Electrolysis Power Supply PCB Design
Budget: $750 – $1,500 USD
I am putting together a dedicated power-supply/driver for silver-ion electrolysis in distilled or otherwise very low-conductivity water and need a complete, production-ready solution rather than a loose collection of ideas.
From a single 110 VAC wall input the unit must deliver a rock-solid, adjustable 20–60 VDC output while holding constant current anywhere between 0.5 A and 10 A. The load will run for up to eight hours at a stretch, so component choice, trace widths, and heat management have to be engineered for endurance; I want to handle temperature with firmware-controlled thermal throttling, not brute-force shutdown.
Additional functional blocks I need included:
• Bidirectional (shared-electrode) polarity switching with user-selectable cycle times between 1 and 30 minutes.
• A small, front-panel LCD that shows live voltage, current, present polarity, and any status or fault messages.
• A USB port that exposes the raw data stream so an external PPM meter (and future logging software) can read concentration values.
Deliverables I expect:
1. Complete, simulation-tested schematic in Altium, KiCad, or a comparable professional package.
2. Optimised multilayer PCB layout with clearances suited for 60 V/10 A, including silkscreen labelling and test points.
3. Full manufacturing pack—Gerbers, drill files, pick-and-place, BOM with part numbers in active distribution, and an assembly drawing.
4. Firmware source and compiled binary for the control MCU covering LCD menu, USB output, polarity timing, constant-current/voltage regulation, and thermal throttling logic.
5. Bench test report demonstrating:
– Output stability within ±2 % over the full voltage/current range for eight hours,
– Ripple under 50 mV pp at maximum load,
– Polarity-switch timing accuracy within ±5 s,
– Proper throttling response at preset temperature limits.
6. Short hand-off guide so any PCB house can reproduce the board and I can calibrate a fresh unit in the lab.
If you have previous experience designing switch-mode or linear-hybrid supplies for electro-plating, water treatment, or LED drivers, your insight will be invaluable. Please outline similar projects you have taken from concept to tested hardware and let me know how quickly you can turn the first revision.
From a single 110 VAC wall input the unit must deliver a rock-solid, adjustable 20–60 VDC output while holding constant current anywhere between 0.5 A and 10 A. The load will run for up to eight hours at a stretch, so component choice, trace widths, and heat management have to be engineered for endurance; I want to handle temperature with firmware-controlled thermal throttling, not brute-force shutdown.
Additional functional blocks I need included:
• Bidirectional (shared-electrode) polarity switching with user-selectable cycle times between 1 and 30 minutes.
• A small, front-panel LCD that shows live voltage, current, present polarity, and any status or fault messages.
• A USB port that exposes the raw data stream so an external PPM meter (and future logging software) can read concentration values.
Deliverables I expect:
1. Complete, simulation-tested schematic in Altium, KiCad, or a comparable professional package.
2. Optimised multilayer PCB layout with clearances suited for 60 V/10 A, including silkscreen labelling and test points.
3. Full manufacturing pack—Gerbers, drill files, pick-and-place, BOM with part numbers in active distribution, and an assembly drawing.
4. Firmware source and compiled binary for the control MCU covering LCD menu, USB output, polarity timing, constant-current/voltage regulation, and thermal throttling logic.
5. Bench test report demonstrating:
– Output stability within ±2 % over the full voltage/current range for eight hours,
– Ripple under 50 mV pp at maximum load,
– Polarity-switch timing accuracy within ±5 s,
– Proper throttling response at preset temperature limits.
6. Short hand-off guide so any PCB house can reproduce the board and I can calibrate a fresh unit in the lab.
If you have previous experience designing switch-mode or linear-hybrid supplies for electro-plating, water treatment, or LED drivers, your insight will be invaluable. Please outline similar projects you have taken from concept to tested hardware and let me know how quickly you can turn the first revision.