Battery Regulator- The Next Step
I finished the new board design a few days ago- I don’t think I’m an expert or anything, but definitely did a better job this time than I did on the prototype- Just to begin, I checked my schematics and footprints carefully. That in itself will make a big difference! I also got the overall size way down- from almost 24 in^2 to about 14 in^2. I spent some time refining and fixing up the silkscreen for usefulness and legibility, and ran DRC tests. I have at least 8 mil clearance throughout the board- It’d be nice to have more, but it is sufficient for the requirements of the board house. I ended up running a bunch of traces between pins of headers and DIP chips.
As with many projects, in order to move things along it’s now time to buy stuff.
- I contacted Gold Phoenix’s sales rep to arrange an order of the final circuit boards. I think I should be able to get 10 or 11 boards for $99- an excellent deal.
- I recompiled my BOM and made a digi-key order for all the parts necessary for populating another 5 boards- $68 dollars worth of wirewound resistors! Over $250 total.
- I purchased LEDs, fuses and heatshrink from MPJA, I still haven’t decided exactly what LEDs are going to be what colors, but I knew I needed a bunch of reds and greens.
- I bought a buch of 1/16 aluminum sheet on eBay, I can use a shear at school to cut it to make base plates for the regulators- I’m planning a setup kind of like this:
I also ordered four 80mm fans on eBay to mount over the resistors. I decided it was totally worth it to get the blue LED versions.- And, I ordered a Fluke 377 current-clamp multimeter. Besides always wanting one, I will use it to monitor the charger when I figure out how to control it via the REGBUSS port. I considered cheaper clamp meters, but the conclusion I drew from reviews online was that the Fluke was really the way to go. Expensive, yes.
- Oh, also I ordered a new FTDI board from sparkfun that will go right on the header I have on the reg board, as well as some little board with a RJ12 pigtail- meant for use with the PIC ICSP system, I will use for the REGBUS. And a Salae Logic analyzer. I think it will be useful.
So, am I some kind of high roller here? Spending all this money? No, but I have to finish this project right, and I am very lucky that my parents are supportive of my ambitions.
I am looking forward to testing this regulator system on a real battery pack- I think that’ll be coming pretty soon.