Heat sink might be a good idea. overdriving buck converter?? 3.5A test.

[@muctop17]

The original TI LM2596 is a 150kHz converter. But there are fake chips from china, which only run at 50kHz with less efficiency! Maybe that explains problems with heat ?

[@bennettslab2084]

@@muctop17 fantastic thank u

[@oturanboga6225]

[@jerizignacio5680]

Hi, I would like to use the same buck converter you have. Input voltage would be around 24v to 26v (out of two 12v dump truck batteries in series, {Batteries' model: Endurance MF N120} will operate only when running.). I needed about 19v with 3.42amps (target watts are 65w). Would it survive and can safely use or find another way? I need to power my laptop the whole trip.

[@bennettslab2084]

Mmmmmm. Unfortunately I haven't ever been able to put DC-DC converters in parallel so can only use one. But if you put the buck converter with the heart sink in an oil bath, it might be able to keep it cool. Or put a big fan on the heart sink. If you wana play it safe tho. Might just wana spend a bit more for a bigger 100W DC-DC buck converter.

[@jerizignacio5680]

@@bennettslab2084 thank you for replying, I will surely look on that. Cheers

[@bennettslab2084]

@@jerizignacio5680 ya! Good luck

[@FirstLast-tx3yj]

@@bennettslab2084 is the amount of amps that pass through the buck converters determined by the input voltage? For example if we are converting from 12 to 5 we get 2.5 amp How do I calculate how much amps will be going through it I am going from 72V to 5V? Is it 14.5 amps??

[@bennettslab2084]

@First Last I would look at the power. If you have a 75V, 2A supply for example. That is also a 150W supply [75V × 2A]. Now you buck that 75V supply down to 5V. The current you would have from that 5V supply is equal to 150W / 5V. = 30A. Because the power is still 150W. Now, all converters of Efficiency loss but most are probably ok and are 85% efficient

[@jamesfalvey77]

Heat sink on the bottom?

[@garymoore3497]

easier ways to midigate these kind of waste heat

[@TechIsGods]

They are complete garbage. Tested many of them. They have no staying power. I always use the 1/4 principle of its maximum rating. If its 3 Amps maximum I wont use more than a 750 mA load. Now I buy Buck converters that are many times the amperage rating and only put 1 amp loads on them. I trust nobody or their engineering specs.

[@ArcanePath360]

I have one of these rated at 3A and have a 3A supply, and damn it gets hot. While driving a motor, if the motor stalls, the power just dies and the Arduino resets itself.