Author Topic: Ge PDT012A0X (Read 20415 times)

c1truz · « **on:** January 11, 2014, 07:23:03 PM »

Well while I wait on new batteries for my boost proto im going to start on this project. I got the breakout today and will update as I go.

Specs can be found at mouser. Digikey etc... but basically .5v - 5.5v 12A. With pmbus so you can adjust voltages, read current and voltages and a bunch of other things. Ill detail it later when I work with it.

Ill be using a 2s lipo for this mod. 1500mah for now but if I can squeeze a 2000mah in after I get everything designed I will. Its basically a dif of 4mm in thickness. Its 20c with 40c burst. I kinda took a hit in c for size but its still plenty.

The lcd is a temp test module. Im waiting on a few that are thinner from china. Its rgb backlit. I plan to adjust the color depenant on the battery voltage so I dont take up space on the lcd for it but still have a visual.

Well im off to try and get the module on the board.

c1truz · « **Reply #1 on:** January 11, 2014, 08:21:26 PM »

Well didnt take long to get it on. I needed a 2.7k resistor for 5.5v. All I could find was 2.2 that actually ohmed out at 2.17. Well the module like most of the other ones will run at 6v. Was showing 6.09. This module could easily be used without a mcu. Would only take a pot, power, gnd and a switch and u have a vv mod in a .85 x .84 package. Even smaller since u dont have to break out as many pins. They make an analog version that doesnt have all the digital features for a few bucks less. Im gonna slowly hook this up to the mcu. May take a few days but ill continue to update.

Im also running out of 28g solid core network cable for prototyping these things. Anyone have a good sugestion for CHEAP wire ?

Breaktru · « **Reply #2 on:** January 11, 2014, 09:18:37 PM »

Cool. Nice project. I like the PDT012A0X
I buy my 20 gauge wire from here: All Electric
I was guessing maybe using a 2K fixed resistor w/ a 2K pot

c1truz · « **Reply #3 on:** January 11, 2014, 11:05:15 PM »

I was reading the data sheet. You can set the output voltage fault for up to 115%. So it should go up to 6.29v before it shuts down if u have the fault set to max. Im drinkin a little crown and coke now....I refuse to mess with electronics while drinking. Hopefully tomorrow ill have time to play around a little bit

CraigHB · « **Reply #4 on:** January 12, 2014, 01:14:06 PM »

Buy more network cable? I actually use that stuff to harvest the solid wire sometimes as well. I have like a hundred feet of it laying around from those times I've had to do hardwired network connections. I won't be running out anytime soon. Otherwise, I buy the hookup wire from the place Breaktru linked to. Best prices I've seen on that stuff.

c1truz · « **Reply #5 on:** January 12, 2014, 09:35:55 PM »

Well spent most of my day thoroughly reading the datasheet. With a little bit banging with some read only settings it seems as though ge has the current shutdown set at 15.5A. 6v @ 15.5A is quite impressive for the size of the module. I really hope to actually get time for some programming and testing soon. Will prob take everything to work tomorrow and try to squeeze a little in

.

c1truz · « **Reply #6 on:** January 13, 2014, 01:07:46 PM »

Alright while sitting at work today I wrote up some quick code and starting playing around with the module. I obviously cant break out an atty at work and burn it up but what I found so far is this.

1. All pads are soldered on the module.

2. Arduinos wire.h library doesn't work for some reason.

3. Downloaded an additional library and got the thing working.

4. I was wrong about the output fault. By bit banging with the code and not my head its actually 14A.

5. It took some work to get this thing up and going but after the background code it is really a breeze to send/receive info from. Almost too easy.

Overall I'm satisfied with the ease of the interface and design. I'm only using 2 pins on the micro controller so thats another good thing. I need to add input and output caps but other than that there are really no external components needed for basics. The address of the device can be set but since I don't have any other i2c devices I see no reason to. I can't really do any load testing at work but i'm going to continue the coding and see what I get when I get home.

CraigHB · « **Reply #7 on:** January 13, 2014, 02:36:33 PM »

Seems to work out that way sometimes, things you think are going to be hard are easy and things you think are going to be easy are hard. I've actually not had much trouble with things involving communications. For parts like LCDs and pots it takes a little figuring out on the data to actually send, but after that not much trouble. I've always had the most trouble with electrcial glitches that can be hard to track down, like electrical noise that causes things like spurious MCU resets or voltages and currents not measuring what's expected.

c1truz · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2014, 03:30:17 PM »

I like this module so much that i started designing a case for it yesterday. Just gonna get a quick 3d printed case done. Its cheap and will serve its purpose. I also ordered a few parts to make my own 3d printer. Going to be making it piece by piece. Here are the drawings I made. No holes for buttons etc etc. Keep in mind ive use a CAD program for all of 24 hours so they might not be the best. 90 x 56 x 21 is the size.

