Asked — Edited

Just Received Ezb V4 Controller With Camera.No Power Supply Included? From Re Se

http://www.robotshop.com/en/ez-b-v4-wifi-robot-controller-with-camera.html#productsReviewBoxTitle

EZ-B V4 WiFi Robot Controller with Camera Product Code : RB-Ezr-16 by EZ-Robot

I was thrilled to receive this in one day, free shipping from Robot Shop.. But didn't received Power Supply? No where does it state the power supply is separate and the controller was in a plastic sealed EZ Robot box. The item description says : Includes 1 Power Shell...isn't that the Power adapter?

What's Included: 1 x EZ-B v4 Camera 1 x EZ-B v4 Wi-Fi Robot Controller 1 x Power Shell ez-builder robot control software and SDK

Was the Power Supply supposed to be included? where do I get it?

Thanx; Rob:)


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#1  

Power supply is not included. The power shell adaptes the mini deans connector on the bottom of the EZ-B to a barrel jack, and provides a protection fuse and a stable base.

There are many choices for power, but the best is a 7.4v lipo battery. You can get batteries, chargers, and a deans to barrel jack adapter in the store here, or the battery and charger and parts to make an adapter from virtually any hobby shop that sells RC cars or planes or from numerous web sites.

Alan

#2  

Why was this not implied? I got battery pack with my ezb v3:( Will my exb v3 battery pack work?

#3  

Yes, it will, although if it is the 4 battery pack and not the 6 battery pack you'll need to disable the low battery warning and it won't drive the new EZ-B heavy duty servos.

I suspect when you got your v3 you bought the developer kit which came with a battery pack and some servos. Same with the v4 developer kit. The standalone v4 and v4 with camera do not. My v3 developer kit had a battery pack. I had to buy two more at RadioShack for the v3s I bought standalone.

I won't get into why LiPo or lead acid batteries are better than AA's here. Lots of threads on selecting the proper power depending on your needs.

Alan

#4  

Yes it's the 6 battery pack. From the developers pack.

PRO
Synthiam
#5  

It is implied in the inventory, which you pasted. You explicitly mentioned the inventory in the first post, which contains a list of everything included in the product. You can click on each item with the mouse by hovering the cursor over each item in the inventory list and clicking the mouse button.

You can tell which items are clickable due to the color on a webpage. The inventory item in question is "power shell", which is not a "power supply". The question is regarding "power supply", which consists of different words. Power supply and power shell are different items and use different words.

Hope that helps!

#6  

Yes. I get it. I didn't realize. I saw this: "Energy efficient digital switching power supply" I would've also ordered something for power. I thought the power shell was the power supply. Because I never heard of a power shell. Lol. If the original 6 battery power I have will work until I get something else. I'm good. I will get rechargeable batteries, like recommended. I like the idea of a lithium rechargeable battery, that I don't have to keep pulling out AA batteries to recharge.... Any suggestions or links to a good power source? Thanx.

#7  

Battery: https://synthiam.com/Shop/AccessoriesDetails.aspx?prevCat=9&productNumber=41

Charger: https://synthiam.com/Shop/AccessoriesDetails.aspx?prevCat=9&productNumber=42

Adapter: https://synthiam.com/Shop/AccessoriesDetails.aspx?prevCat=9&productNumber=103

However, EZ-B currently is showing a 5 week lead time on the battery, so getting it and hte charger from a local hobby supplier or from Hobby King or Turnigy may be faster. You can make the adapter by either getting a DEANs connector and a barrel jack and wiring yourself, or you could just cut off the DEANs connector from the battery and attach the barrel jack from your V3 battery holder.

You want a 2S Lipo Battery (that will give you 7.4 volts nominal). If you have ping or other sensors from your old developers kit, you will also need 5v regulators, because the digital pins on the EZ-B v4 are unregulated, so 7.4v in is 7.4v out.

https://synthiam.com/Shop/AccessoriesDetails.aspx?prevCat=9&productNumber=98

Your old servos will probably work, although their lifespan may be shortened since they were designed for 5v, but I have been using mine on v4's for over a year without problem. ymmv.

All that being said though, battery or power supply choice really depends on what kind of robot you are building, how long you want it to run, and what is connected to it. You may want either a 6v, 12v, or 24v lead acid if you are building a big robot with big motors. You may want a high quality switching AC/DC switching power supply if your robot will not be mobile so you don't need to worry about recharging (note however, that if running more than a couple of servos, you need an big expensive power supply that can deliver lots of amps very fast because of the servo inrush current. A little 9v or 12v wall wart with 2amps will not be sufficient). See these two tutorials for everything you need to know about powering a robot:

https://synthiam.com/Tutorials/UserTutorials/163/1

https://synthiam.com/Tutorials/UserTutorials/170/1

Alan

#8  

Thanx Alan!:) Your help is astounding!:)

#10  

I would use the second one. 1000mah is pretty low amps. The ones that EZ-B sells are 1300mah and I don't think they last long enough. 2200mah will give you decent use between charges.

Alan

#11  

Thanx,:) and these guys are in VT and I'm in NH... get delivery in one day:)

Rob

PRO
USA
#12  

the battery is very interesting:

http://www.robotshop.com/en/dfrobot-7-4v-lipo-2200mah-battery.html

is not a plain vanilla 2S lipo battery, there is a built in circuit to stop charging automatically.

also the charger: http://www.robotshop.com/en/74v-lipo-battery-charger.html

is not a regular (JHT connector) lipo charger.

some guys use the battery as "always-plugged-in" that possibility is very interesting if you want to implement a charging station.

sometime ago i asked the question in their forums, but nobody confirmed the "always-plugged-in" scenario.

I think for a EZ Roli a always-plugged-in battery would be something very useful.