Thread: What is the FRC Robot Controller Power Consumption
View Single Post
  #4   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 01-03-2006, 13:06
dlavery's Avatar
dlavery dlavery is offline
Curmudgeon
FRC #0116 (Epsilon Delta)
  
Join Date: Jun 2001
Rookie Year: 1996
Location: Herndon, VA
Posts: 3,176
dlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond reputedlavery has a reputation beyond repute
Re: What is the FRC Robot Controller Power Consumption
It depends. If you are trying to run just the RC, then a 200mA supply as Al mentioned by Al should do fine. However, if you are also planning to use the competition radios to communicate to/from the RC, then you will need a 1500mA supply, minimum.

I haven't had a chance to actually measure the current pulled by the RC or OI (or the portion of that contributed by the radios). But I know that when we tried to use a 1 Amp supply (over the years, we have lost several of our OI and RC power supplies, so we now have a lot of experience with replacements), the RC appeared to work just fine. However, the performance and range of the eWave radio modem became questionable if we were more than 10 feet away. The RC will light up, and everything will look like it should be working, but you can't get any signal to/from the OI. Moving up to a 1200 mA supply extended the range to about 15 feet, but we still had lots of drop-outs. Somewhere between there and 1500 mA you cross a threshold, and at 1500 mA it works just fine.

Note that this is also true on the OI side of things - plan on at least a 1500mA supply.

-dave
__________________
"I know what you're thinking, punk," hissed Wordy Harry to his new editor, "you're thinking, 'Did he use six superfluous adjectives or only five?' - and to tell the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement; but being as this is English, the most powerful language in the world, whose subtle nuances will blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' - well do you, punk?"
- Stuart Vasepuru, 2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest


My OTHER CAR is still on Mars!!!