ADAPTER(POWER SUPPLY) and its troubleshooting
This tutorial is taken from the book MY EXPERIENCE IN AUTONOMOUS ROBOTICS. you can download it free from the files section(FILE-ROBO.PDF) of yahoo group-booksbybibin http://groups.yahoo.com/group/booksbybibin/ comments about this book on www.booksbybibin.blogspot.com POWER SUPPLY We require DC supply for our circuits which should be obtained from 230V,50Hz AC line. There is two way to get DC supply, one from DC battery and second from adapter or SMPS. Normally we use adapter for our circuits. When you go for troubleshooting power supply is another headache in robotics after sensor problems. The best way to avoid this problem is to use one SMPS instead of adapter. Normally adapters available for 12V,500mA ratings. With that you can run DC motors. For beginners this 12V,500mA adapter is enough, but better you try to get a second hand SMPS. The main thing you have to note when you buy one adapter is that 1) it should have variable shaft to get voltages from 3 to 12V. 2) It should be of a good company. 3) The light(LED) of adapter should be good My adapter is a 3V to 12V variable adapter,500mA. There is one LED over the adapter. This LED will be useful when you troubleshoot circuits to detect short circuits, overload detection etc... But some adapter's LED won't be able to detect short circuits. I have a Panasonic adapter(black color) which is able to detect short ckt, but my friend has Panasonic adapter(White in color) which is not able to detect short circuit, overload detection. Suppose if you short circuit +ve and -ve of adapter the LED will OFF, if some overload comes then the brightness of the LED decreases which will be helpful in troubleshooting. But better acquire an SMPS which will become shut down when short circuit occurs. If you have an SMPS then no problems with power supply occurs, better not to use the output of adapter of your Computer, buy one second hand SMPS even though it is of a 486 computer. But when you are making robots for competition in which robots run on battery, you should be careful because power supply problem also creates and your robots won't acquire the desired speed. If you are using SMPS and replace SMPS with battery in robots, you won't be getting better speeds because SMPS have good current driving capability while battery won't have it. Even SMPS of Pentium1 systems have a power capability of about 40W.
Here is the adapter I am using
NOTE: use separate power supply for the controlling
circuit(microncontrollers, power transistor,sensors etc..) and motor circuit
because motor will always draw current and the controlling circuit won't
get enough power for its working. You will mostly get a 9V battery for
Rs.15. Buy three and use one 9V for the controlling circuit, other two 9v for
motor driving. Use 78xx voltage regulators to get 5V,12V,24V etc...
http://nod.phpwebhosting.com/~robotics/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=743
http://www.roboticsindia.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=366&p=6973
The main troubleshooting in circuit is to
1) check that your power supply, whether it will be able to provide
the sufficient power to the circuit, controlling as well as motor
driving circuit.
2) check the polarity of the power supply.
3) See the light of the adapter,
4) if it is OFF then you check whether your switch (power switch)is
ON
5) If it is still OFF even though the power is ON then you check for the
short circuits in the circuit.
6) If the light is DIM then you can infer that the adapter is not able to
drive the circuit. When I connected a 3V DC motor from a toy car
directly to adapter the light of the adapter becomes DIM. When I
connected the output of adapter to input of 7805 and the output of
7805 directly to IR LED then the light of the LED DIM. Suppose if
you connect the output of the adapter to 7805 and short the second
and third pins of 7805(Vcc and gnd) then the light of the adapter will
goes OFF.
This tutorial is taken from the book MY EXPERIENCE IN AUTONOMOUS ROBOTICS. you can download it free from the files section(FILE-ROBO.PDF) of yahoo group-booksbybibin http://groups.yahoo.com/group/booksbybibin/ comments about this book on www.booksbybibin.blogspot.com POWER SUPPLY We require DC supply for our circuits which should be obtained from 230V,50Hz AC line. There is two way to get DC supply, one from DC battery and second from adapter or SMPS. Normally we use adapter for our circuits. When you go for troubleshooting power supply is another headache in robotics after sensor problems. The best way to avoid this problem is to use one SMPS instead of adapter. Normally adapters available for 12V,500mA ratings. With that you can run DC motors. For beginners this 12V,500mA adapter is enough, but better you try to get a second hand SMPS. The main thing you have to note when you buy one adapter is that 1) it should have variable shaft to get voltages from 3 to 12V. 2) It should be of a good company. 3) The light(LED) of adapter should be good My adapter is a 3V to 12V variable adapter,500mA. There is one LED over the adapter. This LED will be useful when you troubleshoot circuits to detect short circuits, overload detection etc... But some adapter's LED won't be able to detect short circuits. I have a Panasonic adapter(black color) which is able to detect short ckt, but my friend has Panasonic adapter(White in color) which is not able to detect short circuit, overload detection. Suppose if you short circuit +ve and -ve of adapter the LED will OFF, if some overload comes then the brightness of the LED decreases which will be helpful in troubleshooting. But better acquire an SMPS which will become shut down when short circuit occurs. If you have an SMPS then no problems with power supply occurs, better not to use the output of adapter of your Computer, buy one second hand SMPS even though it is of a 486 computer. But when you are making robots for competition in which robots run on battery, you should be careful because power supply problem also creates and your robots won't acquire the desired speed. If you are using SMPS and replace SMPS with battery in robots, you won't be getting better speeds because SMPS have good current driving capability while battery won't have it. Even SMPS of Pentium1 systems have a power capability of about 40W.
Here is the adapter I am using
NOTE: use separate power supply for the controlling
circuit(microncontrollers, power transistor,sensors etc..) and motor circuit
because motor will always draw current and the controlling circuit won't
get enough power for its working. You will mostly get a 9V battery for
Rs.15. Buy three and use one 9V for the controlling circuit, other two 9v for
motor driving. Use 78xx voltage regulators to get 5V,12V,24V etc...
http://nod.phpwebhosting.com/~robotics/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=743
http://www.roboticsindia.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=366&p=6973
The main troubleshooting in circuit is to
1) check that your power supply, whether it will be able to provide
the sufficient power to the circuit, controlling as well as motor
driving circuit.
2) check the polarity of the power supply.
3) See the light of the adapter,
4) if it is OFF then you check whether your switch (power switch)is
ON
5) If it is still OFF even though the power is ON then you check for the
short circuits in the circuit.
6) If the light is DIM then you can infer that the adapter is not able to
drive the circuit. When I connected a 3V DC motor from a toy car
directly to adapter the light of the adapter becomes DIM. When I
connected the output of adapter to input of 7805 and the output of
7805 directly to IR LED then the light of the LED DIM. Suppose if
you connect the output of the adapter to 7805 and short the second
and third pins of 7805(Vcc and gnd) then the light of the adapter will
goes OFF.