LogoLogo
  • Welcome!
  • Mission Statement
  • Contributing Guidelines
    • Embed CADs in Wiki Articles
  • VEX Worlds Livestream Archive
    • VEX U
    • V5RC High School
    • V5RC Middle School
    • VIQRC Middle School
    • VIQRC Elementary School
    • JROTC
  • ⚙️Hardware
    • Design Fundamentals
      • Gear Ratios
      • Internal Forces (Stress)
      • Torque
      • RPM
      • Center of Mass
    • Introduction to VEX Parts
      • Structure
        • C-Channels and Angles
        • Fasteners
        • Retainers
        • Gussets and Brackets
        • Bearings
        • Plate Metal and Flat Bars
      • Motion
        • High Strength Components
        • Gears and Sprockets
        • Traction Wheels
        • Mecanum Wheels
        • Omnidirectional Wheels
        • Flex Wheels
    • Robot Decorations
      • Part Dyeing
      • Metal Coloring
      • License Plate Holders
    • Lifts
      • Double Reverse Four Bar (DR4B or RD4B)
      • Four Bar
      • Scissor Lift
      • Six Bar
      • Other Lifts
      • Best Practices
    • Shooting Mechanisms
      • Catapult
      • Flywheel
      • Linear Puncher
    • Drivetrains
      • Tank Drive
      • Mecanum Drive
      • Holonomic Drive
      • Designing a Drivetrain
      • Best Practices
    • Pivots & Joints
    • Pneumatics
      • Best Practices - Pneumatics
    • Intakes
    • Flip Out Mechanisms
    • Defensive Mechanisms
    • Misc. Building Techniques
    • VexU
      • Common Manufacturing Techniques
        • 3D Printing
        • Laser Cutting
      • Custom Manufactured Parts Library
      • Commercial Off The Shelf Parts Library
  • 👑Team Administration
    • New Team Resources
      • Creating The Team
      • Gaining Interest for Robotics Teams
      • Attending Competitions
        • Elimination Bracket
    • Team Dynamics
      • Organization Structure and Longevity
      • Member Allocation and Management
      • How *Not* To Run a Team
    • Team Finances
      • One-Year Team Financial Breakdown
      • Funding Your Teams
    • Hosting Competitions
      • Live Streaming
      • Tournament Manager
        • Competition Electronics
        • Creating a Tournament
        • Tools
          • Field Set Control
          • Connecting Mobile Devices
          • Connecting Raspberry Pis
        • Match Control
          • Inputting Match Scores
          • Inputting Skills Scores
          • Inputting Scores on TM Mobile
        • Displays
        • Alliance Selection
      • Additional Event Partner Resources
    • VexU Organization Management
      • Getting Started in VexU
      • Team / Personnel Management
      • Volunteering At Local Events
  • 📚The Judging Process
    • The Engineering Design Process
      • Test and Refine
    • The Engineering Notebook
      • Segments of the Notebook
      • BLRS2 '23-'24 Engineering Notebook
      • Integrating Inventor Models into Documentation
      • Engineering Notebook Rubric Breakdown
    • The Interview
      • Interview Rubric Breakdown
    • Using Notion for an Engineering Notebook
      • How to Setup a Notebook
      • How to Create Entries
      • How to Export a Notebook
      • Purdue SIGBots Notion Template
        • Game Analysis
        • Identify The Problem
        • Brainstorm Solution
        • Select Best Approach & Plan
        • Build Log
        • Programming Log
        • Testing Solution
        • Tournament Recap
        • Innovative Feature
  • 🖥️VEX CAD
    • CAD Programs
      • Inventor
      • Fusion 360
      • Solidworks
      • OnShape
      • Protobot
    • Making a Chassis
      • Inventor Chassis: The Basics
        • Installation
        • User Interface Overview
        • Dark Mode
        • Assemblies
        • Placing Parts
        • Navigating CAD
        • Changing Visual Style
        • Grounding
        • Connecting Two C-Channels
        • Modifying Existing Constraints
        • Toggling Visibility on Existing Parts
        • Completing Half of the Chassis
          • Inner Drive Channel
          • Bearing Flats
          • Motors
          • Wheels
          • Sprockets
          • Spacers, Washers and Standoffs
          • Spacers Cont.
        • Creating Mid-Plane
        • Mirroring
      • Inventor Chassis: Best Practices
        • File Structure
        • Subassemblies
        • Wheel Subassembly
        • Origin Planes
        • Cross Brace
        • Drive Channels
        • Simple Motor iMates
        • Replacing Simple Electronics
        • Completing Half of the Drive
          • Bearing Flats (Best Practice)
          • Wheels
          • Powered Gear
          • Spacer Boxing
          • Spacers, Washers and Standoffs (Best Practice)
        • Model Browser Folders
        • Mirroring (Best Practice)
        • Model Browser Folder (Right)
        • Main Assembly
      • Fusion 360 Chassis
      • Solidworks Chassis, Chain, and Custom Plastic
    • Remembering The Best
      • 62A Skyrise
      • 400X Nothing But Net
      • 2587Z Nothing But Net
      • 365X Starstruck
      • 62A In The Zone
      • 202Z In The Zone
      • 5225A In The Zone
      • 169A Turning Point
      • 929U Turning Point
      • 7K Tower Takeover
      • 5225A Tower Takeover
      • 62A Change Up
    • Scuff Controller
  • 💻Software
    • Odometry
    • Path Planning
    • Robotics Basics
      • Arcade Drive
      • Tank Drive
      • Joystick Deadzones
      • Curvature (Cheesy) Drive
      • Subsystem Toggling
    • Organizing Code
      • Code Style
      • Code Styling Guide
      • Writing Good Comments
      • Version Control
    • Control Algorithms
      • Bang Bang
      • PID Controller
      • Basic Pure Pursuit
      • Flywheel Velocity Control
      • Kalman Filter
      • Take Back Half (TBH) Controller
      • RAMSETE Controller
    • Competition Specific
      • Operator Control
      • Autonomous Control
    • C++ Basics for VEX Robotics
      • Basic Control Flow
      • Enumerations
      • Namespaces (::)
      • Multiple Files (C/C++)
    • VEX Programming Software
      • PROS
        • OkapiLib
      • vexide
      • Robot Mesh Studio (RMS)
      • EasyC
      • RobotC
      • VEXcode
      • Midnight C
    • General
      • Stall Detection
      • Register Programming
      • Sensors and Odometry in Autonomous
      • Embedded Programming Tips
      • Debugging
      • Bit Shift
      • Bit Mask
      • Autoformatting
      • Finite State Machine
      • Data Logging
    • Object Recognition
      • Red Green Buoy
      • AMS
      • OpenCV
      • OpenNI
    • 🤖AI in VRC: Pac-Man Pete
  • ⚡VEX Electronics
    • V5 ESD Protection Board
    • VEX Electronics
      • VEX V5 Brain
        • V5 Electronics Observations and Issues
      • VEX Controller
      • VEXnet and V5 Robot Radio
      • VEX Battery
      • VEX Motors
    • VEX Sensors
      • 3-Pin / ADI Sensors
        • Encoder
        • Potentiometer
        • Limit Switch
        • Bumper Switch
        • Accelerometer
        • Gyroscope
        • Ultrasonic
        • Line Tracker
        • LED Indicator
      • Smart Port Sensors
        • GPS Sensor
        • Rotation Sensor
        • Vision Sensor
        • Optical Sensor
        • Distance Sensor
        • Inertial Sensor (IMU)
        • 3-Wire Expander
    • V5 Brain Wiring Guide
    • Legacy
      • VEX Cortex
      • Power Expander
      • VEX Motor Controller
      • VEX Cortex Wiring Guide
  • General Electronics
    • General Topics
      • External Boards
        • ASUS Tinker Board S
        • Arduino
        • Beagleboard
        • Leaflabs Maple
        • LattePanda
        • Meadow F7 Micro
        • Netduino
        • ODROID-XU4
        • Pandaboard
        • Raspberry Pi
      • Analog-Digital Converter (ADC)
      • Bit-Bang
      • GPIO
      • I2C
      • Jitter
      • Line Noise
      • List of Tools
      • Output Drive
      • Power Consumption
      • Radius Array
      • Resettable Fuse (PTC)
      • SPI
      • Slew Rate
      • Stalling
      • USART
      • UART
      • 5 Volt Tolerant
      • DC Motor Basics
Powered by GitBook
LogoLogo

