can I power a BOE bs2 with a 12volt car battery?

bear_phillips

I wanted to have my stamp run off of a 12 volt car battery. I thought I read somewhere that a bs2 could be powered by a range from 5 to 15 volts. But my BOE says 6-9 volts on the power plugin. What would be the best way to run this board from a 12 volt power source?

thanks
chad

Jon Williams

You can use 12 volts -- but if you're getting that 12 volts from a car's electrical system (not just the battery) it may be trouble some. The electrical system in cars is very noisy and that noise may come through and bother the BASIC Stamp.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

bear_phillips

(Jon, thanks for the quick post )
The power would be from the battery only (not while in the car). Can I just plug the 12 volts into the regular 6-9 volt plugin?

What is the max it can take? I was thinking maybe at some point of hooking a solar panel up to the 12 volt battery to keep it charged. The solar battery chargers I have seen put out about 14-15 volts. At what point would I need to think about worrying about frying the stamp?



thanks
chad

Jon Williams

Actually, that regulator (LM2940) is pretty stout -- we use it on the Prop-1 controller and allow up to 24-volts. You'll be fine with the battery, just understand that the regulator may run a little warm due to the extra overhead voltage.

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Jon Williams
Applications Engineer, Parallax

SPENCE

How about taking a look at jameco catalog pages 175 and 176 in the 2005 aug catalog. They have dc to dc inverters both regulated and unregulated. Think about this 5vdc 1000 ma 5 watts with 9-18vdc in. I think you will find it is worth the effort in efficiency saving plus less heat disipation problems. Available with inputs all the way up to 72 vdc....

73
spence
k4kep