My Motors got me to Tap into Radiant Energy

[JohnStone]

1: I am so sorry some of you do not have good sourcing for electronics. I checked RS electronics today and here in Germany they offer shipping fee for 6.96 € below 50€ invoice. Above it is free.
I searched at "Kiwi"-RS as well but could not get any information online. So check you local RS site.

Please check your next RS-online portal for shipping cost.
And NO: I do not own any share from them.

Alternatively check eBay. There are some offers there (not RS of course) with free shipping.

2:
Today I performed a one day crash course in PCB-Layout and succeeded somehow:


Please note: this is a sample only. Most of overcurrent shut off is included but not the sensor and some minor safety components missing.

Different from my first find it is Target 3001 (freeware).

@Lester: circuit diagram / PCB layout / 3D view / PCB production files / spice simulation included!

I am not sure if this is the way to go. Maybe the second step only.
But it might be a good template for all of you who will build such drivers on a bread board of this type.
(no stripe board)
You can imagine the placing of components and can use the PCB (both layers) as visual checklist for wiring. Apart that it is essential to perform the right wires as short as possible.

The sample above is the monster driver but I am willing to forward the 555 driver as well if requested.

My question is now: Will such a template help your replication?
JohnS

[prochiro]

Hi JohnStone
I have mastered the SFH617A and all of its little needs etc. Have some schmitt triggers (74C14) but not (74hc14). It looks that on the surface you can use eather? Also what is the ucc27421, or is that simular to the acs714 for placement. Have you recieved and/or had time to check out the acs714 yet. I am excited but yet hopefully patient about building a monster pulser but as it looks so far it may not actually be that large in physical size except for the wire.
Dana

[JohnStone]

Hi JohnStone
I not have mastered the SFH617A and all of its little needs etc. Have some schmitt triggers (74C14) but not (74hc14). It looks that on the surface you can use eather? Also what is the ucc27421, or is that simular to the acs714 for placement. Have you recieved and/or had time to check out the acs714 yet. I am excited but yet hopefully patient about building a monster pulser but as it looks so far it may not actually be that large in physical size except for the wire.
Dana

Hi Dana,
sorry you still struggle! Are you sure your opto is still OK?
I worked hard today in order to master my CAD program and now I have a new circuit diagram. The first part will be very similar for 555 driver and monster driver.

At input connectror (left hand side) I have a resistor, the opto and the power /GND from generator separately connected. Thus we can adapt itmanually to specific generator outputs.

I connected the opto from 5V to a resistor and from this junction to the first gate for signal conditioning (similar to schmitt triggerd drivers (74xx14). I realized we need a power on reset in order to prevent opening the driver at power on / off insolicited. Therefore I used those gates. The power on reset was built by R4 / D3 / C18.
At power off the cap is discharged. It takes some time in order to be charged to a voltage enabling the gate attatched. This will happen if the power voltge is setteld well.
At power off the diode in parallel to resistor will discharge the cap rapidly in oprder to be ready for next power on reset prcedure.

The next gate performs as inverter and will forward a HIGH signal if the the opto is operated at input diode AND teh power on reset enables the first gate.
You may replace the gates and power on reset by two inverters 74xx14 for test. 74c14 will function form 3V up to 16V but do not drive so powerful like 74HC14 being limited to 5V max.

@All:
I elaborated the layout for monster dirver in order to enable you all to build it easily. The components are through hole types and comply to 1/10" (2.54mm). Thus you can print it out and stick it on a bread board (holes with copper rim only / no copper stripes) In fact it took half a day to make it 1/10" compliant because I forgot to adjust the grid before.
From one side you have the exact assemly template and from other side an exact wiring plan (one side wiring!)



The artifact above is exactly what I will build on breadboard. I will have the components available soon (from Farnell or RS electronic) I will post my list along prices ASAP.

But please note: it is still preliminary. I can approve it if I built it myself and tested it.

Regarding driver:
I decided initially for a component from TI UCC.... But except eBay I did not get any source. Once Cornboy suggested the Micrel make I got many sources. (RS / Farnell and others). So I decided for MIC4452. This driver is non inverting and there is a good reason I choose it. Inverting drivers (i.e. MIC4451) tend to oscillate quite easily and this (MIC4452) a non inverting driver, is much more reliable in different setups.
The UCC.... drivers are pin compatible to MIC44xx. UCC... provide a disable signal additionall (pin3) but this pin can be left open for enable.

