[TriEmbed] Powering ESP32 from an 8v golf cart battery

John Wettroth jwet at mindspring.com
Thu Nov 19 07:53:23 CST 2020


That's a nice part Nick.  Like a lot of modern parts on small process, its
kind of designed around one LiIon cell operation.  I like the "green mode"
stuff.  LTC and Maxim make some parts like that.  The difficulty with
switchover type parts is when you have a big load transient (eg- a transmit
burst).  If the part is in the low quiescent mode, it can droop and cause
havoc.I noticed it has a forced green mode pin which could alleviate this
with some thought in software.  A lot of times, its easier to have a
seperate regulator for the high current case or if they can be split up.
 
I didn't realize that these ESP devices require so much current, I've only
played with one on the bench pretty casually.  For the 8v input case, you
really might want to consider a buck converter unless the high current only
runs very intermittently.  The power wasted in a linear could create
potential heat problems.  You're talking about getting rid of 1.5 watts from
your 8v source.
 
I agree with Nick on those DFN packages- awful, you're into hot air or oven
reflow.  I like parts that come in a variety of packages including through
hole, this is getting rare these days.

Regards,
John M. Wettroth
(984) 329-5420 (home)
(919) 349-9875 (cell)


  _____  

From: Nick Edgington [mailto:nickedgington at edgingtonlabs.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2020 6:44 PM
To: Josh Wyatt
Cc: jwet at mindspring.com; TriEmbed Discussion
Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] Powering ESP32 from an 8v golf cart battery


personal I like the STM
<https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/ld39130s.pdf>  LD39130SJ30R which
is a good match for esp32 it will do 300ma with a 300mv drop the quiescent
current is a remarkable 1 µA in green mode, 45 µA in normal mode which
matched with the ULP mode on the esp32,  Not a problem with a golf cart but
important for low power sensor. and to top it of STM will send you a couple
for just the shipping cost,  

 The package a somewhat of a pain.


Nick

I have a number of the regulator board I pictured earlier should you be near
Apex and want one.


nje

On Wed, Nov 18, 2020 at 1:17 PM Josh Wyatt via TriEmbed
<triembed at triembed.org> wrote:


This is awesome info John, I'm enjoying the read. 

>From personal experience, the ESP32S (and ESP8266) can be pretty power
hungry when the radios are on, and are particularly sensitive to
brownouts... I try to use something with at least 300mA and with good, stiff
caps.

Thanks,
Josh

On Wed, Nov 18, 2020 at 9:42 AM John Wettroth via TriEmbed
<triembed at triembed.org> wrote:



Shane,
There are a ton and its unfortunately one of these "it depends" kind of
things.  But here are a few and why.
 
Most of the stuff I do is pretty small, low current stuff and 2.7 or 3.3v-
an 8 bit uP and a display with some RF.  Very low quiescent parts suitable
for circuits with sleep mode, etc.  A lot of my stuff lives outside and runs
on a 12v battery so I try to shoot for -40C operation and 16v Max vin.  Temp
range matters for capacitors mostly and dropout.  I buy almost exclusively
from Digikey.  Their search engine and service is amazing even if they cost
a bit more.  I tend to design very low power things and like low Iq for
sleep operation.  Generally very low Iq means poor HF rejection (you need
loop gain)- in RF stuff, I'll compromise on Iq and shut the block down, etc.
I prefer newer parts, there has been so much progress in the last 15 years,
its amazing- there is no reason to use a 7805 for any real design- even
cheap stuff.  There are better and even cheaper alternatives if you're
building more than a few hundred.  At low volumes, 7805's can be awfully
cheap but they're really only designed as 60/120 Hz type regulators in a
traditional AC supply.
 
Some old favorites-
 
Micrel (Mchip owns Micrel linear now) MIC5203, 5205 series of BiCMOS types.
PNP pass element but controlled drop out current.  16v  50/150 mA, Iq 1 mA
max.  Micrel invented BiCMOS pretty much and its good to see that Microchip
is keeping a lot of their parts.
 
Microchip 1791 is a great HV regulator- 30v max in, 70 mA out, load dump
(48V), Iq 70 uA.  Microchip makes tons of cheap analog parts these days and
lot of good linears. They acquired Telcom semi many years ago which was a
big CMOS linear company (like Maxim). Newer CMOS stuff is good but the older
stuff is not so good- done on large processes and traded Low Iq for
performance- very slow load and line transient recovery, no PSRR, etc.
 
Toko TK11625 and TK1150, Digikey dropped Toko but I still have a lot of
these around- they're officially obsolete but they're plentiful everywhere
and there are newer alternatives. Available in TO-92, 100 mA, Tk71150 is 5v
LDO with good HF rejection for low noise for a  post after a switcher,
Quiescent is OK at 300 uA,  Seiko makes similar BiCMOS parts, can be hard to
find these days.  Microchip basically copied these regulators to create
their line and DigiKey wants to keep Mchip happy. 
 
TI TLV1117 A "special" very low Iq LM1117 variant, quiescent of 100 uA.
Better PSRR and dropout.  Good in 3 Alkaline of 1 LiIon to 2.5v apps.  Max
Vin is 5.5v, only downside.
 
