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Subject: 
Re: External power supply ?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Tue, 13 Jan 2004 05:55:21 GMT
Viewed: 
1734 times
  
In lugnet.robotics, Philippe Hurbain wrote:
Hi Ken,


- Your regulated power supply was able to put out 9v.. at what m/A is
recommended for the RCX 2.0?

Maximum RCX power consumption is 1500 mA (there is a fuse inside rated 1.5A).
Anything rated at least 1A should be OK.

I ran by Radio Shak today and they had one 3-12v rated at 1A I think.  It was
$37!


- I see "regulated" wall-warts listed at radio shack.  Would one of these
suffice?

They should, if they are really regulated (some cheap warts advertised as
regulated are not so good...). A LEGO 9V train adaptor could be used too.

- In another lugnet posting on this topic, a fellow used a voltage regulator
7809 or 7805.  Is this necessary only if using an unregulated dc supply?

If your wart has good regulation, they are not needed.

CAUTION - Don't forget to take care of polarity too !!!


- I would still have the issue of having to program once powered by the adapter.
Is there some way to have batteries in it and have it switch.  I want to run
some atuomation at a train show and don' have a working laptop.

That's the problem - automatic switching is not so easy to do if you don't want
to do some electronics. Perhaps the simplest solution would be to use a RCX
first version with power input :-/

I have considered that too.  But uncovered another potential complication.  In
researching around somewhere... I think at lego.com actually it said that RCX
1.0 does not support variables?!  Is that possible?  My program is not
complicated but does use a variable.  I might be able to restructure, but it
hurts my head.

Another consideration:  Please forgive me for not knowing squat about
electronics... or is that "I *know* squat?"
I was reading up on LEDs and so forth and saw something using a transistor.
Wouldn't it be feasible to run power say from a train controller through a
transistor, and use the RCX to turn that flow on/off?  The train controller
provides the juice for motors, lights whatver (or rather it's wall awart does)
and the RCX just intervenes.  Seems like that would draw a lot less power from
the RCX.  I figured this was possible and maybe not hard but did not know what
the component was called that would be used.

Also, maybe someone can chime in, but as to holding the program, I seem to
recall seeing one of the solutions that involved external power invloved
connecting a power jack.  The guy said he could just quickly swap the wall wart
and a 9-volt bat(with a plug attached)... he cautioned to have the rcx power off
at the time and said that it woudl allow him to transport.  Not sure who that
was and can't find the post or web page again!

Where's the RCX 3.0 when you need it?  You know the one with the battery backup
and AC jack, about half the size with 6 outputs and 12 inputs and ...  sorry, I
am a bit delerious right now.

Cheers,
Philo



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: External power supply ?
 
(...) I think you could find something cheaper than that (with a fixed-voltage output?) (...) The RIS 1.0 didn't support variables, but 1.0 bricks can use latest firmware so there is NO problem here ! (...) As Chris mentionned elswhere in this (...) (20 years ago, 13-Jan-04, to lugnet.robotics)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: External power supply ?
 
Hi Ken, (...) Maximum RCX power consumption is 1500 mA (there is a fuse inside rated 1.5A). Anything rated at least 1A should be OK. (...) They should, if they are really regulated (some cheap warts advertised as regulated are not so good...). A (...) (20 years ago, 12-Jan-04, to lugnet.robotics)

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