Regarding Current measurement:
Still pondering. There are several concerns:
1. The simple sensors emit a small voltage as output. This needs to be amplified and valuated by a comparator. I do not trust in a home made setup to get it functioning safely - espacially in the noisy envirnonment if SHE is present.

2. There are some types available with internal overcurrent comparator. But they are not available in through hole (SMD 16 pin and 24 pin housing only) Thus a regular PCB is required.

3. I doubt if I can suggest a certain type for safe replication at all setups. The only viable solution for public is to buy those chips monted on PCB (see recent posts above) ACS709 and ACS714. And those who decide to do it on own responsibility because the signal needs to be amplified and valuated by a comparator - no chance for laymen. But I would be happy if anyone suggests a safe solution.

In summary: please be patient, stay tuned and do not act hastily.
JohnS

[prochiro]

JohnStone
I misprinted the last post to say (I have not mastered) when I wanted to say thanks, I HAVE mastered the opto. Sorry. I am digesting the rest of your post now.Dana

[JohnStone]

JohnStone
I misprinted the last post to say (I have not mastered) when I wanted to say thanks, I HAVE mastered the opto. Sorry. I am digesting the rest of your post now.Dana

OK. That's fine.
As I understood you have running: opto, 74C14 drivers and FET directly attached to drivers? If you need more help please post a sketch of your circuit. (hand drawn and scanned will be OK)

@ALL:
I know my post yesterday is not easy to digest for non electronic trained guys. Big compliment to all of you who dare to get involved!!!! I will try to support!
Therefore I will build the board myself along documenting the procedure. But I will add a LED for pulse check and a switch for disable driver and FET manually.

Regarding current sense: I will prepare using it but please start without. It can be added later on.
For using SMD SO cases (i.e. ACS709) we can use this board below in order to make them usable for home brew setups.

$3.95 at sparkfun
JohnS

[JohnStone]

Hi,
all of you busy now. That's fine - me too. I prepare an easy to replicate instructable for monster dirver on bread board along easy to undestand templates for assembly and wiring as well.
Breadboard approx. 3" by 3" including FET and holes for connecing high amp leads by screws. Excluding current sensor for now.
Everybody can have the layout data for etching or milling own PCB.
JohnS

[IndianaBoys]

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[JohnStone]

Coice of FETs

Hi friends,
in order to understand on why it is very dificult to suggest a certain FET:

1. If we do not know what setup you have we do not know if you need 100A or 5A or any other value inbetween.

2. Additionally we can not estimate the voltage spikes the FET will suffer in your setup. At lousy switching time you will get far less voltage spikes than fast ones.

3. We do not know what funds you have available. (i.e. Cree makes superiour FETs starting at 47$ for one single FET)

4. We do not know what sources you have available in your country.

5. There are thousands of FETs of differnt makes available all over the world.

In order to help you I entered at Farnell UK and serched for:

• N-Channel
• RDSon below 0.1 Ohm
• Current more than 24A continuosly (at excellent cooling)
• Voltage Vds more than 300V up to 1KV
• Through hole packages (non SMD)

Now guess how many choices I got! 57 out of a list of more than 7300 types!
Price range from £2.20 £up to £159 in the filtered list of 57!!!! Good news: about 50% are below £5.00 but none below £2.00

For your convenience I printed PDFs 1 2 3 from this output but you are encouraged to enter your data yourself in the Farnell search engine (prefer the local site in your country). Please be aware the choice list starts with negative values. Be sure to enter 300V max. and not -300V!!!

Please make sure you specified roughly your setup and studied this list before you ask.
JonS

[John Panettieri]

John Panettieri

Hello JohnStone
I have been following UFO’s thread since it started with great interest. I have also been watching with interest your development of the PWM controller. In a recent post you made a comment that you were having difficulty finding a suitable MOSFET driver. Below is a link that should solve your problem.
John P
MC33153P (ON Semiconductor) - SINGLE IGBT GATE DRIVER

[IndianaBoys]

Octopart.com is a quick search engine to locate electronic parts:

http://octopart.com/partsearch#searc...ata&q=MC33153P

IndianaBoys

[Donald Haas]

Hi John Stone,

Thanks more, valuable FET teaching.

What do we want regarding "Typical Turn-Off Delay Time:"?

Regards,

bro d

[JohnStone]

Clear answer: It depends
1. Switch on/ off time: relates to the time of increasing / decreasing slope at output. This feature is essential.
Do not estiamte we can get these values with poor drivers. We need optimized ones. The infineon coopMOS technology gets short switching time even at high amp and high voltage along low RDSon as well. It is an advanced technology and not expensive as well. I choose FETs above 50A / 600V and below 50ns switching time. These ingredients make up a very robust driver fitting for future applications as well.