Some favorites lately (doing low cost stuff)
 
Diodes Inc AP-7381 series.  Available in TO-92 option still for quick
perfboard builds and breadboard.  Cheap.  Very low Quiescent, 50/150 mA
variants.  Digikey large stocks always.
 
ABLIC S-812Cxx series.  1uA Iq, 10-100 mA output depend on voltage.
Quiescent useful for running a real time clock or deep shutdown on a HV
input.
 
Anything that Maxim or LTC/ADI makes are invariably awesome but low volume
pricing (<10k) is awful.  Real customers pay nothing like those prices
believe me.  I have odds and ends of Maxim leftovers but never have what I
need.  TI has better pricing but isn't innovating much in this area- the
TLV1117 is an exception- excellent.
 
In your Golf Cart app, what's your load current min and max and vin min and
max. Any big line or load steps? Temp range and size could help too.  Any
special operation needs like sleep?
 
After 25 years in Standard Products at Maxim, I can talk Linear IC's more
than anyone cares to listen.  Take care- shoot me a private mail or call if
you have specific questions.

Regards,
John M. Wettroth
(984) 329-5420 (home)
(919) 349-9875 (cell) 

 

  _____  

From: Shane Trent [mailto:shanedtrent at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2020 9:57 AM
To: jwet at mindspring.com
Cc: Pete Soper; TriEmbed Discussion
Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] Powering ESP32 from an 8v golf cart battery


John, 

Thank you for your breakdown on voltage regulators. Would you mind sharing
some of your favorite part numbers in the "Modern BiCMOS LDOs"? 

Thanks!
Shane

On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 5:52 PM John Wettroth via TriEmbed
<triembed at triembed.org> wrote:



I'll put my 2 cents in here for a few subtleties.  I defined probably 1000
different linear and switching regulators at Maxim in my 25 years.
 
 
Vout plus dropout is pretty good overall.  But don't forget that dropout is
defined where the output voltage drops 100 mV.  Its coming out of regulation
and all the goodness that linears give you stops happening.  You also want
to do this at max load, max output tolerance and worst temp.  The drop out
for bipolars decreases for higher temps which helps but at very cold temps,
it can grow- a lot a very cold.  This is not allways well specified.
 
There are several classes of dropout that are driven by the design of the
ouput stage
 
Vdropout
 
2v      standard bipolar linears like the 7805 use an NPN darlington output-
nice low impedance and easy to use.
1v      LM1117 type bipolar linears use a Sziklai modified darlington with
an NPN follower driven by a PNP- pretty good comprimise
.5v     LM2940 PNP pass element parts have low dropout but some squirelly
stability issues at times and can have high quiescent at dropout
.1v     PMOS or charge pumped NPN pass element types that looks like a small
resistance in dropout.  Quiescent can be very low.
.
Depending on the type of regulator, there are subtlties that happen around
dropout.
 
Old bipolar regulators like the 7805 have a drop out of about 2v
conservatively.  The output is an emitter follower darlington stage which is
2 vbe's (.7v each) and 2 Vce sat (about .2v each).  This is about 1.8v.
Since the output is a follower, it has a gain of 1 and are generally very
well behaved with very little thought given to bypassing and stability.
High frequency rejection is poor and accuracy is somewhat poor.
 
First generation  bipolar LDO's like the LM2940 etc, used a PNP output stage
with a grounded NPN pulling its base down.  These parts have two Vce sats in
the dropout path (about .5v).  These  transistors have gain on top of the
error amp gain and get unstable without following the the bypassing
instructions closely.  The output cap becomes the dominant pole and the ESR
of the output cap has to in a specific range- neither two small or two
large.  The other annoying feature of this class is as you approach dropout-
the beta provided by the PNP pass element goes south and they can draw lots
of current at or near dropout trying to keep the PNP in saturation.  In low
power circuits, this can cause a sort of latching action and flatten a
battery in no time.
 
The LM1117 type second gen bipolar LDO's have a NPN follower ouput.  These
have the benefit of a follower but only moderate dropout performance.  They
were basically invented to make 3.3v from 5v which a 7805 couldn't do.  Good
for point of load but kind of mediocre otherwise.
 
Modern BiCMOS LDO's generally have a PMOS pass element and some MOS and
Bipolar circuits..  These can have very low quiescent, very low noise and
the lowest dropout possible.  They are also pretty stable with most loads
but take a signicant cap on the output usually.  Something like a 10 uF
ceramic.  Microchip make some good  low cost parts in this class.  Probably
my favorites.
 
There are all CMOS LDO's that share most of features of the last category
but don't get the low noise and high accurancy generally.
 
One other issue is your 8v battery.  The charging voltage on a Lead Acid
could be over 10V which is a common abs max for many linears.
 
My 2 cents.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Regards,
John M. Wettroth
(984) 329-5420 (home)
(919) 349-9875 (cell) 

 

  _____  

From: TriEmbed [mailto:triembed-bounces at triembed.org] On Behalf Of Pete
Soper via TriEmbed
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2020 10:46 AM
To: triembed at triembed.org
Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] Powering ESP32 from an 8v golf cart battery






On 11/15/20 10:34 PM, The MacDougals via TriEmbed wrote:


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