The purpose of the validation is to ensure that the converter is able to provide a consistent 13.5V output for long periods of time and at an input voltage of anywhere from 70V to 150V. In addition, the validation ust must ensure a >90% efficiency with minimal loss due to heat, and for that to be controlled well by the heat sinking mechanisms on place in the board.
Formal Testing will be conducted as follows:
Place the string of 6 resistors with 14 AWG wire connecting them on the output of the DCDC converter. Ensure that the fuse on the input side of the converter is inserted into the holder correctly. Connect the team's Agilent desktop multi-meter to the last resistor in series to do a current calculation based on the voltage drop across the resistor. Also place a temperature probe connected to the Keysight DMM on the heat sink for the Vicor Module. Finally, using another DMM to probe the output voltage of the converter module will allow
Test Procedure
I created a harness with 14 awg wire to connect to the input terminal of the DCDC board from our team's N8740A Keysight 150V power supply. On the output connected in parallel are three sets of 5.3 ohm series resistance made of 1 2ohm 50W resistor and 1 3.3ohm 50W resistor. This will give me a Req of about 1.766ohms (about 34W on each series string) predicted to bring out about 7.64 amps output.
Test Results with 1.7666mohm resistance
At each voltage input, the DCDC will run for at least 10 minutes, and the temperature will be monitored with max temp being recorded
| Voltage Input (Supply) | Current input (Supply) | Voltage output (Measured by 6*Vacross resistor) | Current output | Time | Temperature of Heat Sink | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | It started faulting at this 50V input, so I just moved on to 70V. | |||||
| 70 (71) | 1.65 (1.72 initially) | 13.46 | 7.6132 | 10 | 86degreesC | It heated up a whole lot. I stopped it after 10 minutes, but that's because I noticed the resistors started melting the plastic box they were in. The temperature of the module itself was still steadily increasing (with no foreseeable stop) at about .1degreesC/sec. I need to find a better heat sinking method before testing will be continued. |
| 90 | ||||||
| 110 | ||||||
| 130 | ||||||
| 150 |