Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

The little D-SUN mp1584en buck modules are still awesome, tho. 

From a RFI standpoint, pretty much like the other ones:  http://wb9jps.com/Gary_Johnson/RFI_files/MP1584EN_DC-DC_Module_test_report.pdf

Since one will have to spend their purchasing price, minimum, again, to fix them up, one can as well do it right from the start.

[Robert763]

This how I know that a floating car in London will always have an A-Z pressed against the rear window once it's flooded.

What's an "A-Z"? The Authorities saying "Needs to pass MOT before driven on roads"?

It's a local street map book with an index of streets in alphabetical order, hence the  name. Used to be essential when picking up TEA before GNSS. the big road atlas nrmally did not go down to local side street level. Contex is tht he car owner was not local.

[mnementh]

The little D-SUN mp1584en buck modules are still awesome, tho. 

From a RFI standpoint, pretty much like the other ones:  http://wb9jps.com/Gary_Johnson/RFI_files/MP1584EN_DC-DC_Module_test_report.pdf

Since one will have to spend their purchasing price, minimum, again, to fix them up, one can as well do it right from the start.

Fair enuf... but if yer going for clean, should be going linear anyways.  And these have a much better track record in terms of not bringing fire to your projects.  Also, the MP1584EN seems to be a cheap, plentiful and well-matured product, so lots of proven designs already out there. What was that aboot reinventing the wheel...?

I've been using the D-SUN mp1584en buck modules for over a decade on my little quadcopters; they don't affect anything unless you literally put them right on the VTX. Pretty sure if I tried, could come up with a combination of copper foil and a few extra caps that would let me stick one in my usual 20mm x 20mm stack.

When you consider these things are a little flying beowulf cluster* with a half-dozen high-frequency u-processors, 3-phase high-current H-gate speed controllers, and multiple u-wave radio transmitters and receivers operating at the same time in a space the size of a dinner plate, that is a decidely RF-hostile environment.

Cheers,

mnem
*slight exaggeration. But only slight.

[Specmaster]

Looks like the average week here 

Had to Wade through this the other week on a walk...

I used to occasionally drink at the Tide End Cottage, a pub in Ferry Road, Teddington. The road ends at Teddington Lock and floods so often at high tide that, if you're in the know and someone's driving you to the pub you get them to park at the top end of the road. More than once I've left that pub at closing time to find the cars of the unsuspecting bobbing in the tide. This how I know that a floating car in London will always have an A-Z pressed against the rear window once it's flooded.

Not a problem here, except with tourists at Weston super Mud. Here the normal tidal range is over 14m - see 30th March https://www.windfinder.com/tide/Portishead

Severe ones are at least a metre more, and the river flows backwards over lock gates. At such times I certainly wouldn't leave my car in the underround carpark by the harbour, since flooding that will be the last line of defence before the city floods!

How do all those thousands of cars that are either imports or awaiting export at Sheepway get on with such tides? On google earth it looks as if the entire area is full of cars and vans?

[mansaxel]

This how I know that a floating car in London will always have an A-Z pressed against the rear window once it's flooded.

What's an "A-Z"? The Authorities saying "Needs to pass MOT before driven on roads"?

It's a local street map book with an index of streets in alphabetical order, hence the  name. Used to be essential when picking up TEA before GNSS. the big road atlas nrmally did not go down to local side street level. Contex is tht he car owner was not local.

Ahh. Obviously.  Here we've got a red sticker that Police and probably MOT accredited centres will slap on the windscreen on a car that may not be driven except straight to a new MOT.  And those typically are stuck on cars damaged in accidents. Which is why I thought a drowned car might be a candidate.

In Sweden, there are 4 ways you can end up after having taken your car to MOT;

• Pass. The car is OK and welcome back to a new test in one year.

• Minor errors; the owner is expected to fix these and is expected to return next year. A bulb is out, for instance.
• Not insignificant errors. The car may be driven but needs to return within the month to prove the faults are fixed. "No handbrake" is a typical one. Others may be "worn out suspension". If not fixed, will be reclassified into:
• Unsafe to drive. The car has such serious faults that make it plain dangerous. Will need a tow, and gets a sticker. May be driven back to the MOT Centre, providing it's fixed.

