What Happens if You Change the Load & Source Voltage of a DC-DC Converter? + Wave Winners

How well does a DC-DC converter work in the real world? Load regulation and line regulation tests will tell you! Sign up now for Wave : http://bit.ly/YTWave2020 Click to subscribe! ► http://bit.ly/KLabs_sub ◄

Ideally, when you set your DC power supply to a certain voltage, it will maintain that voltage and have little or no noise. However, many external conditions can affect the power supply's output. Since, a power supply is used to power a device under test (DUT), any variations or noise in the output is directly coupled to the DUT. Following are some of the commons sources of unwanted power supply signals, and how they are specified in a data sheet.

Loads often require varying amounts of current. Load regulation is a power supply's ability to maintain a constant voltage regardless of the demands of the load for more or less current. A power supply's load regulation specification tells how accurately the voltage will be maintained for example the E3632A load regulation is specified as 0.01% of output plus 2mV. A power supply's transient response specification tells how fast the power supply can return to the desired voltage for example, 50mseconds for a large change in the load.

Changes in the AC line voltage can affect the output of a DC power supply. In some regions, AC line voltages can vary greatly. A motor or piece of large equipment can cause voltage to drop in power lines when it pulls excessive current. The ability to maintain a set DC voltage during a change in line voltage is specified as line regulation. Line regulation is typically specified in two ways. First the power supply will only function properly if the AC line voltage is close to the proper voltage, typically ± 10%. Line regulation also affects the output accuracy and is specified as a percent of output with an offset.

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Today we’re exploring how to test a DC to DC converter. We’re going to use a 60W, 24 V to 12 V DC converter. We’re going to stress the converter in two ways – first we’ll do a line regulation test, which means we’re going to vary the input power and see how it affects the output. Second, we’re going to do a load regulation test. For this test we’ll vary the load on the converter’s outputs and see how the output power changes.

To do that, Bill brought along a power analyzer, which is essentially a fancy control system with a chassis that you can load modules into. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxuUbQ3tuGI