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Kitty's hardware files
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Investigate power source #7

Open JSpringett opened 8 years ago

JSpringett commented 8 years ago

What batteries? How many? How is the PI supplied? How is the rest of the system supplied?

Danyc0 commented 8 years ago

The black batteries in kitty are 4*7.2v NiMh (but much higher capacity than those in Dewi, hence why they're so much heavier and slightly bigger). They're in series for the computers to run the RoWind at the right voltage, but in parallel for the servos to give them enough current capacity. (All recalled from 3 year old memories, so take with a pinch of salt)

JSpringett commented 8 years ago

Cheers Dan

Danyc0 commented 8 years ago

It might be worth switching to having both sets in parallel and using a boost converter to get the voltage needed for the RoWind. This was originally discounted because of the inefficiencies in boost regulators as compared to buck regs, but now, thanks to us having a working PCB (Captain Morgan), it opens lots of doors with regards to very efficient boost regulators. This would allow us to better standardise electronics between the boats (with a Do Not Populate on the boost reg for boats which don't have a RoWind).

naturesyouth commented 8 years ago

i would be tempted to populated it anyway, that way all the boats are spares for other boats, increasing the available redundancy while at a competition, it can always be disabled through software to save power.