[Specmaster]

I suggest you watch and read this https://learn.adafruit.com/minty-boost/icharging

It’s quite complicated but you need to set the D- and D+ lines up properly with bias voltages.

Are so that explains it, they must also have changed the code in the last IOS update as well because I have other lightning cables as well that did work before but now don't, in any USB-A port on any charger, but there is continuity between both ends.

This kind of stuff is what keeps me away from Apple products in general -  they like their gardens walled at that place...

My wife is now so irritated at how hard it is to get data (e.g. movies that she records) from her iPad to her PC that she has asked for a Windows laptop for her birthday...

I like Apple products in general, its just the way that they are anal about locking 3rd party repairers out of their systems. It wouldn't be so bad if they were less expensive and were willing to repair them themselves even for a reasonable amount instead of trying to get you to buy new all the time. They also do things in their IOS that can detect if anything has been changed, even a battery and then slowly close down on it.

Windows does some terrible things from time to time, but they don't do the mind games that Apple do and its easy to get things repaired.

[URI]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I think every TEA person on Ebay.de has watched some of this sellers' wares. Thanks for sparing me the experience.

Errmm: To clearify: It is n o t the seller veehifreq! -If you should mean him.
I have bought from him several times with everything going well.

Seller is  a Test Equipment selling Company located in Raisio, Finland that uses its company name as the ebay-name.

[Microdoser]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I should have read his description of the ad better:
He writes in his terms and conditions that -if I'm a private person 24% vat will be added to the (ebay-)price.
He obviously declares his ebay-prices vat free.
I wasn't aware that this is possible.
With 24% vat the price is not what I accepted..   

I already paid the ebay price+shipping, he now wants me to send the extra vat to his paypal account.
 

Just simply don't do it. What they gonna do?

[tggzzz]

Looks like the average week here 

Had to Wade through this the other week on a walk...

I used to occasionally drink at the Tide End Cottage, a pub in Ferry Road, Teddington. The road ends at Teddington Lock and floods so often at high tide that, if you're in the know and someone's driving you to the pub you get them to park at the top end of the road. More than once I've left that pub at closing time to find the cars of the unsuspecting bobbing in the tide. This how I know that a floating car in London will always have an A-Z pressed against the rear window once it's flooded.

Not a problem here, except with tourists at Weston super Mud. Here the normal tidal range is over 14m - see 30th March https://www.windfinder.com/tide/Portishead

Severe ones are at least a metre more, and the river flows backwards over lock gates. At such times I certainly wouldn't leave my car in the underround carpark by the harbour, since flooding that will be the last line of defence before the city floods!

How do all those thousands of cars that are either imports or awaiting export at Sheepway get on with such tides? On google earth it looks as if the entire area is full of cars and vans?

You mean get in (on the ships) with such big tides. Basically with careful timing and pilots And they are imports.

[mansaxel]

Since one will have to spend their purchasing price, minimum, again, to fix them up, one can as well do it right from the start.

Fair enuf... but if yer going for clean, should be going linear anyways.  And these have a much better track record in terms of not bringing fire to your projects.  Also, the MP1584EN seems to be a cheap, plentiful and well-matured product, so lots of proven designs already out there. What was that aboot reinventing the wheel...?

I've been using the D-SUN mp1584en buck modules for over a decade on my little quadcopters; they don't affect anything unless you literally put them right on the VTX. Pretty sure if I tried, could come up with a combination of copper foil and a few extra caps that would let me stick one in my usual 20mm x 20mm stack.

When you consider these things are a little flying beowulf cluster* with a half-dozen high-frequency u-processors, 3-phase high-current H-gate speed controllers, and multiple u-wave radio transmitters and receivers operating at the same time in a space the size of a dinner plate, that is a decidely RF-hostile environment.

Yes, perhaps. But,

• Burning the ∆ between 28V (which is my Main Bus B Nominal-Volt because some of my radios and chargers and the bucket of surplus telco relays I bought require it) and 5V in something like a 7805 plus pass transistors at 2,5A is going to be a good way to fry pancakes. I'll have to burn 54W to get 10W. No thanks.
  
• I'm trying (and mostly failing) to keep this house a viable place to listen to shortwave.

Most of those small buck regs are RFI disasters if you buy them as building blocks on a China-PCB, thanks to the underspecced filtering. Granted, you do radio in your quadcopter scenario, but that's ISM, right? I'm trying to listen to 3,7MHz. And sometimes 198KHz. 

