Switching power supply, buck/boost converter design

Thread Starter

danielb33

Joined Aug 20, 2012
105
I am completely new to this stuff. Have general circuits completed, am at an internship designing a switching power supply (specs below) to control a 24VDC coil activated relay with a 30Amp relay. I want to use a buck/boost converter to do the trick. I am unsure about how to pick which size fixed cap to use in the converters??? Or any cap sizes for anything. See the tag for schematic, note the SW1 OFF schematic. I figure after asking a few times I will start getting a feel for what might work and what probably won't. If you learned a different way, please let me know where I can look for resources. Searching online I don't find concrete answers, I find intuition based answers.

Also note that my goal is simply to smooth out the switching frequency to deliver a constant voltage to the load, not actually add power. I may need to do that for the buck booster, but as seen by the schematic, I am working on the buck converter now.

Thanks for helping the newbs.

http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/Circuits/smps_buck/smps_buck.htm
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
Such a design is not trivial. I would suggest using a buck-boost controller such as this, with output transistors sufficient to efficiently handle the 30A.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
The capacitors are the least of your problems. Generally speaking you try to find the capacitance you want, twice the working voltage of anything the capacitor is likely to see, and as low of an ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance) as you can find.

Your bigger problem will be finding inductors with core materials that will not saturate at twice the peak currents that they are ever likely to see. After that will be semiconductors that can survive the harsh environment of big current spikes, shorts, and inductive flyback.

There is both art and science in such a design. You're going to have to smoke a few parts before you learn the difference.
 

bountyhunter

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,512
I am completely new to this stuff. Have general circuits completed, am at an internship designing a switching power supply (specs below) to control a 24VDC coil activated relay with a 30Amp relay.
How much load current does the 24V line have to supply? Is it just driving the coil of a relay? What is the resistance of the coil?
 

Thread Starter

danielb33

Joined Aug 20, 2012
105
Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the late reply. I have been out.

The 24V out only need to supply a MAX of 1AMP. Sorry if I did not make that clear. I asked about the capacitor because I was getting the impression that was the only thing I could not calculate, although I am not sure how to do other calculations yet.

bountyhunter-I have not yet picked a coil. I have picked 0 parts.
 
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