Power up! (or down)

Post date: Apr 26, 2014 5:10:47 PM

Ultimately, the lights will need to operate off battery power. Plus everything else. Going to need a good handle on what needs to operate off the battery and what can be shut down.

In the normal mode, where all you're doing is lighting up at most four lights (one for each string. However, for a light show, they all could be on. That means I'll probably need to characterize current draw versus LED intensity (for each color too).

At the moment the 48 LED string browns out the 5V rail on the UNO, so I'm running it off a battery.

I'm using a Sparkfun LiPo battery (plus charger) and a 5V boost regulator. (part numbers later). This seems to be working just fine. Its certainly good enough for development. However, I'm going to need to explore battery saving modes in the future.

The power budget will be kept in The Office.