Lets see your development pictures!
T'Saavik
Posts: 60
Hey all, i just got an official parallax development board and am already thinking up ways of enhancing it!
First thing on my list is adding polarity indicators on the bus lines, maybe some colored lines like some socketboards come with.
This got me thinking, what cool things have people done to make their parallax developing easier/fun(er).
Lets see some pics!! [noparse]:D[/noparse]
p.s. My regulator gets pretty warm with a 12v suppy, should i step down my supply? I'd like to leave it plugged into my PC at home and poke at it remotely all day long, but i don't want it to fry [noparse]:D[/noparse]
UPDATE: no one posted any pics
i also downgraded my PDB supply to 9V 1amp, it makes me feel safer [noparse]:D[/noparse]
I guess I'll post my "old" SX prototype setup.
I still have this one, but i haven't been doing anything with it lately.
The right side is my "power supply" a 9v battery(its on the top left) feeds into a black switch connected to a IRFU pnp mosfet (for reverse battery protection) then through an auto reseting 800ma circuit breaker (its orange in the picture) for over-current protection then into a 5v regulator then into a 5.6v Zener diode (for over voltage protection) and finally into a few bulk caps with tantalum voodoo caps everywhere to eliminate socketboard noise [noparse]:D[/noparse]
On the left is an IR emitter driven by the SX. Underneath it all is a Tyco toy rc/car that i am(was) driving with IXDN404 chips (center) pressed into hbridge duty, they sucked raw 6v power from the 4AAs visible on the extreme right of the pic (currently disconnected, note the black wire just hanging there), and boy did it suck, i sucked many a AA battery down playing around [noparse]:D[/noparse]. On the front of the car frame are 2 IR detectors that are wired with those red/black/white wires you see in the middle of the pic. Later i replaced the 2 IR detectors with 1 and added 2 IR emittors that i switch on and off to detect left and right. Since the detectors are more expensive i figured i'd add emittors. Now i have a spare IR detector, maybe i'll add rear detection at some point [noparse]:D[/noparse]
I later bypassed the IXDN chips and interfaced the SX chip directly to the RF receiver chip from the toy car so that i can control it via a remote control as well. I also used an unused pin/channel (turbo!) on the receiver/transmitter) to enable "micro controller" control over the car. That way i can throw a switch on the transmitter and the car can take off, if it gets out of range it losses the "turbo" signal and just stops.
This acted very strangely until i remembered to create a common ground between the raw motor power supply and the 5v regulated one.
When it came time to program i just pulled the SX out and pluged it in to the programmer.
Wish bbcode allowed height/width, oh well, eat large pics, muhahaha. Lets see some of your setups!!
Post Edited (T'Saavik) : 4/4/2007 9:51:14 PM GMT
First thing on my list is adding polarity indicators on the bus lines, maybe some colored lines like some socketboards come with.
This got me thinking, what cool things have people done to make their parallax developing easier/fun(er).
Lets see some pics!! [noparse]:D[/noparse]
p.s. My regulator gets pretty warm with a 12v suppy, should i step down my supply? I'd like to leave it plugged into my PC at home and poke at it remotely all day long, but i don't want it to fry [noparse]:D[/noparse]
UPDATE: no one posted any pics
i also downgraded my PDB supply to 9V 1amp, it makes me feel safer [noparse]:D[/noparse]
I guess I'll post my "old" SX prototype setup.
I still have this one, but i haven't been doing anything with it lately.
The right side is my "power supply" a 9v battery(its on the top left) feeds into a black switch connected to a IRFU pnp mosfet (for reverse battery protection) then through an auto reseting 800ma circuit breaker (its orange in the picture) for over-current protection then into a 5v regulator then into a 5.6v Zener diode (for over voltage protection) and finally into a few bulk caps with tantalum voodoo caps everywhere to eliminate socketboard noise [noparse]:D[/noparse]
On the left is an IR emitter driven by the SX. Underneath it all is a Tyco toy rc/car that i am(was) driving with IXDN404 chips (center) pressed into hbridge duty, they sucked raw 6v power from the 4AAs visible on the extreme right of the pic (currently disconnected, note the black wire just hanging there), and boy did it suck, i sucked many a AA battery down playing around [noparse]:D[/noparse]. On the front of the car frame are 2 IR detectors that are wired with those red/black/white wires you see in the middle of the pic. Later i replaced the 2 IR detectors with 1 and added 2 IR emittors that i switch on and off to detect left and right. Since the detectors are more expensive i figured i'd add emittors. Now i have a spare IR detector, maybe i'll add rear detection at some point [noparse]:D[/noparse]
I later bypassed the IXDN chips and interfaced the SX chip directly to the RF receiver chip from the toy car so that i can control it via a remote control as well. I also used an unused pin/channel (turbo!) on the receiver/transmitter) to enable "micro controller" control over the car. That way i can throw a switch on the transmitter and the car can take off, if it gets out of range it losses the "turbo" signal and just stops.
This acted very strangely until i remembered to create a common ground between the raw motor power supply and the 5v regulated one.
When it came time to program i just pulled the SX out and pluged it in to the programmer.
Wish bbcode allowed height/width, oh well, eat large pics, muhahaha. Lets see some of your setups!!
Post Edited (T'Saavik) : 4/4/2007 9:51:14 PM GMT
Comments
To a degree, less is often better when it comes to providing voltage to a regulator. Unless you have a high efficiency one, most generate greater heat with higher input voltages. This is a result of how they "regulate" the output voltage and in a sense turn the excess input voltage into heat. So a nine or six volt input supply should generate less heat within a five volt regulator as there is less "excess input voltage" to spoil away.
As you increase the amount of power being used many unregulated supplies will actually drop their voltage level with an increase in electrical load. (That is why they are called unregulated supplies!) So with a light electrical load you could probably decrease your input supply voltage thus decreasing the heat generated in the regulator and still be fine. As you begin to increase the electrical load within your development board you may find that your input supply begins to drop its voltage below the level that your regulator requires to function properly. At that point, and especially if you are running servos, you may need to return to your 12V supply.
Please note that Parallax recommends the use of their 12V 1A supply! So while the regulator may run warm for the reasons stated above and you might be fine using a smaller supply voltage if your circuits do not draw much current, you should certainly be all right with the recommended power supply levels.
- Sparks