Anothe Wifi Throws off the Oppressive Chains of 9V Batteries. 9V's are dejected in the corner.
Sensors of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your 9V batteries!
We’ve been working on our Wifi sensor for the Mindstorms NXT all summer. Because the work requires a lot of programming, we’ve been burning through 9V batteries really rapidly.
Xander worked out a hack for this a few months back where he used a wall wort to power the wifi sensor while he ran his Wifi Sensor Server.
This is a little different: USB is always going to put out 5V, and our regulator can handle that. So we thought it would be a good way to power the Wifi Sensor or NXTBee PRO sensor while we’re at our desk programming.
Connect the black and red wires.
It’s pretty simple. We took an A/B USB cord we had sitting around and chopped off the end that doesn’t go into the computer. We stripped the red and black wires coming out, and clipped them with alligator clips.
Connect the clips to the 9V battery adapter.
Then we connected to the 9V adapter on the Wifi sensor.
Wifi Sensor: Powered by the USB
It was an easy hack. Now we can program all day without changing batteries!
I too was having Batter issues with the WiFi Sensor & modified a set of RC 7.4V, 900mAh Lithium-ion Polymer Batteries to suitethe Sensor.
The two LiPo batteries give me from 4-5 times the battery life of a standard 9Volt battery, weigh in at 54g, and cost me around $12 all told.
You can pick up a $20 LiPo charger at most RC Shops or on eBay to suite.
Details: http://www.rjmcnamara.com/2011/12/li-po-batteries-andlego-nxt/
Ray, fantastic! Can you share some pictures?
[img]http://www.rjmcnamara.com//wp-content/uploads/dWi-FiSensorBattery.png[/img]
7.4V, 900mAh Lithium-ion Polymer Battery image http://www.rjmcnamara.com//wp-content/uploads/dWi-FiSensorBattery.png