[KwartzLab] DC-DC Converters

[doug moen]

I just re-read Snow Crash (it's the 20th anniversary), and the nuclear
powered rail gun in that book is pretty sweet. However, the radioisotopes
you need for thermoelectric generators are freaking expensive. United
Nuclear charges $79 for 0.1 microcurie of Strontium 90, and you need a lot
more than that to power a rail gun. (Sr90 is 300 curies per Watt.) So I'm a
bit stymied on this one.

However, I agree that we do need more devices that require 20,000+V in a
bank of capacitors to fire up. The large Tesla coil at Communitech last
week had almost exactly this requirement, and it was pretty sweet.

On 20 September 2012 12:14, Bob DeGregory <bob.degregory at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm a bit old-fashioned, preferring mechanical or chemical power sources
> for my ballistics. However, nuclear might be cute.
>
> On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Karl Williams <karlw at thinkbotics.com>wrote:
>
>> So true LOL. That reminds me that I need to build another coil gun...
>>
>> > I think Karl is hinting that you should be using a higher input voltage.
>> > I'm pretty sure he doesn't respect any electronic device that doesn't
>> > require 20,000V+ in a bank of capacitors to fire up ;)
>> >
>> > Ben
>> >
>> > On 9/20/2012 11:33 AM, Bob DeGregory wrote:
>> >> Thanks Karl,
>> >>
>> >> But it looks like EMCO is great for step-up. I perused about a dozen+
>> >> of their lines but I can't find anything they offer for step-down.
>> >> Everything seems to be HVDC output. Maybe that's why they call
>> >> themselves EMCO High Voltage <snort>
>> >>
>> >> So I'm still lookin'
>> >>
>> >> On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Karl Williams <karlw at thinkbotics.com
>>  >> <mailto:karlw at thinkbotics.com>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>     I've used products from Emco for high voltage applications and the
>> >>     modules
>> >>     are reliable: http://www.emcohighvoltage.com/
>> >>
>> >>     > I'm fixin' to use Li-ion tool batteries to drive a variety of
>> >>     loads so I
>> >>     > need DC-DC conversion with variety of load characteristics and
>> >>     output
>> >>     > voltages (obviously not all at once from single device).
>> >>     >
>> >>     > This one on Amazon looks interesting:
>> >>     >
>> >>
>> http://www.amazon.com/Voltage-Step-Converter-Module-Waterproof/dp/B008IWEF1C/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1348150933&sr=1-6&keywords=dc+dc+converter+12v+5v+20a
>> >>     >
>> >>     > Any experience with unit referenced above?
>> >>     >
>> >>     > Any alternative recommendations for similar device?
>> >>     >   I like input voltages that range from say 9VDC up to as high
>> >>     as 40VDC
>> >>     >   I like local or at least North American availabilty not drop
>> >>     ship from
>> >>     > China
>> >>     >   I need 12VDC and 5VDC output probably up to about 3A
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