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Have a good idea for a new product for SFE or Olimex? Let us know!
By uler3161
#163464
I've looked and looked for something off the shelf to power an Arduino in a automotive environment. Closest seems to be hacking up a usb car charger, but I've tried that twice and both times it didn't work (but my project works fine with the usb from my laptop, go figure). Tried dc-dc converters and they didn't work. I think it'd be nice to have something that would provide clean power to an Arduino and be as simple as hooking up +/- input from the noisy electrical system and have a barrel jack output that is clean. And preferrable something I can screw down in my enclosure. Maybe something like that exists, but I just can't seem to find it.
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By SFE-Pearce
#164318
There's not much out there at the moment, as you said, the supply is quite noisy. I'll keep the idea in mind and post if I hunt something down.
By jremington
#164321
Google "automotive noise filter schematics" or "automotive surge (spike) suppressor schematics" and you'll find a number of useful circuits. There doesn't seem to be much off the shelf, but spikes of greater than +/- 100 volts are occasionally observed, and destroy many an experimenter's circuit. Background info at http://www.digikey.com/Web%20Export/Sup ... etwork.pdf

Here are a couple of circuit examples:

http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmor ... Filter.png (my favorite, that 1.5KE18 diode is a 1500 watt surge suppressor zener, available nearly everywhere and cheap).

Add a surge suppressor zener to this one: http://www.worldwidedx.com/home-brew/31 ... ilter.html

With a voltage regulator: http://linuxcar.sone.jp/reg.en.html

There is this on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/40-AMP-IN-LINE- ... 0658370283

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