Phoenix Gold Phorum

Here's another quick one. A few years back I designed a 66.6F replacement supercap board for the leaky 15F alumapro modules in the ti powercores. I've had one assembled for more than a year and running reliably in my daily shop. The same client I did the other ti amps for also sent me a powercore for repair. I didn't take many pictures, but what I did will be below. I'll take a few more as I assemble tomorrow.

Overall it was a pretty simple repair, there was more involved in sorting out the mechanical aspects than the electrical. It uses 6 Eaton 400F supercap in series for a total voltage rating of 16.2V and final capacitance of 66.67F. The board is made in 2oz copper for high current capacity. The biggest issue with the whole thing was needing to relocate the tri-leds and securely mounting the new board. The tri-leds used to tr to a steel cover plate which retained the alumapro module. The cover plate would no longer fit and the led boards needed to be mounted to the case to instead. Studs were added to the top of the case to hold the led boards. The other issue was the supercap board. Initially I tried to mount it on standard aluminum standoffs, but some of the clearances were too tight to the holes and it was potentially possible for the module to short to the case. I ended up using nylon standoffs which are mounted with countersink flush m3 screws up from the bottom. The stud of the standoffs goes through the boards mounting holes, then a 3d printed plastic washer, then a standard m3 nut. This turned out to be the winning combo. The next revision of my board will have the traces pulled back further from the mounting holes though. Also, on the bottom of the boards there is a balance resistor for each supercap. Simple passive balancing would not work well for scenerios where you need it to be super efficient for something like offline backup, but for an application like this it will work just fine and is the most cost effective way to do the job.

If there are any questions, I'll do my best to answer, just lmk.

Later,
Jason

reading the description before scrolling down I was expecting a much more complex system than what I saw. Looks good and thanks for sharing again. What would you charge for this?

cool!

ttocs wrote: ↑Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:38 pm What would you charge for this?

Sorry Scott, I forgot to reply to your question. The cost of parts has been fluctuating a lot due to the new Asian import duties, but as of right now they are about $250 provided one sends me the case to make the mods and fit the new module.

I'm finding that when a lot of the alumapro modules cracked and leaked, they must have offgassed something corrosive, maybe some boiled electrolyte, and the vapor has gotten into the main contractor and corroded it badly. I have new mag contractors for them and if needed they cost another $50.

There has been a lot to solve from a mechanical standpoint. Initially I was going to offer the replacement board for people who wanted to diy for $175, but there is so much to it that I'm not comfortable supplying it as a kit.

Thanks,
Jason

I made a bit more progress on these over the last few days. I had a feedback from a few people that they did not like the unobstructed view of the yellow supercaps. I designed a 3d printer bracket that allowed me to reinstall the original grate baffle above the caps. This also has to be filled and tapped and the main case had to be modified as well.

I am also characterizing and certifying some AVX supercaps which have a little better specs and best of all, are not bright yellow...

I might be down for that if I can come across a case. If anyone knows of one good/bad/ugly let me know.

I believe I have one spare case. I was planning to use it to make one to sell to help fund my insanity. I'm not 100% sure where in my empire of dirt it resides though, so don't count on it until I can dig for it a bit. Keep your fellers out for one just in case... Hahaha, see what I did there? Case, hehehehe

yea let me know if you come across it.