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Turkmenistan, Ashgabat
1 Level
718 Review
64 Karma

Review on ⚡ Buck Converter 24V to 5V - DROK DC 4-32V Adjustable Step Down Module by Greg Princeking

Revainrating 1 out of 5

substandard connectors; it's getting hot; does not support stable output voltage!

The build quality of this step-down converter looks good at first glance; However, the blue screw terminals are of very poor quality. The connectors are so flimsy that they will move (or twist) if you try to screw the wires into the board. One of the connectors had a free wire, meaning the board only got power when I pushed the connector. I ended up just unsoldering both connectors and soldering the wires directly to the board. The second problem was that the regulator got very hot. Even with a slight drop in voltage from 27 V to 24 V at 0.9 A, the controller quickly became very hot. This unit is rated for 1.5A continuous and 3.0A peak, but I don't think those numbers are accurate considering how hot the regulator gets. I ended up installing a small heatsink on top of the regulator hoping it would suffice. One of the capacitors is also getting a little warm, which I don't understand since I'm powering it with DC power from the battery (maybe the heat is just transferring through the PCB from the regulator to the cap). The third and biggest problem I had was that the output voltage didn't stay constant. The output voltage rises with low current consumption and falls with high current intensity. And the output voltage drops when the input voltage drops, such as when the battery runs out. I also think that the output voltage drops as the temperature of the regulator increases. Pros: It's nice to be able to view input voltage, output voltage and current right on the buck converter itself. The voltage shown on the buck converter was 0.1V off my DMM, but that's enough for most purposes. There are no indicator lights to show what value you're seeing when you press the mode button to cycle through the displays (other than the "A" suffix for current), but you can usually distinguish between the two voltages depending on the context. In general, it could be a good product, but it needs serious improvement: better connectors (or even remove them altogether!), a more efficient (or powerful) controller and/or heatsink, mode indicator LEDs on the display and z scream out loud those Output voltage should never differ from the specified one!

Pros
  • Comfortable
Cons
  • Weight