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powering your projects

A project log for how to: Maker Faire

some general tips and ideas for presenting projects, feel free to share stuff or join

davedarkodavedarko 06/16/2017 at 09:293 Comments

@al1's battery box tip

LiPos have their special place in many of our projects, but sometimes it's just neat to have one of those AAA battery boxes with a switch that fits two-three batteries. Many of the common projects run just fine off them, like @al1 's #reCLOCK -> it's so tiny! But it also helps to show off the piece, because it makes it portable.


@Radomir Dopieralski's two cents

A. Make sure the batteries are easily removable, and take a few spares and a charger. This way you can charge one battery while the project runs on the other.

B. Remember that your projects are probably not designed to move all the time for 8+ hours straight. Motors get hot, servos wear out and break, batteries can only take so much recharging. So make breaks. If you have several projects, run one at a time. This will also encourage people to come back to your table later.


Use USB hubs and breadboards

Kind of obvious, but in case you want to power a lot of little projects, you can easily distribute power with a USB hub or use breadboards. Powered USB hubs should work pretty well, but you can also put HUBs on power banks!

Discussions

deʃhipu wrote 06/16/2017 at 09:42 point

And let's not forget about power banks!

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davedarko wrote 06/16/2017 at 09:46 point

but that's kind of a no brainer, you just have to remember to charge them ;) that's where Alex's tip is handy, just buy new batteries, they're charged and you'll get them everywhere.

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davedarko wrote 06/16/2017 at 09:51 point

on second thought, power banks might not be obvious to every one. thank you :)

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