Your linear solution does remind me of one slightly older contraption, the lighting circuit regulator in a Gato-class submarine.

[URI]

BTW:

eBay was less then helpful:
Had a call with their customer support.
Topics:
- Yes, the price for an item on the ebay.de platform is the final price, including value added tax and other price components (according to $3.11 of the ebay.de AGB)
- Yes, the seller stated that 24% VAT would be added to the price for EU private customers in the item description and yes, this conflicts with the above terms and regulations detail.
Conclusion:
eBay won't step in for me or help me in any way. 
The only help I got was the hint that I should write the seller that I don't see that he can claim VAT from me and that I should cancel the order.
 

I'll be very careful buying over ebay in the future since I stepped over other examples of European (Italy, Austria) of sellers declaring their offers on ebay.de VAT-free. 

[URI]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I should have read his description of the ad better:
He writes in his terms and conditions that -if I'm a private person 24% vat will be added to the (ebay-)price.
He obviously declares his ebay-prices vat free.
I wasn't aware that this is possible.
With 24% vat the price is not what I accepted..   

I already paid the ebay price+shipping, he now wants me to send the extra vat to his paypal account.
 

Just simply don't do it. What they gonna do?

Well, I already paid the item plus shipping. 

[Cerebus]

This how I know that a floating car in London will always have an A-Z pressed against the rear window once it's flooded.

What's an "A-Z"? The Authorities saying "Needs to pass MOT before driven on roads"?

Sorry, it's so ubiquitous that I forget it might get lost in translation.



Available in every size from truly pocket sized, to the massive "A-Z Master Atlas of Greater London" which is updated yearly and used to sit in the top box of every motorbike dispatch rider in London.

[Microdoser]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I should have read his description of the ad better:
He writes in his terms and conditions that -if I'm a private person 24% vat will be added to the (ebay-)price.
He obviously declares his ebay-prices vat free.
I wasn't aware that this is possible.
With 24% vat the price is not what I accepted..   

I already paid the ebay price+shipping, he now wants me to send the extra vat to his paypal account.
 

Just simply don't do it. What they gonna do?

Well, I already paid the item plus shipping. 

Don't eBay have that guarantee where if you don't get your item you get a refund? As far as I know that process is beyond the control of the seller.

You could always wait a bit, say your item has not arrived, and get a refund via eBay.

After all, according to eBay, you have already paid what you need to in order to get the item unless I misunderstand.

[mansaxel]

This how I know that a floating car in London will always have an A-Z pressed against the rear window once it's flooded.

What's an "A-Z"? The Authorities saying "Needs to pass MOT before driven on roads"?

Sorry, it's so ubiquitous that I forget it might get lost in translation.

Yes, thanks for clarifying, even if Robert bet you to it.

Available in every size from truly pocket sized, to the massive "A-Z Master Atlas of Greater London" which is updated yearly and used to sit in the top box of every motorbike dispatch rider in London.

One of the really big impacts of the information society is GIS. It really is a game changer. And people go on about e-commerce and such.

[Specmaster]

I suggest you watch and read this https://learn.adafruit.com/minty-boost/icharging

It’s quite complicated but you need to set the D- and D+ lines up properly with bias voltages.

Are so that explains it, they must also have changed the code in the last IOS update as well because I have other lightning cables as well that did work before but now don't, in any USB-A port on any charger, but there is continuity between both ends.

It's not just Apple being dicks; it's also aboot the "cheap shite makers" and the eternal battle to stop stupid consumers from buying a POS charger with no short-circuit protection and blaming Apple when it sets their iPud on fire, or burning their junk off with the iPwn in their pocket after voltage spikes from the clone-of-a-clone regulator IC shits and short-circuits the charging chip in the iPwn and... you guessed it... blaming Apple.

Android devices also use the USB-C Power-Negotiation scheme, and they have actually used a variant of it it since long before the transition from Micro-USB to USB-C. This scheme is similar to that used by fApple, tho not with a chip in the cable. As mad as I am aboot my daughter's iPud, bottom line is a shitty supposedly "Apple Certified" multi-outlet charger is what killed it, and nearly killed her Amazon Fire tablet as well. The short-circuit protection was not adequate, and it melted multiple cables before I discovered it.

