Neworld Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I'm currently running my pineapple through a 9v, could this cause problems? I'm assuming it's fine, because the pineapple works with a 5v usb plug and also a 12v wall adapter. 9v is right in between, will this cause problems for the pineapple? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsm0ld Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I have several pineapples and depending on the location they run on different voltages. The lowest I run mine is at 6 volts off a battery pack I made with no problems. The main issue you will run into is not the voltage if its between 6-12 volts its the current. Do you happen to know how many mA your 9 volt source can provide? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inTheDMZ Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I'm sure that lower voltages can affect the wifi rangle, i have a battery pack that outputs 9v or 12v and i always use 12v to ensure i get the best wifi range, i haven't got any proof of this but its just from my personal experiance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineDominator Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 (edited) I'm sure that lower voltages can affect the wifi rangle, i have a battery pack that outputs 9v or 12v and i always use 12v to ensure i get the best wifi range, i haven't got any proof of this but its just from my personal experiance 9 and 12 volts wont make a difference because the voltage is stepped down to 5 but it is a good idea to use a higher voltage, 6 and above would be good just don't go over 12 Edited August 18, 2012 by petertfm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neworld Posted August 18, 2012 Author Share Posted August 18, 2012 9 and 12 volts wont make a difference because the voltage is stepped down to 5 but it is a good idea to use a higher voltage, 6 and above would be good just don't go over 12 Thanks... this was what I was looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potato Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 If you are pulling roughly 1 amp and a 9v battery has about .5AH or 500 mAH it should only last 30 minutes or so right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsm0ld Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 If you are pulling roughly 1 amp and a 9v battery has about .5AH or 500 mAH it should only last 30 minutes or so right? As a really crude estimate yes, however in practice you should look at the datasheet and they have "Typical discharge characteristics" bottom left graph on the second page of this link: Duracell 9v datasheet http://professional.duracell.com/downloads/datasheets/product/Procell/Procell_9V_MN1604.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loozr Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Aha, so the Pineapple draws the same amperage regardless of what voltage it's feeded with? The pineapple draws about 1amp from both 12v and 5v? lets say that I have a 12v 1Ah battery and a 5v 1Ah battery, then they would last just as long with the Pineapple? Like 1 Ah is 1 Ah regardless of the voltage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsm0ld Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 (edited) Aha, so the Pineapple draws the same amperage regardless of what voltage it's feeded with? The pineapple draws about 1amp from both 12v and 5v? lets say that I have a 12v 1Ah battery and a 5v 1Ah battery, then they would last just as long with the Pineapple? Like 1 Ah is 1 Ah regardless of the voltage? Kinda...... The pineapple uses a DC to DC converter to provide 5v to the board and the converter is not very efficient. After reading your post I decided to do some testing on an actual 9v battery and a MK4. Test results: Using a 40Ah 12 volt battery I got a consumption of 1.05 watts Actual readings : 80.4mA @ 13.10 volts (under load) Using a Rayovac 9v battery I got a consumption of .68 watts Actual readings: 102.5mA @ 6.59 volts (under load) So in conclusion if you had a choice of what voltage to give your pineapple the closer to 5v you can get the less power is wasted by the DC to DC converter inside the pineapple itself. NOTE: I would not use any battery that has a voltage lower than 6 volts so that as the battery drains you don't fall below the operating voltage of 5v really fast. EDIT: MK4 configuration: USB port plugged into a powered HUB, the HUB power was not measured above and because it was powered from a separate wall plug the consumption of the storage and external WiFi adapter was not measured. It should not mater but for accuracy the RF output feeds a 2 watt amplifier also powered from a separate source and not included in the measurements above. If anyone is interested in specifics I can run more tests in different configurations and or start a new thread. Edited August 20, 2012 by itsm0ld Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neworld Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 Kinda...... The pineapple uses a DC to DC converter to provide 5v to the board and the converter is not very efficient. After reading your post I decided to do some testing on an actual 9v battery and a MK4. Test results: Using a 40Ah 12 volt battery I got a consumption of 1.05 watts Actual readings : 80.4mA @ 13.10 volts (under load) Using a Rayovac 9v battery I got a consumption of .68 watts Actual readings: 102.5mA @ 6.59 volts (under load) So in conclusion if you had a choice of what voltage to give your pineapple the closer to 5v you can get the less power is wasted by the DC to DC converter inside the pineapple itself. NOTE: I would not use any battery that has a voltage lower than 6 volts so that as the battery drains you don't fall below the operating voltage of 5v really fast. EDIT: MK4 configuration: USB port plugged into a powered HUB, the HUB power was not measured above and because it was powered from a separate wall plug the consumption of the storage and external WiFi adapter was not measured. It should not mater but for accuracy the RF output feeds a 2 watt amplifier also powered from a separate source and not included in the measurements above. If anyone is interested in specifics I can run more tests in different configurations and or start a new thread. Interesting... This is good to know :D thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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