Tuesday 27 April 2010

FACU renamed: VIC-E

VIC-E (Valve Interface and Control Enclosure), pronounced Vicky. Assembly is nearly finished on this unit, I have checked most of the functionality, such as the DAC and power relays. The 5V power draw is quite high, which causes the voltage regulator to get pretty hot! I have reduced the current draw from 187ma to 155ma by switching off unused peripherals on the dsPIC and reducing the drive to some of the LED's. It is running ok, but I may still glue a heat-sink to the VREG, or replace the LED's with low current versions. Irritatingly I missed a bunch of pull-up resistors on the main board, so had to bodge some on!