nice thanks for the tip @ oddbudman
You will find that the MC34063 can be bitchy at times. It is a rather old design, not doing PWM.
You will find that the MC34063 can be bitchy at times. It is a rather old design, not doing PWM.
Do you have another suggestion that's low cost and easy to use?
Mike
You could perhaps put the right number of LEDs in
series so that the voltage is around 8 Volts
and you get away with a small current limiting
resistor.
You could perhaps put the right number of LEDs in
series so that the voltage is around 8 Volts
and you get away with a small current limiting
resistor.
Mike
A small 5V linear regulator like a 78L05 comes in TO92. You could run the AVR from this, and use external transistors to switch the LEDs. That will be a lot less hassle then messing around with switching regulators.
A small 5V linear regulator like a 78L05 comes in TO92. You could run the AVR from this, and use external transistors to switch the LEDs. That will be a lot less hassle then messing around with switching regulators.
Mike
Buck converters are easy to make: coil, diode, FET, transistor driver, PWM from ATTiny, current shunt with voltage feedback. Atmel's BC100 reference schematic has several to look at. At less than an amp practically anything would work. But you'll have to figure out how to power the Tiny from 9 volts.
What do you mean, bitchy? And what is the downside to it not doing PWM?
Since the oscillator and the turning on of the output stage are not synchronized you rarely get a stable duty cycle. The whole thing "wobbles" in continuous mode.
Do you have another suggestion that's low cost
and easy to use?
I'm with kk6gm; I also want to use switching power supplies, want to make projects that run from months on batteries etc etc and learn by examples; however all the switching PSU I hear from go from :
+ "it's dead easy, use your swiss army knife, a piece of string and a LED -- done thar for years" to
+ "use a $15 Linear blach blah that you can never find 'the' inductor it really needs to go from 3% efficiency to the graaal 99.7%" or even :
+ "here, here's my design that converts from -15.8V to +360 triphase from just one nuclear cell!"
Result is that no "hobby" project uses switchers -- I haven't seen a single one to be lifted from a project, and to learn from...
I don't mind a wobblier-than-straight-catholic power rail, AVR are sturdy as hell anyway :D
I've ben using a now discontinuted LM2798MM for extra low power need; it's a capacitor based switcher (look mom, no inductors!) that has been fantastic for the 2.0V projects - just 4 capacitors.. however it's discontinued, and I can only source the 2.0V anyway, no 3.3 or any other voltage. If anyone know of a substitute that is as easy to use...
why convert 9V to 3V if you can convert 1.2V to 3V instead?
look http://www.austriamicrosystems.com/
I've used them and they really are simple. whole circuit took about 10x10mm space on the PCB. Inductors are readily available and cost around 1$ each.
Also the 7805 will not have the high efficiency that you want.
If you use a 78L05 just for the AVR alone, I think a switcher will not add that much battery life as most of the battery capacity will be consumed by the LEDs anyway.
Depending on what you want to do with the LEDs you don't have to run the AVR at full speed either to reduce power.
I made a collision light thingy for a Lego aircraft that runs on a single AA cell and has three LEDs. Every ~15 minutes it wakes up and flashes the LEDs for one minute, each LED flashes once a second with 20ms pulses, with each LED having a slightly different repetition rate. When asleep it blinks one LED every minute. It runs for about 9 months on a single AA battery and it uses a micropower SP6641A-5 boost converter. It's a tiny chip, with the inductor, diode and caps it's about the same size as a TO-220 body :)
Do you need the switcher to be available in a DIP package? Linear makes a ton of very easy to use switchers. The MC34063 appears to be a very slow part - 100KHz - meaning that you will have to use fairly large inductors and capacitors. At your load currents they won't be massive, but still...
I'm enjoying the discussion and, if I do not fool myself, learning a few things too. I looked at some Linear parts and had some sticker shock. $6-$8 single piece prices! I suppose I might have just been looking at the wrong parts, but...
So now I'm looking at what National has to offer.
Mike
Are you not giving the MC34063 a go?
Why get bogged down chasing dragons and hard to get parts, when all your wanting to do is expand your horizons with a DC:DC converter?
The MC34063 is still used extensively to this day. Pull apart any car phone charger and you are likely to find the 34063 inside. To some extent its like the 555 of DC:DC converters- well worth learning.
I'm not saying there are not _better_ switches out there. But this one may be adequate for your needs.
oddbudman
Are you not giving the MC34063 a go?Why get bogged down chasing dragons and hard to get parts, when all your wanting to do is expand your horizons with a DC:DC converter?
The MC34063 is still used extensively to this day. Pull apart any car phone charger and you are likely to find the 34063 inside. To some extent its like the 555 of DC:DC converters- well worth learning.
I'm not saying there are not _better_ switches out there. But this one may be adequate for your needs.
oddbudman
Mike
Check out sparkfun.com power regulation tutorials, even with usb even with the LM317 where you can adjust 9V to 5V or 3.3V.
I have a bunch of MC34063 ICs. PM me if you want some. IMO, don't use it, unless you want to pump up the voltage.
But the LM317 voltage regulator, which I have some, too, would solve your problem.
Btw, go USB! Trash the 9V crab! It's a waste money and power!
Google usbtiny and USBASP and see the schematics for how make have USB connector as power provider. Sparkfun.com also has the tutorials!
By the way, an app note for the MC34063. http://www.intusoft.com/onsemipd...
And see thread https://www.avrfreaks.net/index.p... that I posted.
another option (which I have gotten a few of for learning and testing) is an LM2576 http://www.national.com/mpf/LM/L...
It is only a step down converter and does require an inductor. They come in adjustable versions and fixed voltages variants.
Edit: just went to nationals web bench and found the LM2576 is no longer supported for new designs, may want to look at something like the lm2676. Evidently "Much Improved Efficiency And Switching Frequency" than the LM2576......
Edit: just went to nationals web bench and found the LM2576 is no longer supported for new designs,
Good thing you checked. In general, I check for the obsolescence of a chip by going to mouser.com. If they don't sell it or mark it as obsolete, don't bother to use the chip, should you plan to mass produce your product.
The MC34063 is still carried by mouser.com. :-)
In the post https://www.avrfreaks.net/index.p... I also found the Maxim voltage stepper ICs. They are pretty good, even take in 0.8V of input and boost up to 5V. But, the Maxim chips are expensive. The MC34063 has a 3V min input. I guess that's why they so cheap.
If you just need a single switching regulator and you don't want to build one yourself, just buy one of these. I have one and they are great.
If you want to design one yourself, it's really not that hard. Linear charges the highest prices for their parts, and if you can afford them, they're awesome. Linear's datasheets are the best, they have Switcher CAD, etc, making the design process easy. However if you need cheaper parts, National and TI make some good stuff.
Selecting the inductor, output cap, and diode is pretty easy. Just look at the example circuit in the datasheet, go to your preferred distributor and find an equivalent part. Sumida is a good manufacturer of inductors and they have a wide range of parts. If they specify a certain kind of output cap (like XR7 ceramic) then stick with that kind of capacitor. Pretty simple really.
Designing the PCB for a switcher is not that hard either. Just do two main things: keep the switch node as small as possible, and keep the negative terminals of the diode and output cap as close together as possible.
Good luck whatever you decide.
Most datasheets of switchers have guidelines on how to route the PCB, it slightly differs for step up and step down regulators. Unfortunately LT usually has example layouts using the smallest possible components, and strictly adhering to the example using bigger components is less easy. It's about containing the fast changing currents in a small loop area.
Farnell nowadays carries a very nice broad selection of power inductors.
