Efficiency of Voltage Boosters

[Zeph]

There are a few subjects in this valuable thread.

One is the best type of capacitor to use across the power and ground of the nRF24L01+ module. I'm very interested in that. My earliest tests were frustrating, I was busy trying to figure out what was wrong with the software (before I came here by the way), but it turned out to be power and/or too long SPI wires. A cap across the power at the module made a great difference. So I'm tending towards always doing that in the future, and I'd like to know what kind to stock up on.

I'm seeing some opinion that tantalum would be better, some that it has too high ESR. So a low ESR electrolytic (probable aluminum polymer) would be better. Or maybe a ceramic is better still, and cheap.

Are there any recommended caps below 50 cents in small quantities? Is there anything from eBay or Tayda or are those all junk for our purposes? If not, Digikey or Mouser is OK, tho the minimum shipping raises the effective cost per unit substantially for small quantities (and I may not have a large order to combine it with for months).

There is a variation of this question which is about caps for use with noisy boost converters. I am thinking that a good cap for that purpose would also be a good cap for use with the tranceiver in general - low ESR and with an appropriate value, with low leakage. (In another case the noise of a sensor or actuator might be what needs to be filtered out rather than a boost voltage converter).

[marceltrapman]

I changed the capacitor that I used for my radios from 4.7 mF into 220 mF and I can only say thank you for this discussion, it is really immediately much better :)

[Damme]

@marceltrapman mF as in milli or micro? :) µF I suppose..

[axillent]

@marceltrapman there is a convention to mark micro by µ if you have a special symbol or by u if you don't
this way 220 micro Farad should be market as 220 µF or 220 uF

@Damme it is a good point)

[marceltrapman]

@Damme @axillent Oh my, so much to learn :)
Thank you guys, I mean 220 uF...

[Damme]

@marceltrapman You're welcome :)

I tried 220µF myself now (EU keyoard can write µ with alt-gr+m or (ctrl+alt m if alt+gr is missing))

much better, I first used 33µF and then 100µF but 220µF is a winner.
The wierd thing is that I cant measure any difference with 33µF or 220µF with my oscilloscope. but with no cap at all my arduino nano 3.3v looks like this: (AC coupled)

And wit cap (33µF or 220µF makes no difference at all..) But it works much better..

[Yveaux]

@Damme strange, disturbance is around 50hz... Could it be caused by mains supply?

[Damme]

@Yveaux I triggerd on transmission.

[marceltrapman]

@Yveaux As mentioned I am still learning about this stuff.
The question I have right now is, a bit off topic, at which pin do you measure this?
Is that simply vcc on the radio?

[Yveaux]

@marceltrapman I guess. If you want to measure stability of supply of the nrf then you measure on vcc & gnd of the nrf.

[marceltrapman]

@Yveaux :)

[Zeph]

@Damme said:

much better, I first used 33µF and then 100µF but 220µF is a winner.
The wierd thing is that I cant measure any difference with 33µF or 220µF with my oscilloscope.

So I think you are saying that you are not seeing a visual difference (on the o'scope) between 33uF and 220uF, but you are seeing better real world performance with the latter?

Do the different capacitors have the same spec's? I'm wondering if the capacity is the only significant change, or if the different values of cap you tested have different specs (eg: ESR) or even diff technology.

[Damme]

@Zeph Exacly, I first used 3.3µf and there I see voltage drop. But almost no measurable difference with 33µF or 220µF. But I get less failed transmission with the larger cap.
They are all the same brand (some cheap Chinese unknown (to me) brand, "Chong" (yay!))
All 16v, and all electrolytic. I don't have any ESR meter, thinking of trying to measure it with oscilloscope and function generator.. (Or I'll just bu one :))

I bought them from ebay in a large 1800pcs asorted pack.

[therik]

New data on the XC9140A331 3.3 V voltage booster. This looks like a nice IC with low quiescent current and an improvement over the stock "china" 3.3 V booster.

This option can be purchased from Digikey for $0.90, with a total bill of materials of $1.34 (in quantity, minus a PCB). It is also a nice size SOT23-5, not too small to hand solder.

Thoughts?

[axillent]

@therik thanks, it is an interesting chip

[Zeph]

@therik

I look forward to a test of the TPS61222 used in the MySensors Battery board - I see the chip on your list and hope you will be checking it.

Felix at lowpowerlab (http://lowpowerlab.com/blog/2014/06/08/powershield-r2-released/) has switched from the TPS61220 to the LTC3525 for stability reasons. That's a 5v chip, tho but maybe there's a related one as a contender.

[Damme]

How do you guys measure <mA accuratly? Using mr Jones's µCurrent?

[Yveaux]

@Damme Yup. Build some myself (and have a few spares, for who'se interested)

[bjornhallberg]

Any news on this front?

Started looking at the LTC3525 as well, but it ended up being a bit more expensive than I had wanted (looking at Digikey it is basically the most expensive DC-DC step-up IC they stock). For the 3.3V version there is like one (1!) AliExpress seller that has them in any quantity. 10pcs $23 and I'm currently pondering that.

Like @Zeph said, both lowpowerlab and harizanov have switched to the LTC3525.

Btw. Found an Eagle pcb for the LTC3525 here:
https://github.com/meigrafd/boost_converter

Anyone found any other IC? TPS61016? TPS61006? TPS61201? ISL9111? MAX1724? UCC3941?

Or is the good old TPS6122x still the best choice at the end of the day in terms of price / performance? Looking at AliExpress it is basically half the price of LTC3525. And they're both the same pesky small package.

Also, still completely in the dark when it comes to finding suitable inductors in particular (sourced from China). If you're willing to buy from Digikey et al sure, but if you're trying to cut some corners things get a lot harder.

[therik]

I have designed a PCB shield for the pro-mini, radio, and various sensors based on the the XC9140 chip. I will be powering the radio directly from 2xAA batteries. Boards should be here any day now and I'll check out the design. The XC9140 is not a bad chip from what I can tell, and it is cheap from Digikey, see posts above for BOM.