That's a fault in the charger's design, not the fault of Apple for trying to keep me from plugging my Apple device into cheap-shite chargers.

I've gone back to all the original chargers that came with her iPud and our tablets... and shockingly, no more melted cables and so far, (knock on wood) no killed iPuds or Tablets.

mnem
 

 

Lets not go down the Apple bashing route again, people have their own favourites and will come with all kinds of plausible arguments where X does this and Y does that etc. Apple do not do themselves any favours whatsoever by being so anal that I could go and buy 2 identical iPhone 12's, take them apart and swap the screens over with each other and reassemble them. The 2 phones would then start to throw error messages and certain functions would be shut off and perhaps if left, the phones might well eventually shut off completely. The screens were not counterfeits in any way as both phones would have been purchased from an Apple Store. All of this is because they are so scared of their products being repaired easily, that they tie all the parts of a phone / iPad to each other and if any part is changed then the check sum fails and the system goes mental and spews out these messages etc. What started this thread was the fact that since a recent update, many of my charging leads have ceased to charge my iPad, regardless of if it is plugged into an official Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Huawei, HTC or ACER charger, but if I burrowed my sons official lead, it would charge in the official charger and my Amazon sourced 6way charger, but before the recent update, any lead would work with any charger.

It wasn't so long ago we were discussing Apples current practise of not supplying a charger with their new phones, just supplying USB-C to USB-A lead and people were applauding Apple for making that decision, citing that there so many wall chargers already in existence and would end up as e-waste otherwise. If they are going down the path of looking for certain signatures being received to say if the charger is Apple or not, then there will be an awful lot of new iPhone users who upgraded from another brand being pissed off by that move.

As I see it the position you found yourself in with regard to short circuits was due to one of these new magnetic type of charger lead that makes connection a breeze, that problem would have had the same results regardless of the brand of charger from any of the reputable brands already mentioned above.

Modern building wiring accessories these days are available with phone chargers built into them, infact loads of modern office desks come with power and phone charger ports built in as do modern cars, the days of plugging in adaptors into the old cigarette sockets are rapidly disappearing and most new cars are being supplied with USB-A or USB-C sockets as standard, so any phone or tablet needs to be able to be charged by just plugging it in.

This is why all phones / tablets should be capable of using any USB-A or C socket not having to have dedicated chargers or leads.

[bd139]

I suggest you watch and read this https://learn.adafruit.com/minty-boost/icharging

It’s quite complicated but you need to set the D- and D+ lines up properly with bias voltages.

Are so that explains it, they must also have changed the code in the last IOS update as well because I have other lightning cables as well that did work before but now don't, in any USB-A port on any charger, but there is continuity between both ends.

It's not just Apple being dicks; it's also aboot the "cheap shite makers" and the eternal battle to stop stupid consumers from buying a POS charger with no short-circuit protection and blaming Apple when it sets their iPud on fire, or burning their junk off with the iPwn in their pocket after voltage spikes from the clone-of-a-clone regulator IC shits and short-circuits the charging chip in the iPwn and... you guessed it... blaming Apple.

Android devices also use the USB-C Power-Negotiation scheme, and they have actually used a variant of it it since long before the transition from Micro-USB to USB-C. This scheme is similar to that used by fApple, tho not with a chip in the cable. As mad as I am aboot my daughter's iPud, bottom line is a shitty supposedly "Apple Certified" multi-outlet charger is what killed it, and nearly killed her Amazon Fire tablet as well. The short-circuit protection was not adequate, and it melted multiple cables before I discovered it.

That's a fault in the charger's design, not the fault of Apple for trying to keep me from plugging my Apple device into cheap-shite chargers.

