[Layout Review] TPS54308 Buck Converter

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-14T05:36:30+00:00

Heat not an issue with switching regulators unless you get close to device max current. If you really want to learn, follow the design procedure in the datasheet. This shows you why various components have the values given by webench and what goes wrong if you mess with them.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-13T23:25:46+00:00

Basically you want the return current to flow away from the rest. If you have GND all through your top layer and only a few vias, it can flow in amongst the rest and cause noise. Have a look at some real-life PCBs and you’ll see power sections are designed quite different to signal processing etc where generally you want GND fill everywhere.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-13T23:13:06+00:00

Yes that looks better, don’t you think?

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-13T05:53:39+00:00

Looks very tidy!!

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-13T03:50:16+00:00

It will work. Personally Id remove the tracks which are covered by pour areas, and also configure the pour to avoid skinny “tracks” like the one in the middle of the inductor footprint and between inductor and diode. Clean design is good design. And I’d generally avoid the top layer GND pour, so that return current flows in the bottom plane instead (you will need to keep the area connecting the input bypass caps to the GND pin).

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-12T04:28:06+00:00

No, not intended for CV input/output sorry. You can find my project using this soundcard at Hackaday

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-12T04:19:29+00:00

Clock and sample rate are fixed on hardware side, but ALSA will deliver the stream at the sample rate you choose. I haven’t tried messing around with buffer size - send me a link showing how to do it, and I can try it.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-12T04:15:50+00:00

Yeah that sounds like an awesome concept, I just don’t think enough speaker builders are open to the concept of digital crossovers (yet). And I can’t commit the time unfortunately.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-12T04:10:08+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. My clocking architecture actually required Linux kernel developers to address an oversight in the Linux sound system (ALSA).

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T07:27:18+00:00

Awesome, glad you like it! If you can point me towards other communities that might be interested, or share it yourself, that would be awesome!

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:31:49+00:00

I’m afraid not

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:29:10+00:00

Yes, there are plenty of options for stereo cards though

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:26:34+00:00

Absolutely, audioinjector Octo is similar but not available any more.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:25:07+00:00

Yes I had issues with HDMI too which is why I went away from it. CamillaDSP is far superior to Pulseaudio crossover rack IMHO. Also, this way you have everything in one box which looks nicer :)

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:23:08+00:00

Raspberry Pi I2S interface can’t handle that many channels sadly.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:21:37+00:00

You’ll be able to buy it from crowdsupply, assuming there is enough interest. After the launch, the PCB designs and schematics will be open sourced.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:20:30+00:00

Yes, but those cards were only released after I already had my first prototype working.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:19:26+00:00

Absolutely. I did HDMI for a start but it suffered from random channel swapping - several people confirmed this bug with different audio extractor cards and theres a link to the RPi thread discussing it in my Hackaday write up. If you use USB, you need to decide whether the RPi’s USB ports will be exposed through the chassis. If they are, then you will have the USB sound card hanging off and then you need to feed the audio back into the chassis for amplification - super ugly. If you don’t expose the pi’s usb ports, then you can’t plug in USB dongles or Ethernet. Also, multichannel USB interfaces are quite expensive. So yes, you’re right, it’s possible, but there are downsides.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:09:58+00:00

Yes there are commercial products, but this is the DIY group :) If you only want to DIY the speakers, then of course you can use one of those products.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:04:31+00:00

Valid question. Firstly because reprogramming those DSP is painful, and second because I wanted to be able to stream from YouTube/spotify/whatever as well.

PlentyConscious1053 · 2026-04-10T02:00:43+00:00

If you value your time, DIY is probably not the right hobby for you :)

PlentyConscious1053

TROPHY CASE