UCPi PCB
UCPi PCB samples receive today. I designed this ultra capacitor explore board for RPi just want to experience this new kind of power supply for my DAC HATs.
All Maxwell 2.7V 325F/350F/360F/ ultra capacitors will work for this small board. An LT3042 reg board can also be used as low noise CC/CV charger.
More update will be post soon.
UCPi_UltraCapacitorExploreBoard_1 by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
UCPi PCB samples receive today. I designed this ultra capacitor explore board for RPi just want to experience this new kind of power supply for my DAC HATs.
All Maxwell 2.7V 325F/350F/360F/ ultra capacitors will work for this small board. An LT3042 reg board can also be used as low noise CC/CV charger.
More update will be post soon.
UCPi_UltraCapacitorExploreBoard_1 by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
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Great work Ian! Might order those Maxwell's now.
Don't really know much about UC's and might have have missed it earlier - what voltage range can you get with these boards?
Don't really know much about UC's and might have have missed it earlier - what voltage range can you get with these boards?
UCPi PCB samples receive today. I designed this ultra capacitor explore board for RPi just want to experience this new kind of power supply for my DAC HATs.
All Maxwell 2.7V 325F/350F/360F/ ultra capacitors will work for this small board. An LT3042 reg board can also be used as low noise CC/CV charger.
More update will be post soon.
UCPi_UltraCapacitorExploreBoard_1 by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
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UCPi PCB samples receive today. I designed this ultra capacitor explore board for RPi just want to experience this new kind of power supply for my DAC HATs.
All Maxwell 2.7V 325F/350F/360F/ ultra capacitors will work for this small board. An LT3042 reg board can also be used as low noise CC/CV charger.
More update will be post soon.
UCPi_UltraCapacitorExploreBoard_1 by Ian, on Flickr
Ian
It seems that LDOs can't be avoided. However, it should be designed to turn off the pi or DAC HATs when the ultra capacitor voltage drops, and then charges the ultra capacitor through LDOs to avoid the interference caused by the LDOs.
Great work Ian!
If you are happy with the results would you design similar boards for Maxwell 3000F?
Thanks
Matt
First of all: IAN GREAT WORK!
+1 for 3000F based PSU
This is my idea of audio dream universal PSU:
I would love to have following super power ultimate ultracap PSU:
The board with four holes for screws would fit on top of four 3000F. 4x3000F (2x3000F switching banks ).
On such PCB there should be: CC/CV, microcontroller and DC jack input for any laptop PSU.
Paramters to set:
-Vout - depending on the needs e.g. 5.25V, 3.45V - usually there are 5% tolerance on voltages rails.
-Vmin - when reaching that value microcontroller would switch to the other bank e.g.: 4.75V, 3.15V.
- Charging current within Vmin-Vout range. (if my application is consuming e.g. 100mA, then I would set it for e.g.: 200mA. Or maybe it could be done automatically by measuring current consumption.)
-Charging current below Vmin (startup/warmup current. When turned on it takes a little time to charge those caps, so to make it faster it should be charged with some like 5A maybe at the begging up to Vout level.
Some decent LCD display showing warmup in % and estimated time left for fully charge and ... other parameters. Here also all parameters could be set with encoder.
Having such PSU would serve many. many, many purposes and totally declassify and deprecate all existing low voltage regulators use for audio purposes
For now I have 2x3000F and cannot think of anything better than that. One charge allows me for hours of listening …
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Yep. From my test the biggest gain from those caps is when powering AVCC and then clock. Gains for powering other parts (digital parts) are minimal to none.
That would be great yet introduces another complexity to maintain voltage differences (between PSU for L and PSU for R) from little to none.
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@TioFrancotirador
With IsolatorPi or FifoPi, the sound quality will have no business with RPi power. So a normal SMPS will be good enough for RPi.
Ultra capacitor power supply will be for the DAC HAT and clock only. SQ will be benefit the most from ultra capacitor under this consideration.
@markusA
RPi power supply with ultra capacitor is also possible if some one really cares about it. It can work in the same way as an ultra capacitor pack for a car. But I don't think this power supply can be shared with DAC rails because of the noisy load such as a RPi.
Regards,
Ian
With IsolatorPi or FifoPi, the sound quality will have no business with RPi power. So a normal SMPS will be good enough for RPi.
Ultra capacitor power supply will be for the DAC HAT and clock only. SQ will be benefit the most from ultra capacitor under this consideration.
@markusA
RPi power supply with ultra capacitor is also possible if some one really cares about it. It can work in the same way as an ultra capacitor pack for a car. But I don't think this power supply can be shared with DAC rails because of the noisy load such as a RPi.
Regards,
Ian
Ian> I’m all about most bang for the buck. It seems reasonable to go all out where it really matters and just go with cheap and easy for the core Pi.
But how about somehow grabbing the RPi power from the charging circuit? Or something along those lines? If possible just have one smps doing double duty?
Why have two psu’s if one will suffice?
The super cap supply shouldn’t suffer from this, or would it?
But how about somehow grabbing the RPi power from the charging circuit? Or something along those lines? If possible just have one smps doing double duty?
Why have two psu’s if one will suffice?
The super cap supply shouldn’t suffer from this, or would it?
markusa
Do you really need 1.5A for your pi?
Pi power consumption is very dependent on what's connected to the USB ports, and what's the pi is doing. You can also disable stuff like video and wifi (if hardwired) to reduce power.
And I just looked at a table that shows power varies per model, so also depends what pi you have. Looks like the newer you have, the more power it draws.
I think you can underclock too, to reduce power.
Randy
Do you really need 1.5A for your pi?
Pi power consumption is very dependent on what's connected to the USB ports, and what's the pi is doing. You can also disable stuff like video and wifi (if hardwired) to reduce power.
And I just looked at a table that shows power varies per model, so also depends what pi you have. Looks like the newer you have, the more power it draws.
I think you can underclock too, to reduce power.
Randy
