Power Control Electronics

I'm considering adding power control and regulation electronics to my bot. I'd like this it to be able to turn itself off, read its battery level, allow hotswapping of batteries, and handle recharging when an external power supply is connected. Is this something most people design from scratch, or are there any pre-designed boards you can buy? I've Googled for it, but have found nothing. You'd think with the plethora of boards out there for processing, sensors, and motor control, there would be something for a mundane task like power regulation.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Spencer
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"Chris Spencer" skrev i en meddelelse news:Md10f.34133$hR3.13892@trndny02...

Usually one rips a reference design.

Maybe Maxim

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will have an evaluation board for reasonable money that does what you want?

They tend to do a lot of battery applications.

Reply to
Frithiof Andreas Jensen

There are battery management / power management ICs which may do some of what you want - Maxim, National, TI and others make them. There are a lot of options to wade through and most are designed for portable devices so come in small (hard to hand-solder) packages.

Another option is a microcontroller and a custom board. The Open Automaton Project has schematics and code for on-board power management and an intelligent docking station, which you could modify to fit your needs:

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(look at the bottom of the Project page for the power management stuff)

Tim

Reply to
Tim Auton

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