The items shown above are part of a 5.8GHz video transmitter (#5) setup offered by Range Video. All items are sold as individual items and like a big dummy I forgot to get Santa Clause order their powersupply (#4) when she placed her order for the transmitter.
So the luck of the Irish kicks in and Mr. Murphy ordered their last Filtered Linear Power Supply and there's no telling when they will be back in stock. So I'm on the hunt for another suitable power supply that will output the required 3.3v to run the transmitter and camera. I've poked around and found that a lot of the setups used by fellow DIYDrones members have built in voltage regulators and are just attached to a lipo (typically 7.2v).
I have a few other projects in mind beyond the video transmitter for my Raven so getting a good lead on a good ps would be very nice to have.
I did manage to find several power supplies that may work but I'd like to know what more experienced tinkerers think.
#1
Breadboard Power Supply 5V/3.3V by Sparkfun
This one is intended to use a walwart in the recommended 7-9v range. It outputs a selectable 5v or 3.3v but forgive the newb-ness, I'm not sure if I HAVE to use a walwart. Wouldn't a 2 or 3 cell lipo do the DC trick just fine?
#2
DC-DC 12V to Dual output 5V / 3.3V LED Power module
This E-Bay special is pretty cheap and has free shipping. It seems like it would do the job just fine and would not need to be converted to not being a plug in for a breadboard. But would a LED power module work for the above mentioned video transmitter? Voltage is spot on to what I need but I'm unsure of the LED part of the description...
#3
You tell Me... If all these finds are junk and you use something else, please let me know. Also if you have a design I could build that would work too.
Comments
That looks simple enough... Thanks.
Here's a picture of our DC-DC converters mounted inline on a cable. Not the prettiest of solutions, but works perfectly for voltages up to 36V without generating any heat
Can anyone/Would someone explain the "signal in, voltage in/signal out, voltage out on the example board listed by Mark? I understand you'd need to connect a battery source to the board in order to get the 3,5,9,12 volt outputs, but what's this signal in/out, voltage in/out?
@Anish, does this look like a reasonable design for the lm317? I think I would want to replace the pot with a resistor of the appropriate value.
http://www.ladyada.net/library/equipt/diypsupp.html
@mark wouldnt be suprised, its like a well known recipe for cooking. Tried tested cheap lm317 :)
These look like the same board:
http://www.fpvflying.com/products/Step-down-PSU-3.3v-5v-9v-12v.html
http://www.hobbyic.com/products.php?product=Step-down-PSU-3.3v-5v-9...
@brian looks to me like a lm317 three pin voltage regulator chipset. as per specs it could support upto 1.5 a. The idea of mutliple outputs sounds interesting
Owen - Thanks for the help. I'm sure that others have similar questions. This does seem like a very simple way to do it. Does this work to power multiple devices (w/same power requirements) or is it for one device only?
With the inline device I could do a cable with multiple devices (3.3v, 5v, 9v, 12v) and end up with more power options than the unit from Range Video, which only allows one voltage at a time. hmmm
Yea it is as simple as you said. The very last section of the datasheet has a diagram showing the pins. The middle pin (2) is a common ground, pin 1 (the one with the dot above it) is the input voltage (5-36V) and pin 3 is the regulated output (3.3V).
I will take a pic of one of our cables with one of these regulators in-line tomorrow.
I have experience with linear regulators (the type on the sparkfun boards) and wouldn't recommend them for high current or high step down ratios. But if your supply is less than ~12V and your current draw is less than an amp I'd say they are absolutely fine
I have also found this power supply from sparkfun. It also looks very promising. (link) This one has options for how power is connected and has an on/off plus dual voltage. This one is bigger than the other sparkfun unit but it is assembled. Anyone use any of these?
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