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Originally Posted by Billfred
Well, good question. Here's the rule.
I have to admit, even I forgot about the part about portable computing devices connected to the joystick ports.
This then brings about the question of what exactly they meant by the rule. Did they mean to explicitly ban everything but pots and switches and the things they're housed in, or was the rule intended to block things like PDAs and laptops (which the average guy on the street would consider a portable computing device)?
In any event, nice work.
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I think the rule is fairly clear that something as powerful as a laptop or PDA is the target of the rule. A dedicated controller feeding digipots and with no intelligence otherwise should be allowed.
The output current on the LED outputs is current limited to 10ma, but I wouldn't want to depend on using two of them in parallel to get higher current. All it would take is a few startup/init where one of the outputs comes on before the other and you would be dumping power supply current from one output to the other. Two diodes (one in series with each output) might work but you would have a voltage drop in the diodes that would be 0.6 volts below the OI 5 volt rail. Don't forget that the majority of the current demand occurs at the switching point of the proc so a simple averaging meter might be too slow to respond for accuracy. Your 6 ma might actually be close to current limit. You might be able to supply the digipots from one output and the proc from another and stay inside a safe current area. A lot of testing will tell for sure. Nice solution, I like the way you guys work and think.