ESP8266 Community Forum

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 5:28 am #36639

I have bought a few of these converters when I was looking for a solution similar to yours:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-min ... eb201560_5

I wanted to power an Arduino Mini and a GPS receiver. It isn't a nice option for that. It didn't power the arduino and it got hot as hell. My fingers are still afraid of those PCBs!!!

I'm just waiting to have some free time to test those converters with an ESP.

Those converters are rated as:

Long time maximum output current: 100mA
Short time maximum output current: 150mA

It does not seem enough for an ESP.

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:22 am #36644

I have bought a few of these converters when I was looking for a solution similar to yours:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-min ... eb201560_5

I wanted to power an Arduino Mini and a GPS receiver. It isn't a nice option for that. It didn't power the arduino and it got hot as hell. My fingers are still afraid of those PCBs!!!

I'm just waiting to have some free time to test those converters with an ESP.

Those converters are rated as:

Long time maximum output current: 100mA
Short time maximum output current: 150mA

It does not seem enough for an ESP.

I know. But when I bought it (it was on ebay, not on aliexpress) the listing details said that it would handle arround 400mA (don't remember if it was 350 or 450mA).

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:58 am #36646

If not sufficient, I may put two regulators for each ESP to obtain sufficient power supply... good or bad idea ?

Bad idea! You will end up with 2 feedback controllers trying to independently adjust the same output. To make matters worse, they are unlikely to have the exact same output voltage, due to manufacturing tolerances. The regulators will probably start oscillation or other weird things may happen.

[quote]And Yes, it's a flying object constraint :)[quote]
In this case, don't you already have a 7.4V or higher battery? I'd suggest you get a buck converter to step the voltage of the flight battery down to 5V to power the LEDs and power the ESP of that 5V rail using a LDO.

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 8:09 am #36647

If not sufficient, I may put two regulators for each ESP to obtain sufficient power supply... good or bad idea ?

Bad idea! You will end up with 2 feedback controllers trying to independently adjust the same output. To make matters worse, they are unlikely to have the exact same output voltage, due to manufacturing tolerances. The regulators will probably start oscillation or other weird things may happen.

And Yes, it's a flying object constraint

In this case, don't you already have a 7.4V or higher battery? I'd suggest you get a buck converter to step the voltage of the flight battery down to 5V to power the LEDs and power the ESP of that 5V rail using a LDO.

No I don't, it's an unpowered flying object.
I have some spare lipo batteries.
I may try to put 2 half sized lipo to make a 2S one but I'm not sure that runtime will be sufficient. (I can't land a take off with new batteries)