Tired of AC bricks? Try the DCBuddy

[theatrus]

Small design update:

Still working on the base board and the battery backup board, but I made an overall upgrade to move to supporting a 20A load (in the 400W DC range) for a single supply instead of a 200W design. In order to operate at 20A, I've swapped to a 5mm pluggable terminal block, or using the 6 pin MicroFit connector. The DIN4 connector on the Meanwell supplies is limited to around 10A, and a barrel connector even less. There are a number of sealed power supplies that can be used (usually sold as LED drivers) which are bare wire outputs, hence the switch to terminal blocks.

The PCB requires a few more changes (2oz copper everywhere). I also still need to test the board to board connectors and do a little shrinking.

 

[David_CO]

This is a really sweet project. I picked up a hydros kraken a while back and have been wondering why there aren’t more products in this space (without being an EE).

I think a 20A load is probably overkill. Lights and heaters are the only thing that would get you up there on 99% of systems and you need big boy batteries if you want to power those for any reasonable extended period. I opted to get my gas furnace’s f a battery backup and just heat my whole house. Way easier than trying to back up 1200w of tank heaters.

 

[Mark Gray]

Small design update:

Still working on the base board and the battery backup board, but I made an overall upgrade to move to supporting a 20A load (in the 400W DC range) for a single supply instead of a 200W design. In order to operate at 20A, I've swapped to a 5mm pluggable terminal block, or using the 6 pin MicroFit connector. The DIN4 connector on the Meanwell supplies is limited to around 10A, and a barrel connector even less. There are a number of sealed power supplies that can be used (usually sold as LED drivers) which are bare wire outputs, hence the switch to terminal blocks.

The PCB requires a few more changes (2oz copper everywhere). I also still need to test the board to board connectors and do a little shrinking.

Nice I am in the market keep us posted

 

[Reef-Engineer]

This is an awesome project. I am excited to see it as it develops. Powering 5, 12, 24, 36V from a small stack of electronics vice 10 power supplies would be outstanding.

Definitely staying tuned. It might prevent me from executing the power bus solution another user posted a couple pages ago.