Hello Guys
Forgive my ignorance, and do please tell me if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I have an issue that I wondered if one of these boards could solve. I have a problem keeping a GPS tracker charged on my Quad. The quad sits in a farmyard, miles from anywhere, and trying to keep the tracker charged from the quad's main battery has failed miserably because my buck device, used to power the tracker via USB, from the main quad battery, uses too much power at rest. Even when not charging, it uses some 55mA, I think I measured it, rendering the quad's battery flat in a matter of only a few days. What I would like to do is use one of these microcontroller boards to turn on the power to the buck device periodically, thus topping up the tracker's battery, and then turning off the buck device again. Two hours every 30 days should suffice, for example, and would do away with the 55mA constant drain. This is to keep the tracker alive all winter, when I don't use the quad at all. In summer I use it regularly, and I have no issue keeping everything topped up, simply by running it often.
A more sophisticated solution would be to monitor the tracker's battery voltage, and turn on my buck device when required, and then off again when charged. On at say 3.5V and off again at 4.1V. It might also be nice to monitor the source voltage, and suspend operations if the main voltage dropped below a certain level, 11V for example, to prevent it killing off my quads small 14Ah lead acid battery completely. I know for winter I could use a seperate pack, of large capacity, and just keep that in storage during summer, but that lacks a certain amount of elegance in my opinion.
Is this something that could be achieved by a complete and utter beginner with say the Teensy 3.2 board? In case you were wondering, I really do mean a beginner. I have no coding background, little to no knowledge of modern electronics, and can just about wield a soldering iron and work a PC. To give you an example, I read the term library earlier, and didn't even know what that was.
Sorry to just arrive and ask a question, but I don't know how else to go about it, due to my lack of knowledge. If it's not the done thing, no problem, just let me know.
I'll subscribe to the thread to monitor for any possible replies.
Thanks in advance.
Forgive my ignorance, and do please tell me if I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I have an issue that I wondered if one of these boards could solve. I have a problem keeping a GPS tracker charged on my Quad. The quad sits in a farmyard, miles from anywhere, and trying to keep the tracker charged from the quad's main battery has failed miserably because my buck device, used to power the tracker via USB, from the main quad battery, uses too much power at rest. Even when not charging, it uses some 55mA, I think I measured it, rendering the quad's battery flat in a matter of only a few days. What I would like to do is use one of these microcontroller boards to turn on the power to the buck device periodically, thus topping up the tracker's battery, and then turning off the buck device again. Two hours every 30 days should suffice, for example, and would do away with the 55mA constant drain. This is to keep the tracker alive all winter, when I don't use the quad at all. In summer I use it regularly, and I have no issue keeping everything topped up, simply by running it often.
A more sophisticated solution would be to monitor the tracker's battery voltage, and turn on my buck device when required, and then off again when charged. On at say 3.5V and off again at 4.1V. It might also be nice to monitor the source voltage, and suspend operations if the main voltage dropped below a certain level, 11V for example, to prevent it killing off my quads small 14Ah lead acid battery completely. I know for winter I could use a seperate pack, of large capacity, and just keep that in storage during summer, but that lacks a certain amount of elegance in my opinion.
Is this something that could be achieved by a complete and utter beginner with say the Teensy 3.2 board? In case you were wondering, I really do mean a beginner. I have no coding background, little to no knowledge of modern electronics, and can just about wield a soldering iron and work a PC. To give you an example, I read the term library earlier, and didn't even know what that was.
Sorry to just arrive and ask a question, but I don't know how else to go about it, due to my lack of knowledge. If it's not the done thing, no problem, just let me know.
I'll subscribe to the thread to monitor for any possible replies.
Thanks in advance.