I am absolutely green, so please forgive my ignorance. I know I could probably find someone in a local group to knock this out in a minute, but it actually holds a significant amount of interest for me and sounds like fun.
I'll state my end goal first and my current understanding ( hope ) of what might work.
I have a low power device ( actually a small bilge pump from a boat being used in a small bait tank ) that needs to start and run on 12 volts (for just one minute more or less ) and then run on a reduced 6 volts for many hours.
The battery pack I will use is 2 very small 6 volt batteries. My intention was to manually make a switch that could be started in series and then switched to parallel. Does this sound like it would be a good fit for a small arduino project ?
I have done zero programming, but am fairly confident I can grasp what is needed. If it works OK then I will go on to some progressively more demanding projects.
I would want to go with the smallest of physical platforms that would handle this as well as relays that would handle the load. It would be about 6v-1 amp max sustained. If it works I will probably redevelop it in a single platform for low volume production. Arduino just sounded a like a good place to start and experiment.
Carver:
I am absolutely green, so please forgive my ignorance. I know I could probably find someone in a local group to knock this out in a minute, but it actually holds a significant amount of interest for me and sounds like fun.
I'll state my end goal first and my current understanding ( hope ) of what might work.
I have a low power device ( actually a small bilge pump from a boat being used in a small bait tank ) that needs to start and run on 12 volts (for just one minute more or less ) and then run on a reduced 6 volts for many hours.
The battery pack I will use is 2 very small 6 volt batteries. My intention was to manually make a switch that could be started in series and then switched to parallel. Does this sound like it would be a good fit for a small arduino project ?
I have done zero programming, but am fairly confident I can grasp what is needed. If it works OK then I will go on to some progressively more demanding projects.
I would want to go with the smallest of physical platforms that would handle this as well as relays that would handle the load. It would be about 6v-1 amp max sustained. If it works I will probably redevelop it in a single platform for low volume production. Arduino just sounded a like a good place to start and experiment.
Thanks in advance , Phill
A small Arduino, or any Arduino, should be fine. Which board were you considering?
Also, have you drawn up a schematic diagram yet?
Do you have the specs of the bilge pump? You'll probably need reasonable-sized batteries to run it for extended periods.
On an aside, a bilge pump isn't actually a "low power device" in the Arduino world.
Just guessing, but the relay(s) you use may need to be a bit heftier than could be controlled directly from an Arduino pin. You might end up driving a transistor from the arduino, as a switch for the relay coil. Also, be sure you use a diode across the rely coil. Not doing so has brought premature death to many electronic components.
do this manually.
connect the bulge pump to the common on the relay.
connect the 6v on the NC contacts and the 12v on the NO
the second relay will be used to turn the 12V on
2 switches. turn on the 12v, wait a minute.
activate the second relay.
I would put a timer on and see how long it runs on the 6v power.
If it were my project, I would just PWM the pump from the 12v to run at a lower speed.
saves a second battery, wiring, relays, charger.