I'm building out a large, 4-legged stilt costume that's got an arduino Duemilanove at it's core, 400+ RGB LEDs providing the light, and a bunch of sensors directing the show. I'm trying to figure out the best way to power the whole thing and I ran into someone else recently that's running ~350 of the same lights off a 6V 10Ah sealed lead acid battery and getting about 5-6 hours of run time. That sounds good enough to me. If I last 4 hours walking around on this thing I'll be amazed
So, I know that the specs on the Duemilanove say optimal 7-12V with limits of 6V and 20V. It's easy to find good, sealed lead-acid batteries in 6V and 12V, but not a lot in between. The 12V is way heavier than the 6V version w/ the same amp hours. Weight is a big concern for me since I've gotta carry this thing on my back and 3' off of the ground.
Question is... Should I be concerned about running this whole thing off of 6V (thinking 12Ah)?
My guess is that it will run great until the voltage drops a fair amount below 6V and then things might get a little wonky, but nothing will be damaged. If that's the case, I think I'm fine with it. Assuming it's 3-4 hours before things get wonky, but I can test that ahead of time.
Cheers!
casey.
PS - Saw @Massimo at the makers faire in San Mateo last week... the new arduino stuff looks pretty fun!
The Arduino should be powered by a different power supply from whatever your stilt costume is powered by. 4 AA batteries in series will provide enough voltage and current to power the Arduino for hours, and will weigh next to nothing.
Could have done with that last bit, but I appreciate your input regardless
Didn't mean to upset you. I was just thinking that software development begins with understanding the scope of the program. Hardware design is the same. The scope of the costume (power supply, what is controlled, what provides feedback, etc.) is not the same as the scope of the costume controller.
Didn't mean to upset you. I was just thinking that software development begins with understanding the scope of the program. Hardware design is the same. The scope of the costume (power supply, what is controlled, what provides feedback, etc.) is not the same as the scope of the costume controller.
OK... fair enough. Thanks for clarifying. I'm definitely doing this project without having it fully baked and it is largely still in the prototype/discovery phase. Only parts are planned out and documented on paper at this point. I'm working towards making it more complete and designed correctly.