c1truz · « **Reply #9 on:** January 19, 2014, 10:52:43 PM »

This has nothing to do with a mod but my drivers side window switch shorted out a while back. i priced the part. 200 for the part and 100 for programming. Forget that. I took it apart and found the issue. Problem is the part is burnt and not readable. I looked for schematics and none avail. I know I may never figure out what part it is but was hoping its a common circuit and someone can at least tell me what type of part it is. I looked up the sot 23 beside it and it MAY be a transistor. I wrote the markings on the parts I could read. Here is a pic and halfa^@ schematic. I didnt draw symbols if I didnt know what it was. Just a box with pins. Any help would ne appreciated!!

c1truz · « **Reply #10 on:** January 19, 2014, 11:01:17 PM »

Pin 2 on the left and pin 3 on the right sot23 are connected to the plane above them and to the mcu. Poss ground. Schematic is wrong on that. Sorry

CraigHB · « **Reply #11 on:** January 20, 2014, 01:38:25 PM »

It's probably a transistor, but without a proper schematic there's just no way to tell what part it is. You have to put the exact same part in there or it still won't work. I would try an auto wrecker to find an inexpensive replacement. I lived on auto wrecker parts when I used to rebuild cars a lot in my youth. It's ridiculous what dealers charge for new parts.

c1truz · « **Reply #12 on:** January 20, 2014, 02:24:05 PM »

Ya the dealer really got me on this one. Well they think they do. Even if I buy it for $1, im going to have to take it to them to program it for my vehicles anti theft system. Its crazy what they do. Ill look around for a cheap one. If I put it and it turns my car off ill just take the part off the board and swap it over. Thats what I get for letting people ise my car and they let electronics get wet.

CraigHB · « **Reply #13 on:** January 20, 2014, 03:34:00 PM »

That's one thing you can say about those old cars with no electronics, parts were cheap and easy to replace. First time I got hit with that was when the regulator conked out on a truck I bought new in 1990. In the old days, it was just a matter of replacing the regulator for ten bucks. That truck had the regulator built into the engine controller which was a mere $600 replacement, and that was for a refurbished one. Never fixed it, traded in the truck for a new one, it was time anyway. That failure pushed me over the "time for a new truck" threshold.

c1truz · « **Reply #14 on:** January 20, 2014, 04:27:29 PM »

Well this car is soon to be my wifes. Well SUV maybe? Its a 05 envoy. The 06 envoys had a recall for the exact same problem. The board isn't protected from water seeping into it. Well obviously the 2005 has the same problem but no recall for me. I refused(been like this over a year but just got to looking at it) to fix this for that price. I moved the Passenger side switch over to the driver side for some reason that doesn't trip the anti theft. But if i put the drivers side on the passenger side it does. Window rolling was a necessity when I was a smoker. No way could I smoke with the window rolled up. I'm looking to get me an old honda...90s model to drive back and forth to work. If the motor blows on those you can get a new one for under 1000 bucks. And since I drive 55 miles each way to work, It would be smart to have a beater up anyway and not get a NEW car just to put 100k miles on it in a few years.

Visus · « **Reply #15 on:** January 20, 2014, 06:13:58 PM »

Looks easy enough to replace.. My

go into the dealer look at the new module take a picture then the rest is easy order.. If they dont have in parts stock then bummer..

Pick a part salvage is your your friend as Craig said; they wouldn't even charge ya for that part at mine..

They choose your suv as one the worse to buy list. bummer

My sister has a custom jaguar she's driven it one summer it is beautiful tho
It is also on that list --bummer

c1truz · « **Reply #16 on:** January 20, 2014, 06:42:38 PM »

Ive had no problems but the deer I hit. A few bearings and this. Oh yeah not to mention 15mpg highway.

Visus · « **Reply #17 on:** January 20, 2014, 07:01:32 PM »

She isnt as lucky, electrical gremlins.

It has 4 fuse boxes on each corner of the car and a main one in the passenger foot well.

You hit the brakes the backup reverse white lights emit
you use the turn signal and the brake lights come on
it goes into low engine power then comes out of it and makes for surprise exciting tire spin boost

it drains the battery in a few days when not being driven
the convertible top has a mind of its own, its disconnected have to manually raise and lower now
the list is a mile long but she loves her car lol
it was a birthday gift from her hubby..

when its running right its quick and has a great sound system

CraigHB · « **Reply #18 on:** January 21, 2014, 06:19:56 PM »

You know why the English like warm beer....because they all have Lucas refrigerators.

