Subject:
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Re: Rechargable batteries
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Mon, 23 Oct 2000 23:53:21 GMT
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Original-From:
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John Barnes <(barnes@sensors.)AvoidSpam(com)>
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Viewed:
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871 times
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I traced the circuitry of the tower the other day 'cos I wanted to
build one of my own to work correctly with the spirit.icx. It is not
a very complicated piece of electronics and I didn't find anything in
there that wouldn't tolerate an external 9 volt supply.
But be careful, increasing that value (which can happen with cheap DC
wall transformers) will hurt the IR LEDs. The tower has a very low value
current limit resistor. Also, if the voltage falls much below 9 volts
the IR LEDs will not be running at much of a current which is why I
think the tower is so sensitive to the state of the 9 volt battery.
I you wish to use an external supply, I would recommend using a
9 volt REGULATED supply, not a simple transformer, bridge rectifier
smoothing capacitor type. The tower draws only a microamp or two
until it goes into transmit mode. The average cheap supply will have
charged up during this idle period and the first current pulses into
the IR LEDs from the charged up capacitor may be high enough to
damage them.
JB
>If your using the Tower a lot of the time, (Polling etc.) I'd suggest
getting
a
>power adapter for 9 volts and use that instead. Saves on power greatly.
>
>Dean
>--
>Coin-Op's For Sale!: http://www.akasa.bc.ca/tfm/coin-op.html
>Dean's Lego Workshop: http://www.akasa.bc.ca/tfm/lego_wr.html
>Vancouver Lego Club: http://www.akasa.bc.ca/vlc
Dean,
Can the tower handle such a power supply?
Guido
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