DC-DC Converter Efficiency Meter
About this project
BuckForge is an ESP32-based DC-DC buck converter efficiency profiler that delivers real-time electrical characterisation of an LM2596S-ADJ step-down switching regulator. Input voltage is sampled via a 47kΩ:10kΩ resistive divider on GPIO34; output voltage through an identical 47kΩ:10kΩ divider on GPIO35; and output load current through a precision 0.5Ω 2W shunt resistor monitored at GPIO33. All three channels are averaged across 64 ADC readings per cycle to suppress the ESP32's inherent ADC nonlinearity. Output power Pout = Vout × Iout is computed directly from measured values; input power is estimated via the ideal buck duty-cycle relationship corrected by a user-tunable loss factor kLoss (default 15%), giving conversion efficiency η = Pout/Pin × 100%. A four-state FSM — EFFICIENT / MODERATE / POOR / OVERLOAD — drives three colour-coded indicator LEDs and a passive buzzer. A session energy integrator accumulates delivered watt-hours. The ESP32 operates in WiFi Access Point mode and serves a nine-panel live dashboard at 192.168.4.1, refreshed every two seconds via XHR polling of a /data JSON endpoint. A /setloss endpoint accepts a calibrated kLoss value derived from an external ammeter, allowing students to reconcile modelled and measured efficiency without reflashing.
What you get
- Complete, commented source code
- Full components list with quantities
- Pin-by-pin wiring guide and connection table
- Step-by-step upload and testing guide
- Project report (.docx, IEEE style)
- Presentation slides (.pptx)
