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External Voltage Regulator and Buck Converter Efficiency

A project log for Arduino MPPT Solar Charge Controller

The charge controller consists of a buck converter that is controlled by an Arduino via a half-bridge driver.

tobiasTobias 04/28/2016 at 22:400 Comments

I damaged another Arduino Pro Mini, due to overloading the internal voltage regulator. Time to try something different. (The Arduino still works, as seen in the picture, except for the RAW input). Let's supply the Arduino with 5 Volts on the VCC pin, rather than around 8 Volts on the RAW input. This will also free the Arduino Pro Mini from having to supply the power for the INA3221 board and the LCD.

As a first approach I tried a 7805 linear voltage regulator which works, but is very inefficient.

So I decided to use one of the buck converters which I had tested in the past. The advantage is that I can use the 5 Volts from the same buck converter for the Arduino as well as the load which is a Banana Pi. So only one buck converter in the whole system.

Efficiency:

DROK Analog with USB

Riorand

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