This work is licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

On this page
  • Computing devices
  • Actuators
  • Teams Contributed to this Article:

Was this helpful?

Edit on GitHub
Export as PDF
  1. General Electronics
  2. General Topics

Power Consumption

Power consumption refers to the amount of power required by a device to function.

PreviousOutput DriveNextRadius Array

Last updated 4 years ago

Was this helpful?

While typically applied in the context of electricity use for VEX applications, the power consumption of a mechanism or other device can also be measured.

Computing devices

A heat sink is used to safely operate devices with high power consumption

The VEX platform typically operates on 7.2 V nominal. This works well for devices with 3.3 V and 5 V core voltages, as a step-down now ultimately satisfies all power conversion needs. The table shown below illustrates the power consumption of some common additional computational hardware and the voltage required for supply:

Actuators

Pneumatics are considerably more efficient at converting the stored air pressure to useful force, but eventually exhaust their finite air supplies and waste energy venting unused air to the atmosphere instead of recycling and pumping the excess.

Teams Contributed to this Article:

Microcontrollers and general purpose computing devices such as the and consume electrical power while operating. Most of this power is turned into heat, primarily through gate leakage and switching transients. Power consumption for these devices can range from a few milliwatts to 5-10 watts. Embedded microcontrollers such as the and consume negligible quantities of power compared to a single actuator, even in run mode.

Actuators such as a typically draw far more power, from 1.3 watts for a completely unloaded motor to a whopping 25 watts for a motor. In most cases, a fraction of the energy consumed is turned into useful mechanical work; the rest is dissipated as reactive power or heat in the motor. VEX actuators are not too efficient, averaging about 20-40% efficiency from power to drive shaft. The power consumption of a VEX motor can be estimated by sensing the current it draws.

(Purdue SIGBots)

Netduino
PandaBoard
V5 Brain
LeafLabs Maple
VEX Motor
stalled
BLRS