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Power Shield for Astroberry

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Hi!

Why not an Anderson Powerpole connector for 12A?

Magnus
3 years 5 months ago #61152

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To be honest, this type of connector was not known by me till today, but I like it, I can imagine replacing the XT60 with a 45A type of Powerpole.
The only question is this Powerpole connector more common in astrophotography? Because if it is, then makes sense to change it.
(XT60 is I think absolutely not common, but in every RC shop it is available)
3 years 5 months ago #61166

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Hi!

To the best of my knowlegde, the Anderson Powerpole connectors are very common among astro people - replacing the "cigarette lighter" connectors. And I'm talking about these:

andersonconnect.com.au/store/index.php?m..._info&products_id=93

A lot of people for instance use a "Rig runner" on top of their mounts to distribute power to all the devices - based on these. For instance:

www.westmountainradio.com/product_info.php?products_id=rr_4006u

The device your are designing is effectively a far more advanced version of a RigRunner (sort of).

Magnus
3 years 5 months ago #61186

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Replied by Joaquin on topic Power Shield for Astroberry

They are very common in ham radio. There are racks for power distribution, very popular, some with fuses. Some models can stand very high currents.
3 years 5 months ago #61198

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I like the original design OP has. Powerpole connectors are great but seems like it would take up more real estate on the hub itself. Those connections are somewhat wide. The 2.1mm connection seems better IMO with the reverse polarity protection
Last edit: 3 years 5 months ago by Daniel DeSclafani.
3 years 5 months ago #61200

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Hi tikiss and all,
very good work, I'm interested in one maybe two machine-populated units.
Just some notes:
  1. ATM 4 GPIO left unused. If GPS reset is not used and 3Dfix led can be sacrificed, we could have 6 gpios to let the unit control focuser stepper motors using already available Radeck Astroberry Focuser indi driver. On the power shield side, only a JST like connector to link one of those mini stepper controller modules is needed.
  2. MCP3202 can be replaced with 3208, and populating 1 INA328 and OP-AMP per channel we'll have amps readings per-device instead of total. Maybe it's an overikill, don't know.
  3. the OneWire pin can be used to chain one or two DS18B20 temperature sensors to monitor stuff that has to be kept dew-free: since ambient temperature and relative humidity are already avavilable, we can calculate dew point temperature and automatically regulate heaters at minimum power needed to keep dew away. Obviously lacking (or not working) the sensor, the channel works in manual power mode. I've already done it with Arduino, code is simple and I can contribute it.

What do you think about it?

Matteo
3 years 5 months ago #61232

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I have also checked these, but I was mainly focused on which can be used on PCB side, the only disadvantage is the population on the board could be a little bit difficult compared to XT60 which is a solid block together with pins.
I will order a couple of samples to see how it looks.
3 years 5 months ago #61460

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Yes, I have also found on Wikipedia that radio amateurs using it as well.
3 years 5 months ago #61461

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If I understood the others, they were recommending the PowerPole instead of the XT60 input power connector. I agree with you the normal DC jack (2.1mm or 2.5mm) is better (more common) to use for the outputs.
As far as I understood the PowerPole has also a kind of polarity.
3 years 5 months ago #61462

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Hi!

I don't have much experience in connecting them to a PCB but there are this type of connectors at least (think there are others as well):

i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ItUAAOSw55FcVvQ9/s-l1600.jpg

Best,

Magnus
Last edit: 3 years 5 months ago by Magnus Larsson.
3 years 5 months ago #61463

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Yes, I am thinking about how to implement it, I do not really want to have the housing bigger, and currently, the front and back plates are full of connectors, based on my testing during the last week, it seems that I have to remove the onboard BME280, because the RPi temperature is influencing it quite much, so if I do so I would have space for another connector.
Do you think a JST 2,54mm pitch connector would be okay for that? I think an RJ11/12 is more common, or?
When I have started that design I have also thought about single-channel current measurement, and I am open to modifying it, with a smart MOSFET so I can also remove the fuses because the smart MOSFETs are overcurrent protected. This could help the place a stepper driver on the board.
As I mentioned previously the onboard BME280 cannot be isolated 100% from the RPi, so I am planning to remove it, and maybe add two 3,5mm jack connectors, one for I2C sensors, like BME280, and one for one-wire sensors. Let's see how all these fits on the board.
Last edit: 3 years 5 months ago by Tibor Kiss.
3 years 5 months ago #61464

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Hi Magnus,
Exactly, that is what I have also found in the catalog.
I will order a couple of, to study them.


Tibor
3 years 5 months ago #61465

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