power distribution

[Ram44]

Hi,

I am new to this form and i have been assigned to design a power distribution board that distributes 12V and 5Vdc to about 10 other boards. i am not sure how to proceed with this. i know that its not as easy as connecting the voltage lines. any guidance on how to go about with this shall be appreciated.

thank you

 

[DRWeig]

Hi RAM44,

If you're talking about printed circuit boards, as in low-power electronics, you might be better off posting your question in the "circuit engineering" forum.

If you're delivering lots of power at these voltages, we need lots more info in order to help. How much load, what distances, power supply size, etc...

Best to ya,

Old Dave

 

[ruggedscot]

This was something that I had to do at one point and it is a lot more difficult than it looks especially with lower voltages and such. If you are pulling in high currents then the voltage drops become excessive and if this load changes through wide variations then that alone can set up complicated disturbances on the dc lines that need to be taken into consideration if this can affect critical loads.

Id look into the following -

seperate the high power and low poer loads
provide regulation and filtering on critical supplies
this can be achieved simply with diodes and capacitors.

Utilise voltage sensing on the lines so that you have regulation at the point of entry to the equipment rather than at the output of the power supply.

Use many capacitors through out the supply distribution network to provide some filtering capacity locally.

What supplies are you using conventional tranny rectifiers or more modern switch mode ? Id go with switch mode as these are smaller and more resiliant now. Also you could distribute the power supplies to more local locations and reduce losses on the heavier power items.

Rugged

 

[Ram44]

Power regulation is being done locally on each of the 10 boards. Worst case full load scenario is about 150mA on one board.
Each board does the same function and work alike.
The distance to which the power has to be distributed is about 2 feet maximum where the 10 boards would be located on either side of the board.
Each board is around 4-6 inches apart.

IS there any tutorial or any link I could follow to have a better understanding about power distribution boards and guidelines to design them. I looked around for tutorials and could not find many.

Thank you

 

[buzzp]

When you cross post it becomes very difficult to follow the conversation.
I have posted to your other post in circuit engineering.