Battery operated wireless

[Sloanhaus]

I wanted to start a thread on this to see if it is even possible. I have talked about going completely wireless and I was wondering how I could power these receivers. My setup involves my backyard and I have a lake in the backyard which I plan on having some wallwashers washing out the lake from the middle. I am running the lights off of 12 volt boat batteries but need to run the receiver off a battery as well. I have bought a 9 volt battery and wanting to try to see if it could work. Any suggestions would be appreciated, otherwise I will just start the ole trial and error.

Thanks

Brad

[RJ]

Add a good heatsink to the 7805 regulator on the RX and power it from 12 volts. The extra voltage will make it run hot so you just need to get rid of the heat. Oh but I forgot you do not like heatsinks so scratch that idea. 

RJ

[Sloanhaus]

Actually I think you have the nicest heat sinks that I have ever seen, and I will be using them on all my regular lights, just not on my leds... I hope you didnt take offense to me not using them on the leds. Quick question, the board has a power connection on it, would you use that connection and run a plug into it or would I have to hard wire something else to the area.

Thanks again RJ, I have been soldiering all day.

Brad

[RJ]

Actually I think you have the nicest heat sinks that I have ever seen, and I will be using them on all my regular lights, just not on my leds... I hope you didnt take offense to me not using them on the leds. Quick question, the board has a power connection on it, would you use that connection and run a plug into it or would I have to hard wire something else to the area.

Thanks again RJ, I have been soldiering all day.

Brad

No Offense just giving you a hard time. you would not need to modify anything other than add a way to move the excess heat off the regulator. I assume we are talking standalone RX units and not EX/RX units. The Standalone is designed to have about 8-9 volts in and run fine when you increase the voltage to 13.2 of a car battery you will increase the voltage it must dissipate from about 3 - 4 volts  (9 volts we have  minus 5 volts we want = 4 volts got to get rid of)  to (13 we have minus 5 we want = 8 we have to get rid of).  so you double the voltage to drop and double the heat it has to get rid of.  Although just now doing the math you might not even need a heatsink on it for this as the current is low on the reciever.

On the other hand if you mean the EX/RX then you will really need a good heatsink as you are dropping about 10 volts and that is going to make some heat even at that low a current.

RJ

[Sloanhaus]

This is great, now do you have a way you recommend to connect the battery to the board? Do I just take the walwart cord that came with it and cut off the ac plug?

Thanks

Brad

[wbuehler]

Brad yes you can just use the connector that would normally come on the AC adapter.
But you can also get those same adapters from Radio Shack, that would allow you to save the AC Adapter.

Bill

[memphislights]

why don't you grab a couple of 6v SLA (lead acid) batteries and run them in parallel.  Keep a couple of sets around so you can  swap them out for charging.  I would assume that the wireless is relatively low current.

[Sloanhaus]

These are all great ideas and I am going to experiment with them all, but I need to know how to hook up these power sources to the board. The board has 3 holes, I have put the input component on all the boards but 2. If I use the batteries, do I just cut off the plug that was shipped to me and connect the wires directly to the battery?

Thanks

Sloan

[wbuehler]

You could cut off the connector coming off the AC Adapter and connect that to the battery yes.
But to save the use of a good AC Adapter I would go down to Radio Shack or Order from Mouser the barrel connector (This is the connector that plugs into the power socket on the Receiver or Transmitter) and solder my own wires to it.
You then could take those wires and attach it to the battery.  Make sure you watch the polarity.  The Transmitter and the Standalone receiver are setup to use positive on the center of the connector.

Bill

[ron d]

this is bringing up an old topic here. what is the easiest/most efficient way to go fully wireless? I am thinking of using some battery boxes that hold 3 AA batteries and would like to simply attach them to the power in so i can run battery power or plug it in. if that works anyone have a link to the mouser part or any other link to get the power from the battery to the board?
Would a 9v be better here for life time as Rj mentioned earlier on this thread a heatsink might not be needed on the tx/rx.


Thanks,  Ron

[ron d]

I have some 6v battey power supplies. 4x1.5 volt and need to know if i can solder the wires directly to the pcb where i soldered the power input onto the controller. The 3 solder joints i am curious if i can solder the 2 wires directly there and have these work. Or is there a part # i can buy that would work for the adaptor from the wall wart? I just need the end.  Any help would be great/

[ron d]

I have the wireless tx/rx running off batteries. I am using 4 AA batteries that i used the power pack from a battery powered mini light set and seems to work great and I will double check with a sequence running but it was left on for a couple days and then still turned on. I just soldered a 2 wires to the back of the case and put quick disconnect clips on the battery pack so i can also go back and use the wall wart if i want.

[n1ist]

The power connector is a 5.5mm OD/ 2.1mm ID one.  I'd attach one to your battery pack and plug it in to the TX/RX instead of the wallwart.  You can get the plug off a dead wallwart or use 171-PA5521-E or similar from Mouser.  This way, you aren't modifying the TX/RX.  Just make sure you don't tape the battery pack where it will block the antenna.

/mike