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Italy
Asked — Edited

Powering Stand Alone Robot

Hello and first of all, scuse me for my bad english.

I am working from about 3 years (.....too many time!) on my robot.
It is able now to do many things. It can recognize my face, my wife's face and my little son's face.
It has its 'humor' when it wake up on the morning....... and it can play some game with my son.

But it has a very big problem about power.

My robot is a 'stand alone' robot with a mini pc inside. The pc is small, but it is very powerful.
The power comes from 3 12v plumb battery (same of alarm system 12v 7,2 Ah) and these batteries are connected to an 'Inverter'.
The 'Inverter', provide power to mini-pc, but, when pc does some hard work processing, 12v goes down to 8v and so, mini-pc has not power and shut down.

Can i follow another way to power my stand-alone robot in a stable 12v power?
Can i apply a power-supply-tamper (like the Nilox power-supply-tamper we use in office) solving my problem?

Thank you very much and scuse me for my language...... i hope you understand it.....

Ema from Italy


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Canada
#1  
Hi @odt,

You could try to use something like this instead of an inverter. I have used them successfully in the past, although I did have to add a fan to one of them to keep it cool.

Edit: Just in case you were wondering, I forgot to mention that it runs off a single 12V supply.
#2  
I was going to recommend basically the same thing Jeremie did. If you look at mp3car.com they also have some wirh low voltage shutoff capabilities (they will tell the computer to shut down gracefully before the voltage gets too low to keep it running).
Italy
#3  
Hello and many thanks for your reply.
But it is a little difficult for me to understand english. Can you explain with simple words what this device is and how does it works?
Where do i have to install this? Is this connected directly to motherboard and 12v battery?
Belgium
#4  
il dispositivo fa esattamente la stessa cosa come l'inverter, ma consuma meno energia. È pensato per attrezzature pc in esecuzione su batterie. La potenza in ingresso è di 12 V CC dal vostro batterie. Il dispositivo converte in tutte le altre tensioni.
Belgium
#5  
Una bella alternativa utilizza è un pc in auto o in un modello integrato. Alcuni produttori hanno anche computer desktop slim con una singola alimentazione a 12V (thin client).


Thin Client


Thin Client


Embedded PC
Italy
#6  
Hello.

I have bought the 12v-power-supply you have suggested and today it is arrived in my hands.
I am trying to connect to motherboard and i am seeing it is really a great protuct.
I think it is just what i need, so, i want really to thank you for the suggestion!
#7  
Get the M4-atx 250 watt psu. It's a switching power supply and the most efficient if that is what you want. However I would encourage you to consider a Acer W3 windows 8.1 tablet which you can buy for about 120 dollars and this tablet can charge from a 12 volt source. It only has a dual core cpu and 2gb ram but it will do the job.
#8  
Or a Dell venue pro 8 for the same price On ebay. I have both but the Dell is faster, lighter and longer battery life.
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