opinion on power supply design workshop

[panfilero]

I found this power supply design workshop on the web, I thought it sounded pretty good and am entertaining the idea of signing up for it. I've never attended a workshop like this before, and it is a bit pricey. I was wondering what people's thoughts are on workshops, or if this workshop sounds good? I'm fairly new (less than 5 years) to power supply design and want to learn more about it, I've designed a few, I'm familiar with the topologies, wrestle through compensation and magnetics design. A link to the workshop is below. thanks

http://www.ridleyengineering.com/workshops.html

 

[Joerg]

I found this power supply design workshop on the web, I thought it
sounded pretty good and am entertaining the idea of signing up for
it. I've never attended a workshop like this before, and it is a bit
pricey. I was wondering what people's thoughts are on workshops, or
if this workshop sounds good? I'm fairly new (less than 5 years) to
power supply design and want to learn more about it, I've designed a
few, I'm familiar with the topologies, wrestle through compensation
and magnetics design. A link to the workshop is below. thanks

http://www.ridleyengineering.com/workshops.html

AFAICT Ridley has a good reputation and that's a fairly normal price for
a four-day hands-on seminar. I wouldn't really need it because I've done
so many power converters that they come out of my ears by now. But if
you are fairly new to this stuff it could be worthwhile. What is very
important is to find out what and how much background is needed for this
course and to make sure you have that. Possibly they require a solid
background in control theory. Your five years in the game sound good but
if in doubt, ask them.

Never seen a photo of Ray with such a short haircut. And he got older
.... <looking into mirror> ... Oh!

 

[Harry Dellamano]

AFAICT Ridley has a good reputation and that's a fairly normal price for
a four-day hands-on seminar. I wouldn't really need it because I've done
so many power converters that they come out of my ears by now. But if
you are fairly new to this stuff it could be worthwhile. What is very
important is to find out what and how much background is needed for this
course and to make sure you have that. Possibly they require a solid
background in control theory. Your five years in the game sound good but
if in doubt, ask them.

Never seen a photo of Ray with such a short haircut. And he got older
... <looking into mirror> ... Oh!

Ray Ridley would be a great hands on teacher.
Hey Joerg, IMHO you need this workshop!
Harry

 

[Joerg]

Ray Ridley would be a great hands on teacher.

I like the "design and build" parts in that seminar, especially about
transformers. Nothing lets you appreciate magnetics as much as when you
have built the first one with your own hands.

Hey Joerg, IMHO you need this workshop!

Did I screw up somewhere? Or is it because of a really good brewsky they
have in Atlanta?

 

[miso]

If you are using off the shelf controllers, I'm not so sure this
workshop is really needed. If you are rolling your own switchers, well
you shouldn't be.

 

[panfilero]

Thanks for the advice, it sounds really good, one concern I have is that it's tied too much to their design software they sell, I'd hate to spend 4 days learning how to use a software package to design magnetics or power supplies, I really do like the hands on aspect of it

 

[RobertMacy]

Thanks for the advice, it sounds really good, one concern I have is that
it's tied too much to their design software they sell, I'd hate to spend
4 days learning how to use a software package to design magnetics or
power supplies, I really do like the hands on aspect of it

Check out LTspice. It's free, educational, and has lots of support people.

 

[Joerg]

If you are using off the shelf controllers, I'm not so sure this
workshop is really needed. ...

Off-the-shelf controllers teach you nothing about the magnetics,
intracacies of capacitors, things like that. Heck, they don't even tell
you how an LC post-filter somewhere down the line can cause the whole
chebang to go berserk. If someone isn't very familiar with all that
(usually via blood, sweat and tears) such a workshop can be very worthwhile.

... If you are rolling your own switchers, well you shouldn't be.

Almost anyone who has ever designed under super-tight budget for
consumer gear will know otherwise. One of my early cases was when a new
client had a working design but Maxim could not furnish production
quantities of their MAX770. No surprise there. Since there wasn't any
competing part with similar performance and price I ripped it all out,
designed my own discrete solution, with current mode control and all,
and that is still in production.

 

[miso]

Why not? Who wants to just copy eval boards?

And with digital power coming along, designing your own switcher may be the new
thing.

Uh, because eval boards are designed to provide good working circuits.
Yes, a novel idea.

You do realize a chip all by its lonesome is way more reliable than
something that uses firmware to run.

 

[miso]

Off-the-shelf controllers teach you nothing about the magnetics,
intracacies of capacitors, things like that. Heck, they don't even tell
you how an LC post-filter somewhere down the line can cause the whole
chebang to go berserk. If someone isn't very familiar with all that
(usually via blood, sweat and tears) such a workshop can be very worthwhile.



Almost anyone who has ever designed under super-tight budget for
consumer gear will know otherwise. One of my early cases was when a new
client had a working design but Maxim could not furnish production
quantities of their MAX770. No surprise there. Since there wasn't any
competing part with similar performance and price I ripped it all out,
designed my own discrete solution, with current mode control and all,
and that is still in production.

