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Power Requirements

Posted by Jim on June 23, 2010 at 8:49am
Hi can anyone give me an indication on how much current the ardupilot and Arduimu pull?  Rather stupidly, I don't have a current reading on my multimeter :(

I've already burnt out one ESC trying to get airborne, which is to be expected powering 4 servos + GPS, but while bench testing my new 3A uBEC today, i noticed it was getting fairly warm (and that was just with ArduPilot+IMU+GPS and 2 standard servos)

cheers
Jim

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Replies

  • Rich August 19, 2010 at 11:44am
    Forgive me, I'm a complete newb to this, but I've been looking around and this is the closest relevant topic that I've found.....amperage is nice info to have, but so is voltage :P

    Looking at the ardupilot google code page, I noticed that the recommended battery clocks in at 11.1 volts. So how forgiving is the system? Will 12 volts fry this thing? Do all systems, including the engine and servos run on 11.1 volts as a common standard?

    Looking at the mA measurements that you guys have given, it doesn't seem very unlikely that solar cells could be used to provide an adequate amount of power for all systems here:

    http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?pn=3026810&cm_mmc=Merc...

    If there was some kind of a table that included parts and volt/amp requirements, as well as weight measurements, I can actually build the system first and then find the plane to carry it.
  • Jim August 16, 2010 at 8:35am
    I guess an Xbee would add quite a lot to this, I think they are about 100ma for the Pro 2.4g. I'll check the Datasheet for that.

    Thanks for the input guys.

    Jim
  • Iceberg73 August 16, 2010 at 7:48am
    I Have Ardupilot, ardushield, arduimu and a generic nmea gps working together. All the hardware drains about 200 mA. without servos. Hope it helps.
  • marshall scholz August 14, 2010 at 7:53am
    your whole ardupilot setup probably pulls under 500 ma, the 2 standard size servos are probably whats killing your current pulling around 2 amps when moving each, i suggest you get a 4A ubec like
    http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=...
    this one and power your ardupilot off of battery power, you can find how in the ardupilot manual.
    http://code.google.com/p/ardupilot/wiki/ArduPilot
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