I've gone back to all the original chargers that came with her iPud and our tablets... and shockingly, no more melted cables and so far, (knock on wood) no killed iPuds or Tablets.

mnem
 

 

Lets not go down the Apple bashing route again, people have their own favourites and will come with all kinds of plausible arguments where X does this and Y does that etc. Apple do not do themselves any favours whatsoever by being so anal that I could go and buy 2 identical iPhone 12's, take them apart and swap the screens over with each other and reassemble them. The 2 phones would then start to throw error messages and certain functions would be shut off and perhaps if left, the phones might well eventually shut off completely. The screens were not counterfeits in any way as both phones would have been purchased from an Apple Store. All of this is because they are so scared of their products being repaired easily, that they tie all the parts of a phone / iPad to each other and if any part is changed then the check sum fails and the system goes mental and spews out these messages etc. What started this thread was the fact that since a recent update, many of my charging leads have ceased to charge my iPad, regardless of if it is plugged into an official Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Huawei, HTC or ACER charger, but if I burrowed my sons official lead, it would charge in the official charger and my Amazon sourced 6way charger, but before the recent update, any lead would work with any charger.

It wasn't so long ago we were discussing Apples current practise of not supplying a charger with their new phones, just supplying USB-C to USB-A lead and people were applauding Apple for making that decision, citing that there so many wall chargers already in existence and would end up as e-waste otherwise. If they are going down the path of looking for certain signatures being received to say if the charger is Apple or not, then there will be an awful lot of new iPhone users who upgraded from another brand being pissed off by that move.

As I see it the position you found yourself in with regard to short circuits was due to one of these new magnetic type of charger lead that makes connection a breeze, that problem would have had the same results regardless of the brand of charger from any of the reputable brands already mentioned above.

Modern building wiring accessories these days are available with phone chargers built into them, infact loads of modern office desks come with power and phone charger ports built in as do modern cars, the days of plugging in adaptors into the old cigarette sockets are rapidly disappearing and most new cars are being supplied with USB-A or USB-C sockets as standard, so any phone or tablet needs to be able to be charged by just plugging it in.

This is why all phones / tablets should be capable of using any USB-A or C socket not having to have dedicated chargers or leads.

Some corrections as that's mostly misinformation.

Displays and cameras are 100% interchangeable but if you put a third party display or camera in the device it will complain. I actively like that because if I buy a second hand device I want to know if it's full of second rate shit parts. You only need to use apple system configurator after changing them to make sure that the correct device firmware is installed for minor revisions between screens and cameras as the production cycle evolves. You can now buy authentic parts and become an authorised repairer - look: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/irp-program ... that sorts out Mr Patel down the market who turns your phone into an incendiary from a legit engineering op.

The charging leads don't work because the standards are thoroughly incomplete on power delivery over USB-A / USB-C and various cables and things are rated differently. I suggest you buy a genuine charger which can actually negotiate safe power delivery to the device. £15.20 isn't a lot: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-20W-USB-C-Power-Adapter/dp/B08L5RKGVX/ ... The reason they do this is because of all the idiots who tried to charge their iPhones off random Chinese bottom rung shit which caught fire and Apple got the blame for it of course.

As for the USB chargers built into sockets etc, those are the worst things on the planet. The last place I worked at had them and they didn't work properly for charging most devices, again due to incomplete specifications on USB-A / USB-C.

What you're asking for is to run across a field of cows blindfolded without stepping in any shit. Best to pay to go round it.

[URI]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I should have read his description of the ad better:
He writes in his terms and conditions that -if I'm a private person 24% vat will be added to the (ebay-)price.
He obviously declares his ebay-prices vat free.
I wasn't aware that this is possible.
With 24% vat the price is not what I accepted..   

I already paid the ebay price+shipping, he now wants me to send the extra vat to his paypal account.
 

Just simply don't do it. What they gonna do?

Well, I already paid the item plus shipping. 

Don't eBay have that guarantee where if you don't get your item you get a refund? As far as I know that process is beyond the control of the seller.

You could always wait a bit, say your item has not arrived, and get a refund via eBay.

After all, according to eBay, you have already paid what you need to in order to get the item unless I misunderstand.

Thanks: yes, you are right. I have that option in mind.

I'll wait and see what happens next.

[Robert763]

My work supplied apple device stopped fast charging (and requires a on / unlock cycle for slow charge) on 3 different quality, branded (non apple) chargers after a recent OS update. Had worked fine on them before 
The apple charger is on my desk at work, I've not sat at my desk for over a year due to covid

[Microdoser]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I should have read his description of the ad better:
He writes in his terms and conditions that -if I'm a private person 24% vat will be added to the (ebay-)price.
He obviously declares his ebay-prices vat free.
I wasn't aware that this is possible.
With 24% vat the price is not what I accepted..   

