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power maglite flashlight bulb with basic stamp, sink 2850mah? — Parallax Forums

power maglite flashlight bulb with basic stamp, sink 2850mah?

markmcleod50markmcleod50 Posts: 27
edited 2004-11-23 14:50 in General Discussion
i am trying to power a AA maglight flashlight bulb with a basic stamp and am having problems. the lightbulb takes 2 AA batteries. each battery is 1.5 volts and 2850mah...the batteries are placed end to end to i assume the voltage doubles current stays the same? how do i get the voltage down to 1.5 volts but get such a high current, or is there another way around this? any suggestions please dumb it down for a beginner. thanks, mark

Comments

  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2004-11-16 04:24
    You're going to need to use some kind of switching circuit; a MOSFET, for example. Here's a link that will help: http://www.al-williams.com/fetrly.htm

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas Office
  • Lee HarkerLee Harker Posts: 104
    edited 2004-11-16 14:35
    Mark,
    As Jon said you will need a switching circuit to handle the current for the bulb. If you are saying you want to find a way to make the bulb draw the same current at 1.5V that it does at 3.0, that won't happen. The bulb from my 2AA Maglight has about 11 ohms of resistance. So without breaking any laws, if you power it with 3V you'll draw ~270mA and at 1.5 it'll be ~135mA. If you're looking for a brighter light, you might check out one of the other Maglight models.
    Lee
  • PLJackPLJack Posts: 398
    edited 2004-11-23 14:50
    Jon Williams said...
    You're going to need to use some kind of switching circuit; a MOSFET, for example. Here's a link that will help: http://www.al-williams.com/fetrly.htm

    Using the circuit listed above, can the stamp turn on 8 to 10 of these MOSFETs at the same time?

    Thanks.
    Jack
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