Please take in account that all sources of information state SHE likes to move herself at fast switching edges! So I recommend to not save some few bucks while making the driver 5..10 times slower. The magic performs while switching off with very steep edge. Imagine this to be a hammer out of steel hitting a nail compared to slow switching like adding to the same hammer a piece of rubber inbetween. She likes to be teased by sudden impacts.!

2. Delay time: relates to the reaction time from operating the gate up to the FET decides to wake up in order to perform its task. This feature is essential if you intend to operate it at high frequency (> 50KHz) and / or extremely short pulses.

[JohnStone]

Hello JohnStone
I have been following UFO’s thread since it started with great interest. I have also been watching with interest your development of the PWM controller. In a recent post you made a comment that you were having difficulty finding a suitable MOSFET driver. Below is a link that should solve your problem.
John P
MC33153P (ON Semiconductor) - SINGLE IGBT GATE DRIVER

Thanks for the hint. Unfortunately this driver is an older one and nither fast nore strong. The strong ones unforunately provide no current sense feature. But I choose a DIP8 pinning of industry standard so we can use differnet makes.
JohnS

[JohnStone]

Tutorial: A: Generator output / opto

Hi,
now I address all those being newbies in electronic matters. In order to understand my driver stage easily you get some tutorials on circuits first.

Some of you are doubtful in how to connect an opto to the generator.
Here you have a visual animation of a generator output with open collector and onother with push pull stage.

• Please make sure you have JAVA installed on your computer and play with the switches (S1 and S2) by klicking on them. Observe at what conditions you get the LED operation inverted to generator.
• Make shure first what output you have at your generator
• Hover with mouse pointer over the components and read voltge and current on bottom right corner
• Start the link and wait some seconds.
• Drag the corner of window in order to see all elements
• Enjoy and learn

A:Generator output / opto You might need to start the link twice consecutively.
Thanks to Falstad.com

[JohnStone]

Tutorial B: Opto, signal conditioning

Now we proceed further. You understood now how the gernerator interacts with opto input and know how to connect it in order to get non inverted signals at opto diode.
The driver board I suppose soon will have 6 input pins where opto, resistor and power are connected separately. Thus everybody can connect it conforming his generator output. Fortunately you know now how perform.

I suppose you start Tutorial B and read the text following along watching the simulator running. You might need to start the link twice consecutively.

Unfortunately this simple simulator provides no opto coupler as component. I needed to compose one from a LED and an analog switch. You will recognize it as opto and for your convenience I marked pins conforming SFH617.

- The opto output can be connected as well for acting inverted or not. I decided here for non inverting by setting the output transistor to power + and conneced a resistor to GND.
- The gates following act as dual inverter (summed up -> non inverting) and perform as signal conditioning. In reality (not in simulation) we use schmitt trigger gates. This MR Schmitt invented a method to condition signals in a very simple way. Imagine the slow opto signal to be somewhat noisy so it does not perform as smooth slope. when teh signal rises near to teh switchin gthreshold of teh gate this noise can cause the gate to switch on and off rapidly. The FET will start ringing during this transistion. We can prevent this malicious ringing be using differnt thresholds for switching low to high and vice versa. You might want to consult Wikipedia for more understanding.
- I choose to use gates and not simply buffers or drivers in order to add a simple power-on- enable-delay preventig the FET to switch on at power on/off. You mihgt want to play with the sim. reset button (top right) and watch the scope pic bottom right along the blue LED. Additionally you can play with S3 on top.
You will observe that the output will remain inactive for some time independently from input being active pulsing.
Function of power on RESET:
At start up the cap is discharged and draws the voltage down until the voltage is high enabling the gate to propagate the pulses an the other input.
If power is being switched off the diode above shall discharge the cap rapidly in order to prepare for next power on. (Ufortunately this simple simulator does not care of the diode in this special case. But believe me it works and was proved millions of times since ages)
- Next we see the power driver for the FET.

- You can not see current flowing (balls moving) between gates, and gate-> FET driver because the current is minute (some µA)


I decided to not show the FET here. I am convinced you believe me that the FET will switch on and off conformig the driver output.
Next time we look at the FET itself and we will do it at a much more faster timescale in order to demonstrate the internals being hidden normally.
JohnS