I need to battery power 6~7M of NeoPixels....

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iamkarlp
 
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I need to battery power 6~7M of NeoPixels....

Post by iamkarlp »

Building a project for a fund raiser I am helping with. I need to end up battery powering 6 to 7 meters of NeoPixel. (4 pieces just over 1.5M long each). Ideally I would like it to run for 6+ hours between battery replacement and/or charging.

My intention is to run it from an Arduino Micro without Headers.

What I don't know is the following:

1. Can I power the Arduino Micro from a 4.8V NiMH pack, or do I need something like a http://www.linear.com/product/LTC3525 to step up the signal?
1b. Would it be better to just use 6x AA alkaline in a carrier and use a normal UNO or the like?

2. Maybe this should be question 1, but with 7M of strip - that is 420 pixels. Can I do this with the above controllers, or should I move up to a MEGA? If MEGA, can I power it from a 4.8V pack that I am using for the LED's, or do I need a AA based battery pack of some sort?

3. The real question. Does anyone here have experience powering this amount of neoflex via battery? I won't be going full white very often, and most of my use will be single color at a time, but even still I probably have to figure on 2A draw per meter. Which gives me 14A of draw @ 5V. I'm not the most proficient at battery sizing, but I think that means that I am looking at something like an 80Ah battery assuming I want to try and get 6 hours run time. That sounds crazy to me. To get that sort of capacity I would need to get a (large) switching DC-DC converter and start with like a 24Ah 24V battery and step it down, which would be like, 1000$ right there.

I know I must be missing something because Ada's own guide on battery-powering neoflex suggests that AA's can power a meter for a few hours or more right here: https://learn.adafruit.com/battery-powe ... r-projects

Anyways, If anyone could help fill in some of my knowledge gaps on any or all of these points, I would be very grateful.

Thanks!

Karl P

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: I need to battery power 6~7M of NeoPixels....

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

iamkarlp wrote:1. Can I power the Arduino Micro from a 4.8V NiMH pack,
Yes.
iamkarlp wrote:2. Maybe this should be question 1, but with 7M of strip - that is 420 pixels. Can I do this with the above controllers,
Yes.
iamkarlp wrote:3. The real question. Does anyone here have experience powering this amount of neoflex via battery?
The problem is getting 14A out of NiMH or alkaline batteries. They just can't do that.
What you can do, however, is to power each meter of strip separately. Then you can use 4xAA alkaline or NiMH for each section.

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iamkarlp
 
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Re: I need to battery power 6~7M of NeoPixels....

Post by iamkarlp »

Thanks. I put an order in for everything (with 120v power supplies...) today so I can get it on the bench and start playing.

Anyone here have experience using 12v (or higher) sealed-lead-acid batteries with high efficiency bucking converters? Seems like that may be the way to go....

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