I already paid the ebay price+shipping, he now wants me to send the extra vat to his paypal account.
 

Just simply don't do it. What they gonna do?

Well, I already paid the item plus shipping. 

Don't eBay have that guarantee where if you don't get your item you get a refund? As far as I know that process is beyond the control of the seller.

You could always wait a bit, say your item has not arrived, and get a refund via eBay.

After all, according to eBay, you have already paid what you need to in order to get the item unless I misunderstand.

Thanks: yes, you are right. I have that option in mind.

I'll wait and see what happens next.

Good Luck

[Specmaster]

@bd139 I do have an official Apple charger already and have been using it, but the leads recently stopped working with it, as you know, I followed your advice and purchased some Amazon Basic leads today which do work with Apple charger, but not with some other ones.

Don't be fouled fooled by that https://support.apple.com/en-gb/irp-program, that is not what it is cracked up to be, there are many documented cases where Apple will actively prevent them doing a lot of repairs by restricting their access to parts, mostly battery replacements, charging ports type of things they can do.

Those charging leads that I'm referring to did indeed work until recently. I haven't been using my iPad as much as I used to because I have installed BlueStacks on my PC and tend to run most of my applications now on the PC via that. But I have been trying to keep the iPad topped up via the chargers and was puzzled as to why the battery always seemed to be almost flat, and it was traced down to the leads suddenly becoming unusable for charging. I have a number of leads, all USB-A to Lightning only 1 iPad so many of the leads have left in their original packets etc, unused apart from the initial testing when I purchased them. All leads are in good condition, no loose plugs, or worn / frayed cables etc.

As to the Chinese bottom rung shit, yes I know all about them, one was supplied with my recently purchased desk lamp/magnifier and within the first week that charger had let out the magic smoke and the lamp was not even in use at the time. Lobbed that charger in the bin, got a £15 refund because of it and now the lamp is in use with a branded charger, no problems.

All Apple needed to do was ensure that their gear had adequate overload / spike filtration with in their gear to protect them, so that if a bottom rung charger failed it took itself out and anything downstream of it would not be affected.

The screen and cameras etc, all have been tested by 3rd party repairs around the globe and the reports being published suggest that my scenario of 2 identical phones is a reality, without access to dedicated software to reunite the parts to enable a fully functioning device.

Microsoft went down a similar route with Windows whereupon a major part failing, CPU or Motherboard and it being replaced, Windows would throw up an error message about being unlicensed. I myself have been the victim of that a few times but there it was possible to talk to Microsoft, explain what had happened, and they promptly reactivate the software again and no further issues after that until another failure in one of those, replace, talk to Microsoft and presto all OK again, at any time of day or night.

[mnementh]

Since one will have to spend their purchasing price, minimum, again, to fix them up, one can as well do it right from the start.

Fair enuf... but if yer going for clean, should be going linear anyways.  And these have a much better track record in terms of not bringing fire to your projects.  Also, the MP1584EN seems to be a cheap, plentiful and well-matured product, so lots of proven designs already out there. What was that aboot reinventing the wheel...?

I've been using the D-SUN mp1584en buck modules for over a decade on my little quadcopters; they don't affect anything unless you literally put them right on the VTX. Pretty sure if I tried, could come up with a combination of copper foil and a few extra caps that would let me stick one in my usual 20mm x 20mm stack.

When you consider these things are a little flying beowulf cluster* with a half-dozen high-frequency u-processors, 3-phase high-current H-gate speed controllers, and multiple u-wave radio transmitters and receivers operating at the same time in a space the size of a dinner plate, that is a decidely RF-hostile environment.

Yes, perhaps. But,

• Burning the ∆ between 28V (which is my Main Bus B Nominal-Volt because some of my radios and chargers and the bucket of surplus telco relays I bought require it) and 5V in something like a 7805 plus pass transistors at 2,5A is going to be a good way to fry pancakes. I'll have to burn 54W to get 10W. No thanks.
  
• I'm trying (and mostly failing) to keep this house a viable place to listen to shortwave.

Most of those small buck regs are RFI disasters if you buy them as building blocks on a China-PCB, thanks to the underspecced filtering. Granted, you do radio in your quadcopter scenario, but that's ISM, right? I'm trying to listen to 3,7MHz. And sometimes 198KHz. 

