Topic: Powering via Large Battery

I'm planning to send a CHB on a UAV drone. The drone is going to be powered by two 3S LiPo batteries in parallel. So the batteries will be ~12.6 volts and roughly 5000 mAh. If I want to tie the CHB to this power source, all I really need is a 5V regulator, correct?

Re: Powering via Large Battery

Correct -- I power my Infocast off of a battery with this regulator from Pololu. I've had some issues with overcurrent on the regulator at startup though, I think that's the one issue to watch out for.

Re: Powering via Large Battery

Thanks for your confirmation. However, I was thinking about using this regulator: http://www.sparkfun.com/products/107
It can supply up to 1.5 A, which should be enough to run the CHB and a wifi module. What do you think of this unit?

Re: Powering via Large Battery

How about following, it's a drop in replacement for the old 78xx regulators.
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/DE-SW050.htm
-dan

Re: Powering via Large Battery

That looks like a better option to conserve battery life. You think 1 A will be enough though? Say the CHB uses 500 mA on heavy processing and the USB hub uses 500 mA, that doesn't leave much room for play in there.

Re: Powering via Large Battery

The idea of sending a functioning Chumby aloft on an unmanned aerial vehicle seems totally strange to me.  Are you trying to secure an entry into the Guinness Book of Records?  (Or does the acronym UAV mean something else?)

Re: Powering via Large Battery

Haha, not quite but getting an entry into the Guinness Book of Records would be a nice addition. My original plan is to do warflying (mapping wifi networks), but since the CHB is a Linux box, it can do just about anything. I wanted to keep it separate from the autopilot in case of catastrophic failure.

I already got all my software compiled and running on the CHB, so I'm in the process of building the drone. It's a long process due to buying multiple parts from multiple places around the world. I have a couple 7805 regulators laying around that I was going to use, but I didn't realize how inefficient they are. I'm tying the CHB in with the main battery supply for the drone, so I need as much efficiency as possible even if it costs me an extra $14.

As I progress I'll be posting here: http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/list … mtgix6xteo