Nice "power conditioner."
Sometimes
Too Much is exactly the right amount.
Indeed. Same.
I tend to, and this is shockingly bad to some, actually drill another hole in the board if it's possible to do so and then use a radial and glue it down. You can see a couple of unglued ones here I did in a Heathkit counter (FML that was totalled by the previous owner - I had to build an entirely new timebase for it):
If it's point to point wired, you're screwed
It's only ugly until you put the cover back on 'er, buddy.
I'm only semi-serious. I'm testing the design limits of very cheap switching converter ICs. I'm interested to see how they perform thermally, efficiency-wise, reliability-wise and noise-wise in extreme conditions. So far, not bad.
I've got a little 12v@500mA module I'm driving very hard at the moment about 50% over it's rated input current by running it under voltage. It's getting a blast of a hair dryer whilst doing its thing. 6W out, 8W in, 2W being burned off at about 80oC at the moment. It's getting so hot the shitty disposable breadboard I'm using is starting to actually melt. Noise is a bit naff at 200mV spikes. Getting rid of those with a pi filter. All good so far
If it works for this, I'm good to buy some more and run them half load.
There are cheap China-direct DC-Dc converters of all kinds available now for a buck or three a copy; Buck, Boost, Buck/Boost, many with CC/CV available to boot. Between those and the commodity BMS boards also available cheap as beans, reliable Lixx power for almost anything is available for a few $$ with off-the-shelf components.
One of my favorites for hobbyist work is the
D-Sun Mini-360; costs ~50¢ each in qty 10, has excellent efficiency, very clean output for a switcher and a solid 1.5A output with 5-23V in/1-18V out range makes it very versatile. Add an electrolytic at each end and output is as clean as almost any linear, and the voltage adjustment trimpot is single-tap, so making it fixed is as easy as unsoldering the trimpot and soldering in an appropriate SMD resistor.
Right now I have about 4 projects in the works with
these cheap CC/CV regulators driving high-powered COB LED lighting; they're just like Legos for electronics tinkering.
I picked up
one of these a while back because it saved me 25% on my order; still haven't figured out what I'm gonna use it for, but having that kind of power on hand for automotive/portable projects is just viscerally satisfying.
mnem
*Modular brain*