Universal Driver 2.7 Rev C / Tesla Coils / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: Tesla Coils

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Universal Driver 2.7 Rev C

1 2 3 4 next last

Move Thread

LAN_403

loneoceans

Wed Sept 10 2014, 06:11AM

Registered Member #4098 Joined: Fri Sept 16 2011, 09:26PM
Location:
Posts: 236

[Update - Third UD27C batch (blue) all sold out! - Also see

for updates on 24VDC input if you're using a UD2.7A/B board!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to make a few universal drivers for myself but there were a couple of things I wanted to change on the existing designs, so I made a bunch of changes and I've named it UD2.7. Thought you guys might be interested since the changes may be useful. Original design credit goes all to Steve Ward! Also many thanks to the work of Bart Anderson, Philip Slawinski and Eric Goodchild for previous revisions of the board.

With permission from Steve Ward, I'll be posting a link to all the schematics, .brd .sch and gerber files, BOM, along with a write up to document it a bit more in detail which might be useful as a reference.
see the UD2.7 page here:

Some of the things I wanted to change included added a under voltage lockout, removing all the hot linear regulators, as well as making it easier to solder by hand and to use. The main logic and drive circuits are unchanged from the previous UD2.5 and therefore should be a tested and proven design.

Here is a small list of improvements:

- Heat-smearing 9V regulator replaced with a switching regulator (but still TO-220 compatible if you really want, with space for heatsink)
- All other regulators replaced with SMD ones, reducing overall height of the board and increasing robustness
- Added on-board blue LED for power indication!
- Under-voltage Lockout added, a feature I really wanted and circuit suggested by Hydron
- Flattened ground plane and some re-worked traces and component placing
- Added new 24VDC input jack for use with small SMPS DC power supply instead of heavy transformer
- Increased solder pads for hard-to-solder components such as the dual MOSFETs
- Added series capacitor with 15R resistor in parallel with 2uF GDT output capacitor to prevent burning out resistor in event of malfunction
- Improved silkscreen for easier use (e.g. LED breakout jack now labeled on top)
- All through-hole resistors are now flat instead of standing up for increased robustness
- Some components changed to further reduce height of board
- Board is now even slightly smaller to fit in smaller boxes
- Main component reference IDs (e.g. C33) maintained for easy discussion on forums
- .. along with all the previous improvements from previous versions

[new improvements for Rev B]
- Improved silkscreen
- Additional optional gate-drive capacitor
- Added UVLO adjustment potentiometer for lock-out adjustment (or you can use a resistor instead for a fixed one)

[new improvements for Rev C]
- Even more improved silkscreen for less confusion
- Fixed error in UD2.7A/B
- Daisy chained 9V regulator back to original for maximum 28VAC input (19-26.5V nominal)
- Improved regulator placement for better heat sinking
- Other cosmetic improvements

[Update: New photos of completed boards] Here's how the boards look like. I also have a lot of boards, looks great in red.

15103241827 2e3fb642b2 Z

Oh where did the voltage regulators go?

15103045779 F03a494a28 Z

I've hidden them at the bottom-side of the board :) I'll be posting much more information in the coming days, so be sure to check this thread for updates.

Thanks everyone.

Graham Armitage

Wed Sept 10 2014, 02:09PM

Registered Member #6038 Joined: Mon Aug 06 2012, 11:31AM
Location: Salado, TX
Posts: 248

That looks really neat - nice job. I am currently building a UD2.5 board, but like the modifications you have made. Especially the 24v power supply to replace the bulky transformer. Thanks for offering to share the files. Planning on selling drivers/boards in the future?

Vitalii

Wed Sept 10 2014, 02:33PM

Registered Member #46012 Joined: Thu May 01 2014, 12:54AM
Location:
Posts: 20

Hey, can I use it with half bridge from Steve's DRSSTC3?

loneoceans

Thu Sept 11 2014, 06:19PM

Registered Member #4098 Joined: Fri Sept 16 2011, 09:26PM
Location:
Posts: 236

Graham Armitage wrote ...

That looks really neat - nice job. I am currently building a UD2.5 board, but like the modifications you have made. Especially the 24v power supply to replace the bulky transformer. Thanks for offering to share the files. Planning on selling drivers/boards in the future?

