Difference between revisions of "Anchor"

Revision as of 15:14, 21 December 2010

Anchor will be an electronic current/voltage sink, for testing/characterizing power supplies and other similar tasks.

Desired features/specs:
- Constant current and constant voltage options
  - Maybe constant power too?
- Ramp-up/down automatically and track outputs
- Pulse load to test transient response
- 5A/100V maximums
  - 500W dissipation in a FET is a bit nuts, so it won't be 5A *at* 100V
MCU needs:
- 2 or 3 16-bit ADC channels (voltage, current, heatsink temperature, though the latter could be a digital sensor if needed)
- 1 PWM or DAC channel (input into op amp)
- ATxmega16A4 seems a good fit for the MCU.
An LCD would be cool to plot the response of load variations without a PC (transient response, current limits, etc.)
- Could use a simple STN monochrome panel, would be cheap and work well
- Could alternatively use a touchscreen OLED, would be expensive but look really cool
- Middle ground would be a touchscreen LCD, which would be not-crazy-expensive and still look pretty cool
- With any of these options, want the critical UI bits to be physical controls (current/voltage mode/setting)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 Anchor will be an electronic current/voltage sink, for testing/characterizing power supplies and other similar tasks.
-* ATxmega16A4 seems a good fit for the MCU.
+* Desired features/specs:
+** Constant current and constant voltage options
+*** Maybe constant power too?
+** Ramp-up/down automatically and track outputs
+** Pulse load to test transient response
+** 5A/100V maximums
+*** 500W dissipation in a FET is a bit nuts, so it won't be 5A *at* 100V
+* MCU needs:
+** 2 or 3 16-bit ADC channels (voltage, current, heatsink temperature, though the latter could be a digital sensor if needed)
+** 1 PWM or DAC channel (input into op amp)
+** ATxmega16A4 seems a good fit for the MCU.
+* An LCD would be cool to plot the response of load variations without a PC (transient response, current limits, etc.)
+** Could use a simple [http://www.sparkfun.com/products/710 STN monochrome panel], would be cheap and work well
+** Could alternatively use a [http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8624 touchscreen OLED], would be expensive but look ''really cool''
+** Middle ground would be a [http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10089 touchscreen LCD], which would be not-crazy-expensive and still look pretty cool
+** With any of these options, want the critical UI bits to be physical controls (current/voltage mode/setting)
 [[Category:Current Projects]]
 [[Category:Status/Waiting for Time]]