Operator Interface Supply Current

[John Gutmann]

I am working on making our operator interfaceportable by put making a a power reg for a 12 volt battery (or whatever else kind of battery I can find for cheap. and I was wondering how much current the operator interface draws at max.

[Cuog]

the current is not too much of a draw. Also if you look int he white pages there was another team which used 3 or 4 9 volt batteries to power the OI

[Matt Krass]

Check on the power brick for the OI we received in the kit, somewhere on it should list the max current output. It doesn't draw more than that.

[John Gutmann]

I just got done reading through the white paper. I don't really understand why they used 3 9 volt batteries.

I thought you could only input 5 volts. But I guess you can input anything?

Also what about a voltage regulator?

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

I just got done reading through the white paper. I don't really understand why they used 3 9 volt batteries.

I thought you could only input 5 volts. But I guess you can input anything?

Also what about a voltage regulator?

Depending on how they're wired that can be a combined 27 volts or a combined 9 volts. Combining all three to get 9 volts approximately triples the lifetime of the battery set. I believe (I am not certain though) the OI takes anything up to 12V, in fact 5V may not be enough to power the radio modem as well.

[Mark McLeod]

The OI requires 9 volts.
It will draw up to 1.5amps.

Be very, very careful of the polarity of the power connector. You run the risk of damaging your OI if you do it wrong.

Here are the ratings from the OI's AC adaptor and the polarity of the connector.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by sparksandtabs

I just got done reading through the white paper. I don't really understand why they used 3 9 volt batteries.

The OI can draw up to 1500 milliamps. A standard 9v battery is good for about 500 milliamp-hours, which would be drained in as little as 20 minutes. Using three 9 volt batteries in parallel gives at least an hour of useful power.

I thought you could only input 5 volts. But I guess you can input anything?

You're only "authorized" to give it 9 volts, but it runs fine on 12 (which I think is what gets supplied when it's tethered).

Also what about a voltage regulator?

The OI has one built in. I'm pretty sure it runs on five volts internally, which would normally require at least seven volts of input to keep well regulated.

[John Gutmann]

Ohh.......I didn't have the wall thing, and assumed it was 5 volts. That makes sense now.

Well that all makes this a TON easier.

It's just kinda sad that I randomly have all the parts in my basement.