Hi - I bought the 12v step up regulator, and I seem to be having a problem. I think I have everything wired correctly but my LED’s are not bright at all.
My setup is that I have a 6v battery pack powering a 6 channel maestro, and from the maestro I have channel 3 set as output. with a button 0 set as input (on a button) and 1 and 2 and servos.
I thought that if I ran the signal wire from channel 3, to the VIN on the regulator, and the ground from channel 3 to the regulator, and then the positive from the led to the VOUT on the regular and spliced the ground from the led to the regular (with the negative from the maestro) that I would get a brighter LED.
That seems to not be the case, does anyone know what I am doing wrong?
And actually I was messing around with it, when I connect my LED’s directly to the 6v battery pack they’re bright as … well they’re bright. and connecting the battery pack to the 12v step up seems to work cause the little chip gets hot, so there’s something going on with the maestro that is inhibiting the output.
Okay so after reading through the maestro resources, I see the signal line is limited to 20ma output, is there anyway to increase that?
Hello.
The signal lines on the Maestro are not meant for power applications; there is no way to increase the maximum current they can source. However, you might consider using MOSFETs to drive the LEDs. You should still be able to use the regulator to supply 12V to the LEDs and the Maestro to control when the LEDs are on or off.
-Brandon
Reading through the mosfet instructions is a bit confusing.
If I wanted to use a step up regulator to power 12v leds, how would I connect it using the mosfet? I see that I have my battery pack connected to the rc controller, then the rc controller to the mosfet, but then what?
If you are using a Maestro, it would replace the “RC controller” in the diagram you posted. Referring to the diagram, the “load power supply” should be the output of your 12V regulator, and your LED should be the “load”. Also, please note that it is good practice when using an LED to include a resistor in series with it to limit the forward current to an appropriate value.
-Brandon
Thanks for the reply! yes I’m using a 6channel maestro.
Do I need to have an additional power supply supplying the load power supply?
Or can I run a + - from the Maestro, connect the 12v step up regulator, then connect that to the outside terminals of load power supply?
You should probably be able to power your whole setup with one battery as long as your battery can source enough current for your system, but your setup is not clear to me from your description. If you want to post a diagram of your proposed connections, I would be happy to take a look.
-Brandon
