I just wanted to confirm if I could power the SSC-32 with 2-9V batteries without any additional regulation required? Since the power is common for both the SSC32 and BlueSmirf, therefore a single 9v battery gets discharged very frequently. And thus I have thought of adding an another 9v battery. Should it go in parallel connection with the previous battery or in series?My guess is “In-Parallel”.
SSC32 regulator is re-rated to 250mA. Does the connection from 9v battery terminal also passes through this regulator? And if so, would it be fine to connect 2-batteries?
Just the VL input runs off the 9V battery not the VS input of course.
You should not run them in series since that would > 11V max input for VL.
Only concern about parallel is to make certain they are roughly the same terminal voltage before paralleling them or the stronger one will try to charge the weaker one and alkaline batteries don’t like this at all… they get warm and tend to leak their innards.
I think this might always happen in real, since the batteries cant keep same voltage always. There would always be a slight change in the voltages of both the batteries and thus, charging the weaker battery phenomenon might always take place. So, what could be the solution to this? My mere intention is to supply sufficient power enough to run SSC32 along with BlueSmirf and a couple of LEDS for longer periods.
The 9volts 200mA batteries I keep are NimH. Do Nimh batteries effect the same when connected in parallel?
What are the substitute ways? Should i attach a 6v 1000mA or greater Nimh battery pack just like one powering the servos?
This may result in some power loss at the diodes. Isnt it?
What configuration does the other robot builders using to power the SSC32, blueSmirf and some leds altogether. A single 9V battery is no doubt a short lasting solution in this case, I believe.
Your’re going to drop about .7v, but if you’re driving a standard linear voltage regulator, the power would be dissipated anyway. You’ll loose a little headroom.
Other choice might be a Li-poly battery and a BEC.
A low dropout regulator and a 6V NmiH battery would do well.
Considering the fact that any 6v battey pack which may consist of 5 SubC cells connected in series would add up an extra weight, I think its better to stick with the two 9V battries in parallel option. In this respect, what specification diode should be connected with the positive terminal of each battery?
Another question I wanted to ask about powering option is regarding a custom built Nimh pack.
I have connected 5-4800mA Nimh SubC cells in series to make a battery pack. Each cell is of 1.2 v and thus the total voltage comes out to be 6V . Can i now just simply plug it into the VS of SSC32 to power the servos? or do i need some additional regulator?
I witnessed somewhere on the forum where people used higher amperage battery packs, they put some regulators before powering the SSC32 for the servos.
Can you please shed some light on this issue.
I’ll be thankful
cheers
The regulators you are referring to have been used with LiPo to reduce the voltage as they are 7.4vdc. It has nothing to do with their increased amperage capacity. If you’re using five NiMH cells then just plug it in.
Another, slightly obscure solution might be to add one or two additional cells (on top of) to your battery pack. These don’t have to be high capacity. The total battery voltage to the electronics could thus be 9V or so, and you’d continue to run servos off the “main” battery of 6V.
Charging would be a pain, as you’d have to charge the 3V battery separately from the main 6V battery.
The added 3V battery (600mAh?) would probably weigh less then a pair of 9V batteries. I’m thinking a wireless 'phone battery might work. Check out the current available, and the weight, and compare.
An added “charge” switch can isolate the 3V battery for charging.
The posts you are referring to are people using LiPo batteries. They are 7.4vdc so they require a regulator to reduce it to 6.0vdc. It has nothing to do with the fact that they have a larger capacity.
What are you actually making here? How many servos, and which ones are you using? It is possible to power everything from a single 6vdc supply if the servo load is not too much, and your battery, cable, connector, switch, can carry the current required without dropping voltage. Our components can do this! We often power a CH3-R with a single 6vdc / 2800mAh battery, logic and servos both. The run time is reduced a little but it works and is reliable. It all the DIY folks making things with bailing wire and duct tape that has driven the separate battery for logic scare… You mean you can’t power up a Phoenix with 6 year old NiCad cells plugged into a plastic battery holder with the wires twisted together topped with masking tape? Sigh…
yeah thats a pragmatic possible solution. Since the main battery is inside the phoenix body, so it’s really a tough task to accomplish interms of weight, and space available. I saw AA type minh cells ranging to 2800mA.And connecting 5 of them in series would make a good battery pack to run the electronics for significant periods. But yes you are absolutely true that a weight comparison would be the best way to decide which option to choose.
Jim, Im powering my phoenix. So, its 18 servos, and at the moment I have a 6v2800mA battery pack from lynxmotion powering the servos. The battery pack is perfect but for short durations like 20-25 mins usually. Since I cant find a factory made high denisty battery packs here and cant even avail an opportunity to order overseas so I am left with the only option of making one myself from SubC cells, which I can find fromo some local distributors here. have 5-4800nimh SubC cells, and i believe this 6v 4800nimh battery pack would give me a good run time.
Regarding the electronics, I am convinced with the decision of powering them from a seperate power source, since a voltage drop resets the SSC32 and sometimes i gets hard to troubleshoot the possible causes. So, for powering the logic, since i have a blueSmirf and a couple of LEDs in series connected at the VL, so a single 9v battery has never proved me a good deal. My main intention is to increase the runtime for 40 mins atleast. So in this respect, a 6v 4800nimh battery pack may serve the sevos good and for the logic I m still confused with all the possible choices.
Either two 9 v batteries in parallel with interconnected diodes, or a seperate battery pack with the least possible weight!
Suggestions and comments are always helpful and thus always graciously appreciated
Thanks a ton!
You might consider using the switched power supply mentioned in other discussions to power the servos. This might allow you to build a higher voltage battery pack which might supply more total power from the batteries, depending on the voltage decay curve of the batteries. The bluesurf and ssc-32 logic could connect to the battery pack if it is ~9v.
sorry for the delay in a response but I went on vacation.
My initial post was directly relating to Alkaline cells since charging them is particularly unhealthy (for the battery). Using NiMH 9V for the VL input rather than Alkaline 9V eliminates the issue so long as both 9V batteries are fully charged when you connect them together in parallel. Yes there will be some equalization but certainly not so much as to damage the cells. Ideally you fully charge each cell, then connect them in parallel, and use a switch to turn the 9V input to VL on/off. This way you don’t have one cell discharging more than the other and they will balance the load between them as they discharge. When they get to around 5.5V under load you can recharge them. If both NiMH are about the same age and the same capacity you can even charge them in parallel… although the first time you try it I’d recommend to make sure one doesn’t get hot with respect to the other and to put a meter on them so you can verify the charge terminates correctly.
