Making this cat toy for my cat. The new motor works well but this rail on the back of the battery well heats up under load
Making this cat toy for my cat. The new motor works well but this rail on the back of the battery well heats up under load
So I've gone through a few variations of this, those three double A's are up putting 4.5 volts and this new motor is just about that and a little stronger than that smaller one. That was my previous motor that you see in the back. It's working pretty well when I have the cat toy on there. It's going pretty steady and I'm not getting too much heat from the motor like last time, though the battery rail on the back of that casing heats up quite a bit. Do battery rails usually heat up this much and I just don't see it because they're not usually exposed.?
I let it run for a bit just to see how bad it would get and it's not damaging the plastic or anything. It's just pretty hot. How much of a concern do you think this should be? Keep in mind this is going inside of a cat scratching post that is more or less just cardboard so I'd like to iron out any kinks before I install it
Battery rail? As in a part that's conducting electricity but not mechanical load? That shouldn't be getting hot. You're pulling too much power for that size of wire.
I should add that heat is wasted energy and means a faster battery drain.
Yes please excuse my terminology since i'm still learning. that part on the back of the battery pack, ive never seen them do a circuit that requires a metal rail to complete, so you're basically saying I should get a new battery holder? I assumed since it just held only 3 AA's it would be built to withstand that much power but I guess I ordered a crappy part
Link to the part in question
Most people don't pull much power from AA's. It's not about the size of the battery, it's about the amps you're drawing and the size of the wire. Personally I'd probably just solder in a better wire.
Have you tested how long the batteries last? It sounds like you're going to kill them pretty quick.