[Lab] So my EL wire board still resets (when using batteries)

[Richard Guy Briggs]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2011 at 06:10:07PM -0400, Martin Villemaire wrote:
> I got home last night from the lab all excited to finally be able to
> light up my EL wire through my "el sequencer" board. However when I
> plugged my battery pack in instead of the USB, the board started
> resetting again. 
> 
> I am using 4x AA rechargeable batteries rated 1.2V/2000mAh, so in
> theory I am giving this 4.8V of power (I think the USB is giving it
> 5V?). The batteries are fully charged. 
> 
> Any idea what I would need to get the board to not reset when using
> batteries? 6x AA @ 1.2V? 8x? Or maybe my problem is something else
> entirely... argh...

I just found this posting documenting a number of problems with the
SparkFun EL sequencer boards.  Similar problems appear to apply to the
SparkFun EL Escuso Arduino shield.

	http://dorkbotpdx.org/blog/paul/sparkfun_el_sequencer_trouble
	http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/04/programming-el-wire-fashion.html
	http://bildr.org/2011/06/el-sequencer/

I may have blown some of the triacs on my board while trying to figure
this stuff out the hard way.

Two of my inverters, including the 3v one that you have had the A/C
output wired backwards, shorting the output to ground on their intended
target board.  It is now fixed and working.

There is a common ground wire missing if you use an external power
supply to the inverter.  Fixing this will also reduce the reset problem.

The sample code library for the sequencer and Escudo doesn't work, fixes
in the links above.

The gate resistors on the boards are 3 to 10 times higher than they
should be for full drive power.

> Any help would be appreciated! 

	slainte mhath, RGB

--
Richard Guy Briggs               --  ~\    -- ~\            <hpv.tricolour.net>
<www.TriColour.net>                --  \___   o \@       @       Ride yer bike!
Ottawa, ON, CANADA                  --  Lo_>__M__\\/\%__\\/\%
Vote! -- <greenparty.ca>_____GTVS6#790__(*)__(*)________(*)(*)_________________