[FTC]: 2014-2015 Game Manual Part 1 Now Online

[Snakebyte 4546]

Originally Posted by skatefriday

We powered an led light strip via the main robot battery pack, running
it through a 7805 voltage regulator (with a huge heat sink) last year.

We had a schematic of the voltage regulation circuit and a fully educated
team member for judging should a judge question the setup.

Note that all microcontrollers, which includes an arduino, must be
powered from the superpro protoboard, and it can only supply
something along the lines of 8mA. A stock arduino will draw 20mA,
so we ran a barebones ATmega328 to drive the led strip.

Writeup here:

http://degreesplato.wordpress.com/20...s-need-lights/

I remember reading in the new game manual that external 9V ARE allowed this year.

[B]Game Manual Part 1 2014-2015: <R11>.D.i[/b]

All power used in the circuits connected to the Prototype Board must be derived from the power
connections provided within the board including the board’s optional additional 9V battery.

If this is the case ya'll CAN use your actual Arduino with a 9V power. Thoughts?

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[skatefriday]

Originally Posted by Snakebyte 4546

I remember reading in the new game manual that external 9V ARE allowed this year.



If this is the case ya'll CAN use your actual Arduino with a 9V power. Thoughts?

--

Yup, that's new. Thanks for pointing it out.

It appears that the current draw limitations are removed if you are
powering the board from a battery as opposed to the NXT. This should
make it far easier for teams to start doing interesting things with an
Arduino.

The next step would be to allow teams to build a voltage regulation
circuit around a 7805 or 7809 and power it straight from the robot's
main battery pack.