On Tue, 12 Mar 1996, Mike Riendeau wrote:

>           Paul,

>           If you require 42mA of current for 30 sec. at a minimum
>           of 4V:

Well it is just a toy.

The 30 sec number is optimistic.  With the weight of the alkaline batteries
real flights are more like 2 to 4 seconds.  (It doesn't fly so much as
plummet.)

It gets better if I use separate power supplies.  A small supercap for
powering the PIC and a single alkaline cell to power the muscle wire.  The
PIC needs a few volts at not much current, the muscle wire needs 38 milliamps
at not many volts.  This would give me a one component CPU power supply.

So we can get back to PIC's.  What's a "good" way to switch 1.2 volts at 38
milliamps controlled by a PIC output.  "good" means low component count and
predictable voltage drop.  The wire is 860 ohms per meter, so I can choose a
length to match the voltage available.  My current mechanical design requires
longer wires, but I can probably optimize it.


>           After looking at some of the specifications on these
>           capacitors,

Where can I get more specifications?

And thanks for the help, remember, it's just a toy, so don't spend too much
time on it.

Paul Haas paulh@hamjudo.com http://www.hamjudo.com