On February 23, 2006 01:55 pm, Peter Todd wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 23, 2006 at 12:29:30AM -0800, Jose Da Silva wrote:
> > On February 22, 2006 11:45 pm, Peter Todd wrote:
> > > One challenge I see is power. Peak power, for all leds on, is
> > > about 16 amps per side! Or about 100amps for the whole board!
> > > That's just nuts... Is there such a thing as a simple,
> > > self-contained switching regulator that can handle a decent
> > > amount of current? I'd like something as simple as a 3-pin
> > > regulator, no external components or anything. I'm trying to have
> > > this thing completely built by March 11th, which I know is
> > > utterly insane, but trying is fun!
> >
> > You can try reducing current by stacking the voltage planes. 6
> > boards... that would be 100amps/6 = 17amps.
> > Divide by 4 and you are needing 4amps x 24 layers, or 120vdc to
> > power your tower of 5v x 24layers.
> >
> > One set of boards driving your LEDs etc runs at 0-5v,
> > Another set runs on the 5-10v layer,
> > Another set runs on the 10-15v layer,
> > Another set runs on the 15-20v layer.....
>
> Hmm... Sounds like a bit of a routing nightmare to me. I'd be running
> things in series, so I'd have to "route" the voltage from one board
> to another. If it's just running the boards in series, they'll use
> vastly different amounts of current as the pictures change, probably
> not going to work.

Yup, you would have to treat each board in terms of constant current 
because some boards would have all the LEDs lit, while some boards 
would have to bleed current through despite having no LEDs lit.
Takes thought, but certainly can be done.

> Thinking outside of the box is good though. For that matter, why must
> it be a box? :)

No, that's upper management speak.
For embedded, the joke is "think inside the box".    ;-P
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