(British cars all have Lucas electrical systems, lights out Lucas)

c1truz · « **Reply #19 on:** January 23, 2014, 07:53:43 PM »

Well back to the subject. I received some displays from china. The bigger one is a 16x2 beside a standard 16x2. Screen size is about the size of the whole standard module. The thickness has no comparison. Both pictured are rgb Had to sacrifice using a zif for size. I just dont have room to stack in the mod. The small one is a graphical with rgb backlight that im going to play around with. Requires 11 external caps so its just for experimentation.

c1truz · « **Reply #20 on:** January 23, 2014, 08:42:28 PM »

What I failed to mention is the graphical uses a 30 pin .5 mm zif. I have finally figured out this reflow stuff. This is without any clean-up.

Breaktru · « **Reply #21 on:** January 24, 2014, 08:37:24 AM »

Quote from: c1truz on January 23, 2014, 08:42:28 PM

What I failed to mention is the graphical uses a 30 pin .5 mm zif. I have finally figured out this reflow stuff. This is without any clean-up.

Pretty amazing

c1truz · « **Reply #22 on:** January 24, 2014, 08:58:03 AM »

They way I did that was to put just A LITTLE paste on there and spread it evenly. Sounds easy enough right? Well when I say just a little. When its on there you can barely even see it until its heated. Basically you want to be able to still see the board, contacts and all that good stuff but they just look a little dull. I'll take pics later of what it should look like. Maybe it can help someone get the picture.

Also I'm cheap. I don't use any special tools for this. I have 2 methods I use. Heat Gun or Skillet. Neither are good for targeting heat to a specific area but both work well at full board flowing.

Heatgun - well thats from walmart -> Wagner HT1000 Heat Tool $21 bucks or so. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Wagner-HT1000-Heat-Tool/14895594

Skillet - well you can use any hot plate or electric skillet for this and its actually how I did the .5mm pitch pins above. Just don't use it for cooking after you have used it for flowing

I actually use a skillet as in an old stove top skillet for mine.

Wife says " Whats are you cooking?" I say "Circuit boards honey." lol What can I say, I'm cheap!

So don't be intimidated by small pitch stuff. You don't have to spend bookoos of money for equipment. It can be done for little to nothing as far as spending goes. Just takes some practice to get it down. I used WAY to much paste the first few times I did that Li ion charger and it took hours to clean up the pins but now as you see Its actually really easy and took me less than 5 mins start to finish for that connector.

c1truz · « **Reply #23 on:** January 24, 2014, 02:05:50 PM »

Well good/bad news. Good--got my prototype case in today.

Bad - spec sheet on the lcd is way off on VA . Easy fix

Its about .5 mm too thin because of the battery. I meant to add extra area in there for swelling and specs being different.

The case is supposed to be 4 pieces. I received one back. A hollow shell. Well I broke it within 5 mins. But it was cheap and now I can change a few specs and order a final case. Here is a pic of everything in it and yes its cracked

lol

Breaktru · « **Reply #24 on:** January 24, 2014, 02:39:40 PM »

Sorry to hear about the case cracking.
If it was suppose to be 4 pieces, why did they make it a one piece?

CraigHB · « **Reply #25 on:** January 24, 2014, 03:05:17 PM »

FPC connectors are hard to solder by hand, I've done a few that way. Much easier to reflow them and that's how they're designed to be soldered.

I've reflowed in a frying pan before, not the best way to do it, but it works. A toaster oven can do the job pretty well and it's cheap.

Regular heat guns are too imprecise to do a whole lot with. You can overheat things too easily. However, you can get hot air soldering stations that are perfect for reflow, pricey though.

One of those adjustable hot plates for lab use would work well. They're not cheap, but I've been tempted to buy one.

I've never heard the term "cheap" used with anything done by a 3D printing shop. Who did you use?

If you send them one drawing, they'll make one piece. You have to use a separate drawing for each part, of course that makes it more expensive too. It's possible to use breakaway stringers to connect multiple parts on one drawing, but the one time I tried it, they rejected the drawing.

c1truz · « **Reply #26 on:** January 24, 2014, 03:36:52 PM »

Ya I figuered it was my fault. I just sent one file. Being my first time I didnt know.

It was 15 bucks and made with some kinda printer. Wasnt a standard 3d printer. Real rough amd fragile. I just wanted to see where I needed to make adjustments. I wasnt planning on using it for a mod anyway. Ill have to look where I got it. Cant think off the top of my head. When I get home ill tell yall.

c1truz · « **Reply #27 on:** January 24, 2014, 03:39:28 PM »

One reason I started making a 3d printer was the cost of getting parts made. Id rather just do it myself anyway. About a week and ill have all parts ordered for it. Prob with a 3d printer is all the work u have to do to smooth it out but thats ok.

c1truz · « **Reply #28 on:** January 24, 2014, 03:40:32 PM »

3dsytems.com is where I got it.

