More info - batteries are soldered and I can get 13,2V on both rails but only directly on batteries contacts and working J4 output. J1 and J2 are 3,29V. I've managed to burn one of the 0,015 ohm resistor on first try but it's now replaced and I can confirm that all batteries are charging. And all the fuses are OK. All relays get their coil driving voltages around 11,2V.
UcConditioner
Hi guys,
I’m working on designing a brand new concept, UcConditioner. It is an ultra capacitor power conditioner which can add pre-charged/isolated ultra capacitors to any RaspberryPi power supply to clean/filtering the noisy 5V rail.
Base on the real listening test of both Greg and I, the sound quality of Raspberry DAC can be significantly improved. I’m pretty excited about that.
It works with any 5V power supply for RPi and can also be perfectly integrated with current LifePO4 power supply to upgrade the performance.
I’ll place the PCB order tomorrow. New update will be posted soon.
UcConditionerLayout by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
Hi guys,
I’m working on designing a brand new concept, UcConditioner. It is an ultra capacitor power conditioner which can add pre-charged/isolated ultra capacitors to any RaspberryPi power supply to clean/filtering the noisy 5V rail.
Base on the real listening test of both Greg and I, the sound quality of Raspberry DAC can be significantly improved. I’m pretty excited about that.
It works with any 5V power supply for RPi and can also be perfectly integrated with current LifePO4 power supply to upgrade the performance.
I’ll place the PCB order tomorrow. New update will be posted soon.
UcConditionerLayout by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
Hi guys,
I’m working on designing a brand new concept, UcConditioner. It is an ultra capacitor power conditioner which can add pre-charged/isolated ultra capacitors to any RaspberryPi power supply to clean/filtering the noisy 5V rail.
Base on the real listening test of both Greg and I, the sound quality of Raspberry DAC can be significantly improved. I’m pretty excited about that.
It works with any 5V power supply for RPi and can also be perfectly integrated with current LifePO4 power supply to upgrade the performance.
I’ll place the PCB order tomorrow. New update will be posted soon.
UcConditionerLayout by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
Cool Ian!
And Greg
[emoji106]Ian and Greg; great work!
Does this UcConditioner isolate the 5v output from the 5v RPi input by having the 5v output running directly from the ultra capacitors or is more a conditioner?
Thanks
Does this UcConditioner isolate the 5v output from the 5v RPi input by having the 5v output running directly from the ultra capacitors or is more a conditioner?
Thanks
Hi guys,
I’m working on designing a brand new concept, UcConditioner. It is an ultra capacitor power conditioner which can add pre-charged/isolated ultra capacitors to any RaspberryPi power supply to clean/filtering the noisy 5V rail.
Base on the real listening test of both Greg and I, the sound quality of Raspberry DAC can be significantly improved. I’m pretty excited about that.
It works with any 5V power supply for RPi and can also be perfectly integrated with current LifePO4 power supply to upgrade the performance.
I’ll place the PCB order tomorrow. New update will be posted soon.
UcConditionerLayout by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
@marcus1
It is a conditioner. It was designed to improve the quality of the 5V RPi main power supply. It works with current 5V RPi power by adding the pre-charged ultra capacitor in parallel to the rail. The overall EMI noise level will be significant reduced thus DAC sound quality will be benefit. Even with the FifoPi and the internal isolator, the improvement can still be clearly heard.
The charger will be isolated from the conditioner's output.
Ian
@Ian, Can you explain what the sound quality of Raspberry DAC can be significantly improved? In theory, in the digital system, the only thing that needs to be considered is jitter, but since the music signal leaves from Raspberry into reclock for greatly reduce the jitter. In other words, as long as there is reclock in the system, no matter what changes have been made to the source, it is impossible to change the sound quality. Why can the sound be improved if only improves the power quality of Raspberry?
yunyun, your question makes perfect sense. In fact however, I confirm that supercaps on the power rail of the Rpi does improve the sound as reported by Ian and Greg. To my ear not unlike improving the PS in other areas of the system. More weight, better defined bass in my system. I have no technical explanation, but suspect noise gets through to the FIFO and degrades the sound in some way.
You are right.
To me, the sound quality improvement was not as the signature of good clocks. Ultra capacitor makes the background darker, and makes the sound more dynamic and more vivid with higher density. So, I don't think it has business with jitter. It could be something related to over all DAC noice floor. But I could be wrong.
EMI noise is every where. It could be even coupled through air. Ultra capacitor conditioner will reduce the overall EMI noise of a RPi for sure.
Ian
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If it is about EMI, the possible difference is that my modules are placed inside the chassis, and my system uses a grounding box to suppress EMI, so the EMI interference in my system is relatively small, and let I can't hear the magic of supercaps?
In short, since the system already has reclock, in the digital system, it is theoretically understood that all the sounds can be changed, which means that something is not handled well, such as against EMI. Of course, if you can solve EMI with a super capacitor, it is a good thing, but this is overkill.
The easiest and cheapest way to fight EMI is the chassis, such as the photo below.
In order to deal with EMI, I am especially looking for someone to make Metal can using CNC, just to cover the XO that is particularly afraid of EMI interference. You can hear the improvement of sound by using the right means to fight EMI at key points.
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So even though use FIFO to isolated ground, the DAC noise floor also can be affected by Raspberry Pi?
Thanks @iancanada
Might it also be possible (with component changes?) to feed higher voltages into the UcConditioner or is it limited to 5v input/output?
Might it also be possible (with component changes?) to feed higher voltages into the UcConditioner or is it limited to 5v input/output?
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hi ian,
can you assume that this power conditioner can be tuned to be compatible for any kind of voltages from 3.3v to lets say 40v?
do you plan to offer it for other voltages too?
best wishes
@mr-whocares,
The current UcConditioner is only for 5V. It's possible for 3.3V but for higher voltage would be different design.
If you had my LifePO4 board, it's very easy to add ultra capacitor to the 3.3V rail to make a hybrid power supply to upgrade. You don't need a dedicated conditioner. I'll post do to do it soon.
Regards,
Ian
