Webench: Your thoughts?

[MrBEEF]

Hey Everyone,

By career, I'm a mixed-signal/ASIC/FPGA/PCB/SYS Engineer. I want to design a power supply which can take in 8-12VDC and bump this up to 60VDC @ 500mA. I am not experienced in supply design, though I know some, but this is not my forte....

Now there's WEBENCH......

So I set it up, enter some #'s and BLAMO, it spits out 4 options.....and I choose #1 due to it's efficiency....AMAZING...spits out a BOM....DOOD...I'm out of the job (not yet )

HOWEVER....is this LEGIT? Seems so....but I have some doubts....

My questions to everyone are the following:

1) Has anyone used WEBENCH for a supply design, implemented and tested and got what they were targeting? If no, how bad was it off?

2) Any words of advice using Webench?

Thanks,
-Peter

 

[crutschow]

I haven't used WEBENCH but it's supported by TI in the design of their products, so I would think it would work fairly well to give a proper design, otherwise they would get a lot of unhappy customers, and that is definitely not what they want. Thus I believe that the design it gives would work fairly close to the simulation results when built.

But a very significant factor in the correct operation of a switching power supply is proper layout, decoupling, and grounding. Often the data sheet will show a recommended PC layout. Try to follow that as close a practical. A shoddy layout can give you no end of grief.

 

[MrBEEF]

hey Crutshow,

Yeah I was thinking the same of TI....for me, they are a tip-top company...

As for layout...that's one of my forte, so I am good there..but to design one of these 60V/80V Boosts from scatch...thanks *** they create this Webench...perhaps I'll just spin a quick $120 Advanced circuits PCB for this.

Thanks for the vote of confidence,
-MrBEEF

I haven't used WEBENCH but it's supported by TI in the design of their products, so I would think it would work fairly well to give a proper design, otherwise they would get a lot of unhappy customers, and that is definitely not what they want. Thus I believe that the design it gives would work fairly close to the simulation results when built.

But a very significant factor in the correct operation of a switching power supply is proper layout, decoupling, and grounding. Often the data sheet will show a recommended PC layout. Try to follow that as close a practical. A shoddy layout can give you no end of grief.