Yes I have more boards than I need so I'd be happy to sell them for cheap, but before that I'll be testing this extensively to make sure everything works as expected. So far it's looking pretty good. Documentation takes a bit of time but I'll try to get it up within a week or two along with testing the board. And yes this board will for sure be able to run half bridges to full bridges as well as for use in QCW (the normal buck converter kind not the phase shifted ones) with little or no modification.

loneoceans

Fri Sept 19 2014, 06:16PM

Registered Member #4098 Joined: Fri Sept 16 2011, 09:26PM
Location:
Posts: 236

A little more updates. Did some preliminary testing of the new board and so far everything works exactly as expected. Here's the UD2.7 with basic testing, alongside an older UD2.1 in green. Hopefully this will give an idea of how it looks like in practice :) Seems to work great so far from 35kHz to 550kHz.

15103045699 83b34b4d56 Z

More to come soon with testing together with a real bridge. It runs a lot cooler than the previous linear regulator UDs which will hopefully bode well for long term enclosed reliability. To test them, I set them running continuously with a signal generator input charging and discharging a capacitor at various frequencies. This board runs significantly cooler than the previous versions :)

Intra

Mon Oct 06 2014, 12:29PM

Registered Member #2694 Joined: Mon Feb 22 2010, 11:52PM
Location: Russia, Volgograd (Stalingrad).
Posts: 97

loneoceans wrote ...

With permission from Steve Ward, I'll be posting a link to all the schematics, .brd .sch and gerber files, BOM, along with a write up to document it a bit more in detail which might be useful as a reference.

So, I'll be glad if that happens.
Beside that, according to Legal Information page, publishing anything on this forum, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

And, according Steve's 7/3/2011 12:36 PM,

> On 7/3/2011 12:36 PM, Steve Ward wrote:
>> After seeing Finn's "Prediktor" controller use the lead compensator so
>> nicely, i developed my own, though have yet to publish it in any formal way:
>>
>>

>>
>> And now the switch timing can be controlled much better, allowing the IGBT
>> turn on to happen really at zero current, which keeps the wheeling diode
>> recovery from causing big voltage transients.
>>
>> Steve

nothing was noted otherwise.

Don't seems it like, you can post this design by your will only?
Seems to be Eric did like that.

loneoceans

Mon Oct 06 2014, 04:28PM

Registered Member #4098 Joined: Fri Sept 16 2011, 09:26PM
Location:
Posts: 236

Intra wrote ...

So, I'll be glad if that happens.
Beside that, according to Legal Information page, publishing anything on this forum, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
...

Yep I've talked to Steve and he was ok with the publication of the board and documentation. I'm sure Eric had also asked Steve beforehand. I just want to make sure to acknowledge that the series of UD2s so far is due to all the hard work that people like Eric and Bart who had helped improved on the design, and of course the original designer Steve Ward, so the rights belong to him. Want to show our appreciation to them for giving back to the community :)

I've got a quick documentation page written up here with wiring diagrams etc, and will be continually updated:

Hopefully this will also be helpful for folks looking to use the UD2, and to understand a bit more about DRSSTC driving.

Sept28 Phaseleadnoring Small

I've successfully tested all the functions including AC / DC inputs, UVLO, gate drive, OCD, phase lead, and it all seems to be in working order. I've even tested it recently on my QCW tesla coil and it seems to work great as well. The board also runs very much cooler than the original ones with the linear regulators and I'm very happy with how this turned out.

I had a bunch of unpopulated red boards for sale at $12 each + shipping. Please drop me a PM if you want one.

bomber315

Mon Oct 06 2014, 05:38PM

Registered Member #43257 Joined: Thu Feb 20 2014, 03:53PM
Location:
Posts: 33

This is awesome! With winter coming i am getting back into all of my electronics stuff again. This will surely make building a coil bigger and better than my onetesla a heck of a lot easier.

That being said i think im going to hold off for the time being. Once i gather more parts and resources im sure there will be new development of the board. Surely this is a work in progress right? I skimmed the documentation in your link and im loving it. Now off to read more documentation.

Thomas W

Mon Oct 06 2014, 05:46PM

Registered Member #3324 Joined: Sun Oct 17 2010, 06:57PM
Location:
Posts: 1276

How much are the populated boards? if you are providing them, that is.

I would be very interested in getting on.

jay

Thu Oct 09 2014, 06:18PM

Registered Member #1346 Joined: Fri Feb 22 2008, 05:48PM
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 7

Do you have any of these boards left? I am interested in acquiring one.
Alternativly, are you planning on uploading the Gerber files with the documentation on your site?

1 2 3 4 next last

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob