I am trying to wire up the circuit below. But am a little worried that as things are when the engine connected to the 12V battery starts-up it will suck power from the 5V battery or damage my circuit in some way.
I plan to use a simple buck converter to take the 12V down to 5V. Will this protect me from current flowing from the 5V battery bank back to the 12V battery during motor start-up? Or should I add some sort of diode?
CrossRoads:
Diode would be a good choice to keep the battery from back driving the converter.
You should have a battery charge control circuit as well so the battery doesn't get overcharged.
Alright great I'll look into getting a diode. Thanks for the suggestion about the battery charger too. I wasn't sure if it would be necessary.
johnerrington:
What exactly are you trying to achieve?
Several things. Trying to monitor performance of a few motors and send to database. On top of that there is a real problem with theft of these motors or the 12V battery, so need to be able to power the circuit if the 12V battery is disconnected and get GPS info.
The circuit applies and removes power from the RPi. If power is just removed from a RPi without shutting down the RPi OS first, their will be problems.
Idahowalker:
The circuit applies and removes power from the RPi. If power is just removed from a RPi without shutting down the RPi OS first, their will be problems.