17mm/22mm MTN-MAXlp - Low-Profile 1A-4A Programmable Buck Driver + 22mm MTN-MAX

I don't have one built to take close up pictures of. I sold them all. Your pictures only show one side, but that side looks right.

I’ve only done one side. I just want to make sure it’s ok before I move on. I have to talk to OshPark. Of the 3 boards I ordered only 1 is useable. The other two have bridged connections on the FET.

Which pins? The three source pins always bridge. That is a good thing.

That's fine. Reflow it up!

Ah, I gotta give it a break. Can’t get it to work. I think my issue is my connections at the MCU.

Keep at it and you'll get it running. Remember: no pressure on the traces if you go over them with an iron. Pressure and heat is how traces get lifted.

hey richard, I downloaded the file to have stencils made. The top stencil is just fine, but I can’t get the bottom stencil to work out. There is no bottom cream file.

Probably not. You have to go out of your way to have proper cream files made for everything, and I certainly haven't done it and probably won't. I don't use stencils. I've tried them and really don't like them.

n10sivern, did you ever get yours running?

RMM I know you’re busy (especially lately) but have you had a chance to test the HP version?

Yes, and I think that its viability is questionable without some further thought. I built one running at 5.5A and ran it quite a bit in my UF-1405. While it didn't burn up, somewhere along the line it lost the moonlight mode level which told me that something was starting to get fried. I tried cranking up the PWM level and it still wouldn't come back. This tells me that the driver would eventually fail and that a redesign is needed if a reliable 5A+ is to be obtained. I'm guessing that the buck IC or FET is slightly fried, but I haven't had a chance to play with it since then.

I decided that these high-power buck drivers could really benefit from a 4-layer board, both thermally and to electrically. A standard Eagle license is pretty expensive, but for me my time to learn a new program (KiCad) that can do 4-layer boards for free would be more expensive than the money paid. I don't need multiple schematic sheets or autorouter, so it wasn't too ridiculous, but it still wasn't cheap. I designed a new 4-layer board with a lot more thermal transfer capability which I'm hoping will do the trick. They just shipped so hopefully I'll get around to trying one next week.

I haven’t had time to fool with it. I’m going to try on Thursday.

Thanks for the update RMM. My 1405 is patiently waiting, but my wallet needs time to recharge anyways so no hurry.

oh man…how did I miss this!!!

Awesome!

First off, good luck with the move. I hope everything goes well. Secondly, I’m very excited to hear that you think you can get it to 5A reliably with the new board and some time investigating. If you end up getting it to the point where you’re happy I promise to buy them if you put them up for sale. They’d be perfect for insane XP-G2 builds.

Just got my first boards assembled and tested from your batch with the masking issue. I think I’m going to like using guppydrive from now on, it’s going to save having so many divers around with different programming that I have to keep track of.

Keep up the excellent work you’ve always displayed here, this place truly wouldn’t be the same without you.

I agree. BLF wouldn’t be BLF without Richard. He’s a good resource, good guy, good products, and good BLF’er.

Hope the 22's are available soon - great for a JAX Z1.

I'll get 'em posted up soon. They are pretty much ready to go. I've got some sitting here.

Hey Richard, I’ve done 4 layer in eagle. I found it wasn’t really necessary but it’s fun just to build a 4 layer board for oshpark. I learned a lot in that process. The 2 middle layers, I was dead set that I needed them. But in the end you can route around with some ingenuity and get away with a 2 layer board. The thing with osh is they don’t allow you to make connects to the two middle layers exclusively. You have to drill all the way through the board. So it’s kind of limited. Maybe another fab could do it, but found if play around enough, you can route it all on a 2 layer board.

They have the 4 layer rule file in oshpark help but you’ll need a license for eagle 6+ I believe. I would love to tell you what I do but I’m trying to keep it under wraps until finished with my project. I been working on making it smaller (no diode) and running into all the issues. Plus moving from tiny13a to better chips.