In this next chapter of my seemingly never ending quest to use solar charging with lifepo4 batteries, I need to make my own sepic converter circuitry.
I've been reading all the sites I can find on google, and I pretty much understand how they work, but I still have a few questions.
1. What do you use for the switcher? There are IC's for it, but they're all surface mount (which I don't have to tools to work with). Wikipedia also mentions using a mosfet transistor, but I don't understand how that can do switching.
2. Where is a good place to get formulas so I can calculate what parts I need? Lots of sites talk about the theory behind it, but don't actually give how to calculate for one.