DC to DC converter housing

[Jack Crow]

Hi all,
Had this DC to DC converter for about ten years.
The idea for it was to power a laptop computer in the car as a support tool for radio direction finding projects.

Todays use is to bring a laptop to the car and use it to program up some radios mounted in the trunk, rather than pulling them out and putting them on the bench.

This thing moves a fair amount of current and will generate a bit of heat.
So I had to make room for the board, it's heat sink, and a small fan.
Like any switching power supply, I wanted to add a ferrite clamp on the input side to knock down any switch noise from radiating down the input wire.

2-2-2018 001.JPG

This is how I made the fan opening.
The first cut I had the finger guard arranged in horizontal mode.
For some reason Cura would not produce fill.
Had I let it run, the printer would have tried to air print on exactly nothing.
So I re worked the drawing in the vertical mode and that worked fine, printing on it's own post.
2-2-2018 004.JPG

Hooked it up to power for a test.
Had it running on the bench last night while the dogs and I went to the corner pizza dealer.
For a load, I use a four 8 ohm high wattage resistors mounted to a heat sink.
Can re arrange jumpers to make various load combinations.
So depending on load the draw would change.
Near maximum rating it drew over 8 amps from the bench supply and delivered about 4.5 amps into the load at 19 volts.
Did not even get warm. So the fan was big enough.
Ripple was trivial.
So this is a good unit. More than good enough for what I want it to do.

This is the input / output side.
Was going to have LED's on each one but it turned out one was enough.
Will need to add some strain relief's but that is easy.
2-2-2018 006.JPG

The side view with it's openings for air flow.
I feel a yawn breaking out.
2-2-2018 005.JPG

Even made a top cover. This fits well. Nice and snug.
2-2-2018 008.JPG

The housing it's self is quite rugged.
I can lean on it and it will not flex.

Todays plan is to pick up some more screws, tie up some loose ends and put it into service.

Be well all.
Jack Crow aka radio Mike