Arduino Experts?

[RadeonHDx]

I waws hoping there would be someone out there who would be able to help me with making a high powered, DC voltage regulator capable of about 300w at about 25A 12VDC. I've seen that people have made devices like these but many seem to have a lot of knowledge but sadly are no longer active on forums. Also I have looked around to see if there is a good guide on how to do this for a relatively high powered unit but all I could find was guides on 50w~ units.

I also noticed that a while back there were mass produced boards for this purpose and were released at some point:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1055981/updated-tec-controller

IF ANYONE HAS ONE I WILL PAY WHATEVER FOR IT!

If anyone can help me with this I would be really grateful .

Joe

 

[remember300]

arduinos are not gonna have that management available, not for that kinda power. is it a single rail 1 feed with 25A?

 

[RadeonHDx]

It only actually needs to be about 18A max to cool to where I want. From the controllers I've seen you can use MOSFETS and resistors and get the temperatures to control it from thermistors. Thanks for the reply .

 

[remember300]

i personally would just dismantle a solar panel regulator, like a 30 amp one if you go for an intelligent one you could hack into unit where it goes into the control for the readout to see the pull.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/12v-30a-solar-charge-regulator-n28kr
something like that

 

[RadeonHDx]

Its not that I just want to know the voltage, it's that I want to be able to digitally control it, if you see what I mean. I think the best example of what I want to do is by Krow on the Overclockers website.

I don't like to post links to other forums much but here's the thread,

http://www.overclock.net/t/1424597/krows-tec-controller-build-log/10

 

[remember300]

i thought tecs were set voltages you you just changed the amps or just let the unit at a single set power output.

But ill look into it

 

[RadeonHDx]

From my understanding they can be controller by both but I think I keep reading that when you lower the voltage it lowers the amps, which was why I assumed that if you lowered the voltage then you would be lowering the amperage also.

 

[remember300]

not normally, they should be independant of each other, unless tecs work in a weird linked way. i thought they were set at say 12V and upped the Amps same way ya gpu works.

 

[Wraith]

I think your going to have to invest in a Bench PSU, with total Volt/Amp/Watt control, it's probably going to be easier in the long run.

 

[RadeonHDx]

I think your going to have to invest in a Bench PSU, with total Volt/Amp/Watt control, it's probably going to be easier in the long run.

I know that's probably the best thing to do, and I've looked at the psu's that can handle the volts and amps. They look like they would do the job just fine no doubt but the thing that I really wanted was to have digital control over the whole system so that the voltage output could be directly effected by the CPU or coolant temp. I suppose this way is just like having a fan controller though. Turn it up for games and down or off for general usage.

 

[remember300]

at least get the system working for now with a decent bench supply.
It getting all the gubbins first i gues

 

[RadeonHDx]

Any suggestions for a decent bench PSU? I do actually have an old 450w PSU so I was wondering if that would work?

 

[remember300]

a decent bench PSU is dif to a pc one that just gives out power a bench PSU can be regulated. there is a few at maplins but look around. and researching into TEC's you keep low volts and ramp up the amps

 

[RadeonHDx]

a decent bench PSU is dif to a pc one that just gives out power a bench PSU can be regulated. there is a few at maplins but look around. and researching into TEC's you keep low volts and ramp up the amps

I'll have a look for one and hopefully I can find a clean way to have it in or next to my system.

 

[RamboOC]

From my pc psu that i have converted into a bench one, i get: 3v, 5v, 7v, 12v - theese are the basic ones but i can regulate them futher if i wanted to

 

[RadeonHDx]

From my pc psu that i have converted into a bench one, i get: 3v, 5v, 7v, 12v - theese are the basic ones but i can regulate them futher if i wanted to

Any chance you could tell me how to do this? And can you actively switch through the voltages when it's running?

 

[remember300]

apart from changing the cable i dont think a PC CPU is designed to do that with the voltage control you want

 

[RamboOC]

Any chance you could tell me how to do this? And can you actively switch through the voltages when it's running?

from your psu you have a 12v.
This works just like undervolting molex fans by changing the pins around

------------
Can be done from the molex or 24/20 pin:

5 VOLTS:
RED+BLACK

7 VOLTS:
RED+YELLOW

12 VOLTS:
YELLOW+BLACK

----
Can only be done from the 24/20 pin:

3.3 VOLTS:
ORANGE+BLACK
-------

 

[RadeonHDx]

apart from changing the cable i dont think a PC CPU is designed to do that with the voltage control you want

Most of the places I've read say that it is best to use a 6 pin to power the TEC. I'm most likely to control the temperature by means of more cooling to the hotside to cool the cold side.

By this I mean that the heatsink I buy (needs to be pretty beast to handle ~200w) will have the fan set on a PWM fan curve that allows the TEC to not be cooled as much at idle but will be set up to ramp the fan up to match with the CPU temp and will in turn cool the hotside more and bring the temp of the cold side down so that it is around ambient.

Hopefully I can find a heatsink able to properly do this job, I was thinking a BeQuiet! Dark Rock 2?

 

[remember300]

why not see if you can use long pins for a cheap AIO.