00:00Hashtag LDO vs DC-DC converter, which powers your board.
00:04Okay, quick question for the makers at home, you ever hook a battery to a circuit and watch
00:09your chip get warm, your 3.3 volt rails sag the second the motor kicks on, and your code
00:14crash with a random watchdog reset?
00:16Yeah.
00:18That's not a bad solder job.
00:20That's a power supply problem.
00:23And this is the one video that finally settles the LDO vs DC-DC converter debate because
00:28I went through the actual deals on the table right now, and honestly, for a couple bucks,
00:32you have no excuse.
00:34So let's start with the big one, the one that does the most for the least.
00:38This is the DC-DC buck boost converter module, 5.5 to 30 volts in, 0.5 to 30 volts
00:45out, for
00:45amps, 35 watts, and it even has a digital LCD voltmeter right on the top so you can actually
00:50see what's happening without a multimeter.
00:53Adjustable step up or step down, same board.
00:57You know that project where you need 12 volts from 5, or 5 volts from a pack of 8?
01:02This is the board.
01:04It's $5.78, it's rated 4.9 stars across nearly 5,000 sales, and for the price of a
01:11sandwich you get a lap bench in your pocket.
01:13Now, if your project is dead simple, Arduino, ESP32, a couple of sensors, you probably don't
01:19need 35 watts of headroom, you need a tiny step-up board and nothing else.
01:24That's the MT-3608 boost module.
01:272 to 24 volts in, tap it for 5, 9, 12, or 28 volts out, 2 amps max.
01:34It's a buck boost board, and 2 amps is plenty for LEDs, a small display, or a sensor hat.
01:40And this one is a buck because you get the multi-pack, 1 to 10 pieces for $1.05.
01:46You want one, you get one.
01:48You want 10 for a workshop, for a class, for the friend you keep lending boards to, 10 for
01:53the price of 2, no-brainer.
01:55But sometimes you need to go the other way.
01:58Sometimes you have 12 volts from a wall adapter and your 3.3-volt microcontroller needs exactly
02:043.3, and you need it to be clean, and you need it now.
02:08That's the LM2596 step-down module, and this is the classic.
02:13Adjustable from 4 volts all the way down to 1.3, classic LM2596 silicon, solid as a brick,
02:19and 4.9 stars with almost 5,000 units sold.
02:23It's $3.29.
02:26There's a reason every maker's drawer has 3 of these in it.
02:30Set the output with a screwdriver, feed it 12, get out what you need.
02:35Done.
02:37Same LM2596 family, but upgraded with the thing I actually want on a bench, a live LED
02:42voltage display.
02:44This is the LM2596 with LED display voltmeter, 4 to 40 volts in, 1.3 to 37 volts out, and
02:51the
02:51readout is right there in front of you.
02:53No more guessing, no more probing, you see the volts change when you plug the load in.
02:59And here's the move, 2 pieces for $3.74, so it's $1.87 a board.
03:05That's the one I'd buy for a bench setup where I'm constantly swapping loads.
03:10Meter built-in, money saved.
03:11So which one actually wins the LDO versus DC-DC argument?
03:17Depends on your rail.
03:19If you need 3.3 volts from a 5-volt supply and the current is small, an LDO is cleaner
03:24and quieter, but a buck module gets you there too, and it does it way more efficiently.
03:29If you need to step up, or you need more current than a tiny LDO can handle, DC-DC wins
03:34every
03:34time.
03:36That's the whole answer.
03:38Links for all five are in the description.
03:41If this saved you a fried board, hit like, and subscribe, I'll see you in the next one.
