Converter DC-DC 0.6A 1-5V to 5V



Official specifications:

• Input voltage: 1V~5V
• Output voltage: 5V
• Output Current: 600mA
• PCB size: 17.55mm*25.22mm*5.85 mm
• En bloc Size: 17.55*32.53*8.3mm
• high conversion efficiency, up to 96%

Measurements

This chapter only contains a few of the measurement, click here to see all

• Power consumption when idle is between 2mA and 10mA depending on voltage.
• Size: 25.3 x 18.2 x 6.1 mm

Saying it works from 1V is a bit optimistic, I only got 30mA out of it before voltage was too low.



With 3V input is works better, but far from perfect and I got about 0.4A before voltage dropped too low.



With 4V input the voltage is slightly high over most of the range and it can deliver about 0.55A





With a constant 100mA load and slowly reducing voltage I got down to about 2V before the output voltage was too low.



Using the rated 0.6A current is not really possible if it needs to boost the voltage any significant amount.



Input current varies with input voltage, from about 2mA at 5V up to 10mA at 1V.



I used 4V input for this load test.



M1: 48.2°C, M2: 50.3°C, M3: 42.4°C, HS1: 53.0°C
The diode got a bit warm, but not very much.



With no load on the output the voltage goes up and down with about 0.6V, that is a lot.



Loading the output did not help.



But adding a capacitor fixed it, I used 330uF.



The output voltage do not drop when the load is turned on.



But the voltage jumps up when load is removed.



The 330uF capacitors fixed that.



A closer looks



The circuit is very simple with a 3 pin chip (U1) that basically does all the switching and control, in addition to this is the inductor and a rectifier diode (D1). For showing that output power is present is a resistor (R1) and a LED (D2).









This side only has markings.





Conclusion

At 2V input (Two AA batteries) the converter can supply about 100mA, with 3V input (LiIon battery) it can supply about 300mA, this is fine for smaller 5V circuits, but there must be a extra capacitor on the output of the converter.
Remember a protection circuit if used with a LiIon battery.