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Onboard Power

A project log for Mike's Robot Dog

Boston Dynamics' robot dog, Spot Mini is unavailable at any price. A Chinese copy is $30,000. Cut 99% of the cost and build one at home.

mike-rigsbyMike Rigsby 06/27/2018 at 19:372 Comments

Let's start with a schematic of the power supply.

This supply is built on a piece of 5 1/4" x 6 1/4" plywood (1/4" thick). The four 350 farad capacitors are soldered together in series, then placed in the 3d printed capacitor holder.

A "three cell" D battery holder is added.

The second toggle switch and digital voltmeter are added.

The second "3 D cell battery holder" is added.

Everything is connected and wired out to a plug that can attach to the dog's body.

The 9 volt battery holder (with built in switch) and the battery/capacitor power supply are attached to the body using velcro.

Because the dog was tired of being inside, I took her out for a little air.

Discussions

Mike Rigsby wrote 06/28/2018 at 13:40 point

Actually, the ultracapacitors tend to have a low maximum voltage (2.7 volts in my case), so they need to be in series to handle the battery voltage.

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deʃhipu wrote 06/28/2018 at 07:51 point

Why are the capacitors in series? Shouldn't they be connected in parallel?

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