Hi, I’m trying to power a Mars rover project with a Makita 18v 6Ah power tool battery, which actually shows up to 21v at full charge. The board I want to power (a Pimoroni Yukon Host board) requires 5-17v, and I don’t want to lose too much to heat so a switcher regulator sounds like the best option.
Pololu sells a D36V50F12 12v 4.5A regulator. To be on the safe side (Raspberry Pi, sensors, motor controllers and 6 motors) I’d need possibly even more than 9A, so maybe three regulators. This assumes it’s possible to run them in parallel to gain extra amperage.
Is running regulators in parallel possible? If so, any advice? Thanks!
Hello.
We generally do not recommend connecting regulators in parallel; you can find more information about why in this forum thread. You might consider a more powerful regulator like the 12V, 15A D24V150F12. Alternatively, you could split your load up between multiple separate regulators (e.g. something like one regulator for the Raspberry PI and sensors, one for the motor controllers and motors on the left side and one for the motors and motor controllers on the right side).
Brandon
Thanks Brandon, good to know.
On several of my other robots I actually have split the load across several regulators as you suggest, with one going to the Raspberry Pi and sensors, the other to the motor controller.
And for some reason (not like you were hiding it on the site) I hadn’t noticed the 15A regulator. The Yukon board takes up to 17v so while it’d be nice if I could get up a bit closer to that 17v limit, the 12v, 15A version of the D24V150F12 would be just fine for the purpose. I don’t think the robot would run near 15A.
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