andyfive Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Hello Everyone, First off, I would like to say hello to the community, and introduce myself. I am Andy Five. I have just received my pineapple about a week ago, and have been lurking the forums and learning as much as I can. I have a question regarding the pineapple's power supply. I have two '12v' sealed lead acid batteries that float right around 13.5v, fully charged. I plan on using them for a remote deployment. I don't want to take the chance of trying to power the pineapple directly from the battery so that leaves my only choice to use a regulator. As many of you probably know, linear regulators are notoriously inefficient. I don't want to waste my precious juice, so I'm planning on using a switching regulator. Here is my basic question: I have found the following switching regulator for extremely cheap on ebay. It will output 5 or 6v @3A from my batteries. Will this regulator work with the pineapple, or do I have to worry about the 'noise' from a switching regulator? Thanks in advance your the assistance! P.S. Here is the regulator that I ordered: http://www.hobbywing.com/product_show.asp?id=209 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yabasoya Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 The specs of the pineapple are 5v-12v. However, all my deployment packs are 12v batteries that are 13.5v on full charge. I have had no problem running the pineapple on these batteries. In fact, Darren mentions deploying a pineapple using a car battery in a flower pot for days. I don't see an issue with the regulator you ordered. I was looking at one of these when I use my stealth car case with my pineapple and need to restart the engine to move it to a new spot, I was afraid of spikes from the starter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyfive Posted March 20, 2014 Author Share Posted March 20, 2014 Excellent. This is good to know. I will hook the pineapple directly to the battery. Thankfully the regulator will still be able to be put to use. I plan to use a raspberry pi running either PwnPi or kali, which requires the 5v that the regulator will supply. :D Now I've just gotta wait for some parts to arrive in the mail... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xcellerator Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 It all comes down to wattage. The pineapple can run at 5-12v on around 1.5A (think it's 1.5, might wanna double check). That means it can handle 7.5W up to 18W, of course these will be conservative - the range will be larger than this, but these are the recommend powers. So, you could say run it at 6v at 3A to get 18W safely. (Wattage = Voltage x Current) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yabasoya Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 Excellent. This is good to know. I will hook the pineapple directly to the battery. Thankfully the regulator will still be able to be put to use. I plan to use a raspberry pi running either PwnPi or kali, which requires the 5v that the regulator will supply. :D Now I've just gotta wait for some parts to arrive in the mail... Wait. I am not telling you to do it. I'm just saying that I haven't had a problem doing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Kitchen Posted March 21, 2014 Share Posted March 21, 2014 It all comes down to wattage. The pineapple can run at 5-12v on around 1.5A (think it's 1.5, might wanna double check). That means it can handle 7.5W up to 18W, of course these will be conservative - the range will be larger than this, but these are the recommend powers. So, you could say run it at 6v at 3A to get 18W safely. (Wattage = Voltage x Current) What he said. We took special care to specifically develop a voltage regulator that'll accept a wide range from 5-12v -- though if you lower the voltage you'll need to make up it with higher current (amperage). Edit: I don't have experience with switched vs linear regulators so perhaps you can write back with your experience. I can't see why it wouldn't work -- though your efficiency may vary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyfive Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 Thanks for the heads up. In that case, I think that I will wait and use the regulator. I love my pineapple and would be so sad if I hurt it! ;) I asked my original question because I have had some issues in the past while using a switching regulator with RF equipment. The power supply's 'noise' caused significant interference with the RF circuitry. This particular regulator has a ferrite on the output line to aid in stopping any stray rf/noise. Anyway, once I actually receive all of my parts I will give you all updates regarding how everything worked together. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Kitchen Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Cool, let us know how it goes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyfive Posted April 10, 2014 Author Share Posted April 10, 2014 Hello everyone, I just wanted to give you all an update. I took an o'scope to the switching power supply that I ordered (link given above) and it turns out that it does have some noise. The pineapple however works fine running from it. I assume that this is either because the noise level is insignificant, or the pineapples internal regulator circuitry had adequate filtering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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