Funny how these cellphone manufacturers manage to source controller
chips. Well I guess some people know how to run a business.

 

[miso]

Check out LTspice. It's free, educational, and has lots of support people.

LTSpice is brilliant marketing and engineering. The spice works well,
the schematic capture is on par with most pro software, and it seems to
be just a tad bit easier to use LT parts than the competition. But LT
makes good stuff, so that by itself isn't a drawback.

 

[Joerg]

Uh, because eval boards are designed to provide good working circuits.
Yes, a novel idea.

If you can make a product by simply copying more or less from an eval
board you might as well outsource the whole "design". It's cheaper that
way. The rubber really meets the road when the client or your marketing
folks tell you that they want it in a tube the size of this here
ballpoint pen.

You do realize a chip all by its lonesome is way more reliable than
something that uses firmware to run.

Unless the company making the chip can't deliver quantities in time.
Then the firmware solution, the discrete solution, or pretty much any
other solution is a better solution. Because it avoids the single-source
problem.

 

[Joerg]

Funny how these cellphone manufacturers manage to source controller
chips. Well I guess some people know how to run a business.

Some vendors don't know that, as has been evidenced numerous times. If a
manufacturer cannot keep distributors properly stocked then it is not a
good manufacturer. It is that simple.

 

[Joerg]

Be sure to ask about sub-cycle oscillations!

Yup. And somtimes one just has to live with those, like it can be with
idling combustion engines.

LM339s and 74HC14's will be around for a while.

Exactamente. Although I only used one CD40106. More gusto to drive the
FET gate, via a pnp/npn follower. I got about the same efficiency at
much lower cost and most of all we got rid of this unreliable
single-source situation.

 

[Joerg]

All the major players, LT included, are going toward "Spice" models
that only work on their own simulators.

And the winner is ... LTC. As expected.

Have you not noted that _most_ LT SMPS models are encoded, and run on
LTspice only.

Likewise TI is evolving toward TINA-only models.

Mistake. Big mistake. Just like WebBench is to me.

And Analog Devices >:-} Ultimately only simulation via the "cloud".

DOA.


The fun part is that _many_ of these encrypted models are crap... note
that Analog Devices has NOT corrected the error(s) in the AD8218
model, though they stated correction "within the week" nearly three
weeks ago.

Well, yeah, but they are very fast and can quickly show you if an
unorthodox idea works. Only once (in many years) did I have a
discrepancy between a model and real life that almost became a
showstopper. It was a chip designer error on the LT6700 series, to which
LTC immediately fessed up and issued corrective action.

One of my recent jobs, a set of four switchers operating in a very slow
external non-linear loop, would have taken many hours per run if I had
used real IC models instead of proprietary behavioral.

 

[Joerg]

When you want to buy 20,000,000 of something, you tend to get real
support. When you want to buy 200, less.

That's ok but if they think that way then the company should be honest
about it and clearly say so. What I find dishonest is to wet someone's
appetite with ads, demo parts and whatnot, have them design it in, and
then not delivering product in due course.

 

[Joerg]

Thanks for the advice, it sounds really good, one concern I have is
that it's tied too much to their design software they sell, I'd hate
to spend 4 days learning how to use a software package to design
magnetics or power supplies, I really do like the hands on aspect of
it

Why not just ask Ray about that?

 

[[email protected]]

I found this power supply design workshop on the web, I thought it sounded pretty good and am entertaining the idea of signing up for it. I've never attended a workshop like this before, and it is a bit pricey. I was wondering what people's thoughts are on workshops, or if this workshop sounds good? I'm fairly new (less than 5 years) to power supply design and want tolearn more about it, I've designed a few, I'm familiar with the topologies, wrestle through compensation and magnetics design. A link to the workshop is below. thanks



http://www.ridleyengineering.com/workshops.html

I don't know where you live but this one is free.

http://www.arrownac.com/offers/vision-2013/

 

[miso]

Unless the company making the chip can't deliver quantities in time.
Then the firmware solution, the discrete solution, or pretty much any
other solution is a better solution. Because it avoids the single-source
problem.

You remind me of some old lady that got cheated by some name your ethnic
minority and thus has concluded for the rest of eternity that said
ethnic minority is a bunch of crooks. [Those damn Martians screwed me. I
will never buy from extra-terrestrials again!]

OK, Maxim dissed your dinky company. Get over it. Years ago they screwed
lots of people, but the people responsible for such nonsense are gone.
[Still plenty more people need to be shown the door, but plenty of
wankers retired.] Buy from LTC, TI, whatever.

 

[miso]

Depends. If a uP adds protections that an analog chip doesn't, then

it's safer.

Clearly you don't understand how watchdogs work.