I have a bunch of cheap buck (I think) converters that do 6-20V input and 5V output; and I want to use one powered by a 24V PSU (this is for a 3D printer).
The current draw of the 5V system should be comparatively low, and constant, but the main supply will vary quite a bit in draw. as the regulator can deal with 6-20 volts I wonder if I can 'scale down' or 'clamp' the supplied power via a simple voltage divider?
I know that usually this is a solid 'No' as voltage drop varies according to current draw, but in my case:
- I need only target a range of voltages between 6-20V versus a single stable voltage
- The input to this is a regulated power supply, which should stabilize the voltage (which transitively stabilizes the current, right?), and I expect this should help.
What about some arrangement with Zener diodes? As I look this up mid-post, it seems along the lines of what I am looking for (i.e. something I can throw together with simple passives I am likely to have or can find in scraps): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_diode#Voltage_shifter
But power supplies and analog electronics always surprise me with their subtlety and I don't trust myself enough to know, so would something like the above work, or should I just buy different DC-DC converters and call it a day?
-- new edits as of 2022-12-17 --
Also, I have a bag of these 6-20v -> 5v converters, could I hook two up in series (or otherwise passively arranged) to get effectively 10v per input, but hook their outputs up in parallel?
I will have to dig up the specs on these converters and the power supply, I was more curious if there were generally applicable approaches to this problem given the circumstances (more or less regulated power on each side of the converter).
hook two up in series [to] get effectively 10v per input
24/2 ≠ 10. \$\endgroup\$