I am trying to drive a servo (the small one that comes with the Inventor’s kit for Arduino) by using lilypad + lilypad power supply (the one that takes a single AAA battery).
The servo turns fine when I use power from USB, but when I unplug USB and use the AAA the servo just groans and vibrates slightly. Clearly there isn’t enough current.
With my meter I measured ~70-80 mA when the servo is functioning normally, and the lilypad itself requires ~10 mA based on my previous measurements. Since the lilypad power supply says it can handle up to 100 mA I would expect it to be able to deliver the required current to the servo. However when I checked the servo current in the AAA case I see only 50 mA going through it, which confirms my fear that there isn’t enough current.
When I measured the battery by itself (out of the lilypad power supply) I got ~200 mA closed circuit current, so at first the battery doesnt seem to be the problem. However since the 1.5V is being multiplied by around 3 times, does that mean the total current suppliable by the battery is going to decrease by the same factor? I’m using a duracell AAA.
I even tried using a AA battery or two AAA batteries, but I still can’t get enough current.
Anyone been able to drive a small servo using only a AAA and the lilypad power supply?