Sorry…I’m still learning, and electrical things have been a bit of a black art to me. Looks like this is going to require a lot more components than I thought.
I’ve heard a few analogies of elctricity to water. So voltage would be the diameter of the water pipe, amps would be the rate that the water would flow at…let’s say gallons per minute, and the wattage would be the total amount of water to flow through the pipe. Maybe I’m thinking about this project wrong, and should be thinking step down from a single device as opposed to a step up from the arduino.
So let’s start at the power supply. AC. The AC naturally has to be broken down to DC which will require a transformer. Couple questions:
-
Would it be better to have one large transformer that takes the AC and converts it to straight DC, or should I go with 3 smaller transformers that only draw the required voltage according to each device?
-
The smaller transformers (like something you’d use to power a cell phone) will take up more space, but I’m guessing I wouldn’t have to use any type of diodes, capacitors, or rectifiers with them would I?
-
Could I get by with just 2 transformers? One that provides enough amperage to both the 12v devices, and one that has a 6v rating? Or better yet, could I just get 1 12v tranformer, and then have one that provides enough amperage to power all 3 devices with some sort of voltage step down between the device that requires 6-8v…like a voltmeter? Something like this ac to dc converter that supplies 12v at 5.8 amps looks like it could handle the job pretty easily…what do you guys think? Does sparkfun have something that’s equivalent?
<LINK_TEXT text="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sunforce-AC-DC- … 411c3a0b8
">SunForce Ac/dc Power Electrical Converter Wall Outlet to Auto Car Truck 12v for sale online | eBay
</LINK_TEXT>
Thanks for the help guys…maybe I’m over thinking all this stuff which is making it a lot more complicated than it needs to be…