Oh, ok. I remember seeing 150 degrees, and didn't recall F or C, which of course makes a big difference!
You're right, that is still hot as the depths, but within SOL for most transistors.
If you're considering looking into them for the 'summer' version, SMPS in basic forms are fairly simple actually.
A lot of the control is all done on the chip, and so external parts count is minimal.
Really, the trickiest part in working with them is the inductors, and keeping high power traces and paths as short and thick as possible to reduce loss. Success and failure are influenced a lot more by physical part proximities and such than they are on 'normal' circuits. Appropriate part usage is also key.
Small cell phone chargers are an excellent place to begin, because they are usually as bare-bone as it gets, and are relatively cheap, even to buy brand new and destroy for resurrection of something greater.
Don't get me wrong on any of this, you've got an impressive piece of hardware there. Definitely built in the right spirit - anything that is home-made, does what it was designed to do, and can do it reliably is better than ANY commercial product, regardless of availability.
I hear ya in the electronics 'width' problem - Had to concede for myself a long time ago that I was never going to understand all of it. LOL Doesn't stop me from trying sometimes haha with all the futility that comes territorially from being a human...
I don't mind playing with SMPS design to try to solve a particular problem... Just had help from Amanda (Commanda) on the design of a buck converter for solar. I don't mind providing this genre of favor to another one of my kind in turn.
Confirm for me: 30-200V input range, 15V @ 1.5A rated output. If I have that right, I'll see what I can conjure up from this.
Nothing to lose, and in fact much to gain... SMPS designs fascinate me, and there are so many basic flavors to choose from, just depends on your needs and what concessions you're willing to make with them in the process. Guarantee just playing with them will be of value to me, even if something truly practical does not come of the experiments.
Let me know, might be able to get you ready for summer by squeezing that extra 100W out as charging current!
Steve