CraigHB · « **Reply #29 on:** January 24, 2014, 04:23:05 PM »

Thanks,

I've been using Solid Concepts, but I've used 3DSystems before through a site called QuickParts. 3DSystems is actually the company that invented several of the processes used in 3D printing, they pretty much started the whole thing. In any case, prices are similar between them for the SLS process. I think the quality is a little better with Solid Concepts.

I haven't seen a process that makes parts that cheap, but I haven't looked in a while, maybe something new has popped up. So far SLS offers the strongest parts, and they are really tough. My SLS stuff has help up amazing well. The process does create parts with a rough surface so you have to finish them yourself. You can pay them to put a finish on the parts, but they're already expensive when you get them straight out of the machine.

I actually have a filament type 3D printer I use for stuff, but there's a world or difference between that and the SLS process done by machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I use my own printer for odds and ends and the parts are fairly tough, but I need the more expensive process for the mod enclosures. The precision is hugely better and the parts are hugely stronger.

c1truz · « **Reply #30 on:** January 24, 2014, 06:06:11 PM »

The cheap process is pjp(plastic jet printing). Its more for prototyping and is very brittle it seems. I didnt know much about it but gave it a shot for 15 bucks. If I would have gotten it in the 4 pieces it would have been fine but trying to cut it open was a no no lol. Now I know to order seperate or makebreak offs next time.

Visus · « **Reply #31 on:** January 24, 2014, 07:02:01 PM »

Loving your mod c1

Im going to be doing this as soon as all my parts come in took 6 months before to gather everything.. Hoping the mcu mod goes faster, it appears it wont, but I am patience of patient.. I have a good toaster oven to do it with too. I will have to add a temp controller but woot ready on that end..

Heads up for your test case prints, the main library in your areas may offer a free printing. We have three stations at our main library here in Chicago.. Smaller mains have 1 or two stations and its all free..

Woot Friday

c1truz · « **Reply #32 on:** January 24, 2014, 08:50:31 PM »

Thanks a lot. When I got it I was surprised how small it was considering it is a buck and outputs up to 84 watts. I designed with mm and my brain still doesnt associate mm to actual size. So getting the case I realized. I wish it was a little more rounded on the edges. I may experiment with that later on.

CraigHB · « **Reply #33 on:** January 26, 2014, 04:15:10 AM »

Quote from: c1truz on January 24, 2014, 06:06:11 PM

The cheap process is pjp(plastic jet printing).

Oh okay, that's a new one I haven't seen yet. I've been going straight from my drawing to my "production" print, for lack of a better word. Seem to be able to pull that off with the 3D printing stuff, sure can't do that with electronics though. I've never once had a PCB fabbed I didn't have to revise at some point.

Speaking of that, I submitted a board for fab last week and I freaked tonight because I thought I wasn't going to be able to use a part I put on it. I put the part an a protoboard to check it ~after~ I did the PCB design. Damn thing wasn't working as expected, then I realized I ordered the wrong part, doh!

I have the correct part on order now and I'll get it checked out. Hopefully it will work okay and I won't have wasted 40 bucks and 3 weeks lead time. It was the 10 bit digital pot, I ordered the voltage divider one instead of the variable resistor one. I've been kicking myself all evening. Just goes to show you, can't ever eliminate stupid mistakes 100% of the time.

Thurge · « **Reply #34 on:** January 26, 2014, 08:07:46 PM »

The specs on this makes it seem like it would be a good platform for a first mod. Would the form factor of the PDT012A0X fit in a tube mod?

c1truz · « **Reply #35 on:** January 27, 2014, 03:02:09 PM »

Idk if it would. Ill try when I get home to see.

c1truz · « **Reply #36 on:** February 20, 2014, 03:15:15 PM »

Wow been almost a month since ive been on here or posted anything. where has the time gone? Haven't done much with any mods lately though I haven't forgotten. Should have my 3d printer up and working this weekend and maybe have some prototype cases done. When those are all to spec ill post a video or picture of the completed mod.

On a side note. We lost power down here for 4 days(SC) because of a big ass ice storm. Talk about fun fun! Living like pioneers!

Breaktru · « **Reply #37 on:** February 20, 2014, 03:55:13 PM »

Welcome back from your 1 month absence c1truz.
It will be interesting to see the 3D printer.

It's a real bummer losing power. Sorry to hear that.

vaperkarma · « **Reply #38 on:** February 21, 2014, 12:38:50 PM »

Your very own 3D printer