Voltlog #288 – New BLTouch 3DTouch Plastic Pin Sensor Upgrade

Back in 2018 I installed a Bltouch sensor on my Creality CR10 3d printer and I showed the process in Voltlog #177, that video is one of the most popular videos on the channel and now after using the printer with the upgrade for a couple of years I can clearly say it’s probably one of the best upgrades you can do to your 3d printer and it’s pretty cheap. I won’t go into too much detail about what the sensor does and how to install it because that is discussed in Voltlog #177.

However I did experience a downside after this upgrade, some users are reporting the same problem while others don’t face this issue. It’s important to note I am using a BLtouch clone called 3D touch, purchased from Aliexpress. It’s the type that has a metal push rod through the middle. The issue I’m having is a vibration noise coming from that metal pin vibrating inside the sensor when the printer moves on the Y axis. This issue might or might not be present on a genuine sensor or just another unit which might have tighter tolerances.

Voltlog #280 – TPS62840 olmBoard Ultra Low Power Step Down Converter

Welcome to a new Voltlog, in this video we are taking a look at the TPS62840 ultra low power step down converter from Texas Instruments. It’s basically a buck converter with an input voltage of 1.8-6.5V, 750mA output current, with a quiescent current of just 60nA and active current of just 120nA. It also features very good efficiency at light loads of just 1uA it can offer 80 percent efficiency.

Other features include 16 selectable output voltages through an external resistor and a stop pin which when activated will completely stop any switching to eliminate any switching noise for a short moment, allowing you to take for example an ultra low noise measurement during that time. During that take power will be sourced from the output capacitors. So it looks like this is a pretty interesting dc-dc converter, with really nice features and it’s optimized for ultra low power devices.