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Unread 27-01-2017, 22:54
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Re: How to power Mini-PC on robot?

Quote:
Originally Posted by team-4480 View Post
We bought the charger and.....it worked! Thanks for the help! I don't know how long it would've took me before I realized there was a smart pin.

Also, the charger states it can go from 11.5V to 15V so it should work no problem as long as we have a full battery. Or maybe it may be worth to get booster to 14V just to be sure....we will see after actually testing it on the robot. Thanks!
11.5V? Eeeehhh.... You're going to want to test that on an actual robot. Battery voltage can dip shockingly low in a match. There's a reason the roboRIO has brownout provisions to kill speed controllers and shed load when battery voltage dips below 6.8V. This means the roboRIO will be perfectly happy with a voltage of just 7V out of the battery. Dips below 9V are pretty common towards the end of a match.

The charger might be specifying 11.5V just because that's an expected auto electrical voltage. Maybe buy one of those giant 6V lantern batteries and hook it up to that and see if it still puts out 19.5V? If not you might need a separate DC-DC that can boost 6V up to 12-14V. Which is starting to sound complicated, but I'm not the one who chose a PC that needs a smart pin power supply...
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