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Disaster struck last night. My dc-dc converter got toasted I am pretty sure. The input voltage range for it is only 10.8-13.2V. Well, I think my switch (which actuates with almost no physical input) got bumped or jostled and the alternator turned on bumping the voltage up to 14.4V. Then, it got turned back off which exposed the dc-dc converter to more than 13.2V as the battery voltage slowly fell. And, while it can take a 100ms spike at 18V (which I had hoped would be enough), it stopped working. So, I am thinking that I have two choices:
1) Create a protection circuit so the dc-dc converter never sees above 13.2V.
2) Use a different dc-dc converter.
I'm partial to #1 because I bought two dc-dc converters just in case I fried one. However, I'm thinking #2 may be a better option. A voltage divider will not work for the spread of voltages I'm looking at. I did the calculations. I'm not aware of any other simple circuit that can keep the voltage to the dc-dc converter in the necessary range. I'm not looking to make this complex.
On the upside, this would have happened anyway once I figured out the regen side of things because that would have been intentionally turning the alternator on and off. So, the dc-dc converter has to be able to handle this scenario if I am going to go through with that phase of the modification.
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