Your linear solution does remind me of one slightly older contraption, the lighting circuit regulator in a Gato-class submarine.

LOLOL... Okay... so you're hating on linear for wasted energy, and hating on Switchers for not being clean.. you do have to make some effing compromise somewhere. 

Just because the MP1584EN is used on some cheap modules and you don't like the specs of those modules, doesn't make it necessarily a bad part. I've seen them used in oodles of applications where clean power is required; so if you're going to roll your own, why not start with the cheap module as a dev board, get it to where it's as clean as you like, then design a PCB? Especially right now, when NIP silicon is scarce... it makes sense to take advantage of that resource...?

Just a thought...

As far as the radio I'm dealing with... yes; we operate 915MHz, 2.45GHz & 5.8 GHz bands. And it's a mix of digital and analog video; so really a dicksore to make it all play nice. 

My experience with the D-Sun modules is it takes little more than a couple electrolytics fore & aft of it to make it a lot quieter, however you do have a fair amount of localized switching EM noise emanating from the inductor which needs to be ameliorated by either A) moving more than 50mm away from susceptible components or 2) shielded with metal or carbon fiber frame at "ground" potential.

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

My work supplied apple device stopped fast charging (and requires a on / unlock cycle for slow charge) on 3 different quality, branded (non apple) chargers after a recent OS update. Had worked fine on them before 
The apple charger is on my desk at work, I've not sat at my desk for over a year due to covid

I don't for sure, but I suspect that your phone is fairly new, my iPad is now a few years old and so that work around does not work with mine. It makes the charging sound when plugged in and then simply sits there and access the battery info via the tools / setup, and it confirms that the battery is not being charged. I do genuinely like most Apple products and love my iPad but this kind of behaviour, is not acceptable.

[Specmaster]

I suggest you watch and read this https://learn.adafruit.com/minty-boost/icharging

It’s quite complicated but you need to set the D- and D+ lines up properly with bias voltages.

Are so that explains it, they must also have changed the code in the last IOS update as well because I have other lightning cables as well that did work before but now don't, in any USB-A port on any charger, but there is continuity between both ends.

This kind of stuff is what keeps me away from Apple products in general -  they like their gardens walled at that place...

My wife is now so irritated at how hard it is to get data (e.g. movies that she records) from her iPad to her PC that she has asked for a Windows laptop for her birthday...

Its not just their gardens that they like walled, look at their HQ.

[mansaxel]

LOLOL... Okay... so you're hating on linear for wasted energy, and hating on Switchers for not being clean.. you do have to make some effing compromise somewhere. 

I'm fine with linears for temp stuff, the bench, and perhaps audio. But for a RPI that's going to run, 24/7, off a 24V bus (which might be battery only, in an emergency), no, that's where a properly quieted switcher-bucker belongs.  I do not have the power and cooling budget. And it can be done -- one of my radios, the PRC-320, has a bleeping Plessey orgy of 6V logic and tants inside, and the finals driven by a switcher-booster that makes 100V from 24. And it was designed in the early 70s.

Just because the MP1584EN is used on some cheap modules and you don't like the specs of those modules, doesn't make it necessarily a bad part. I've seen them used in oodles of applications where clean power is required; so if you're going to roll your own, why not start with the cheap module as a dev board, get it to where it's as clean as you like, then design a PCB? Especially right now, when NIP silicon is scarce... it makes sense to take advantage of that resource...?

It is probably true of most those IC's, that when integrated into a build like their designer intended, they will perform quite well. Probably one can reach that by copying the reference design. Which is likely what the Amazon/Ali/Ebay modules do, but with extreme cheapness for the peripherals.

My experience with the D-Sun modules is it takes little more than a couple electrolytics fore & aft of it to make it a lot quieter, however you do have a fair amount of localized switching EM noise emanating from the inductor which needs to be ameliorated by either A) moving more than 50mm away from susceptible components or 2) shielded with metal or carbon fiber frame at "ground" potential.

Yes. That's what the papers I linked say; Electrolytics on both sides, LC net on input, some 0,1µF ceramics for good measure, and a bifilar choke. And a metal box. I CAN bodge that onto those minimum-footprint PCB's or I can repeat the same design, slightly larger, and with better reliability from the improved mechanics.