Tag: PCBWay

IGBT Driver – Out With The Old, In With The New (Year)

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IGBT Driver PCB

First off, happy New Year! I hope that everyone is doing well in 2018. The first batch of IGBT Driver boards (Hybrid Driver v1.3) from PCBWay came in today, and they look great! 🙂

IGBT Driver Old And New - PCBWay

PCBWay Manufacturer

This order was my first time using PCBWay and I am blown away by how seamless from end to end the entire process is! I love the technological process tracking, it’s funny, but it reminds me a bit of how some pizza places track the progress of your pizza. My order was accepted, manufactured, shipped and in my shop in no time at all!

The quality of the boards, through-hole plating, silkscreen, bottom side tinning, and everything is a definite A+. I received excellent communication and engineering cooperation from the beginning. Although there are other PCB manufacturers that I like, I am going to use these guys going forward! I’d recommend them for prototyping or production.

PCBWay Technological Process Tracking

Open Source Advocate

I especially like that they encourage open source projects by allowing you to share your board designs, schematics, and project details after ordering. Here is the Hybrid Driver v1.3 in PCBWay’s project sharing section.  They make it easy for others to order boards since all the Gerber files are already there and pre-approved. They even give a 10% back to the project creator. Check it out and take a look at there projects, there are some impressive ones. I like OpenReflow, a control board to convert a simple toaster oven into an accurate reflow oven for soldering SMD components.

IGBT Driver

The new driver boards look great. I like the high gloss black solder mask and the highly visible white silkscreen over it. The slots for the IGBT gate connections turned out great. The board edges are clean and completely burr free. The only mistake I’ve found is that I forgot to set the OSH logo font to vector, so it expanded a bit and overlapped the G2 silkscreen. I also tweaked a few device name silkscreen positions to improve visibility.

IGBT Hybrid Driver v1.3

I’m waiting for the bulk orders of the VLA106-15242 isolated DC to DC converters and the M57962L gate drivers. After that, I’ll stuff the boards and get them in the ReactorForge to continue refining the firmware.


IGBT Driver Stuff Board

The First Kit

I’m planning on making the IGBT Driver (Hybrid Driver v1.3) the first complete kit. Of course, it will be standalone, apart from the rest of the induction heater. I’m ok with having the major components of the induction heater available individually as well as part of the whole machine kit.

I have never made a kit like this, but I am entirely confident that I can put together a great one. Still, this will give me the chance to test that confidence on a smaller scale. I’ve already established a supply chain for the parts and the PCB. What’s left is ordering consumables such as antistatic shielding bags, labels, and packaging. Then, of course, the written plans or instructions for the kit.