ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > The ANY-maze interface device family > The ANY-maze Digital interface > Setting up the ANY-maze Digital interface > Connecting the ANY-maze Digital interface to DC power

Connecting the ANY-maze Digital interface to DC power

Introduction

The back of ANY-maze Digital interface includes a connector for a DC power supply. You don't have to connect to a DC power supply in order for the interface to work (it can run on power it gets from the PC via the USB cable), but you will need to use a DC power supply if the things you connect to the interface require more than 300mA.

Determining if you need to connect a DC power supply

Some of the things you can connect to an ANY-maze Digital interface draw their power from the interface itself. For example, a photobeam will draw around 20mA of power, as will a photobeam array. Clearly if you connect six of them (the maximum) then they'll require a total of 120mA, which is well below the 300mA that the interface can supply when running on USB power. So, in this case you'd not need to connect a DC power supply.

However, you might, for example, power a pellet dispenser from the interface which requires 100mA at 5V. If you connected three of these the you'd still be OK using just USB power, but if you connect four or more then the interface wouldn't be able to provide enough power for them all to work and you'd have to connect a DC power supply.

So, all you need to do to determine whether you need to connect a DC power supply, is to add up the total amount of current required by all the things you have connected, if it exceeds 300mA you will need a DC power supply. Of course, this may not be as simple as it sounds, as you may not know how much current the devices require. Don't worry, there's a simpler solution: With the interface connected just to USB, switch on all the connected devices (so they're using their maximum amount of power) and see what happens. If between them they try to draw more than 300mA from the interface you will see a message on the screen of your computer telling you this - if you see the message then you know you need to connect a DC power supply.

When powered from a DC power supply the interface can provide up to 900mA to the devices connected to it. If they try to draw more than 900mA you'll see a message on your computer, in this case the only solution is to reduce the current requirement - perhaps by connecting fewer devices to each interface.

Connecting a DC power supply

Unlike many devices, which require a specific power supply, the ANY-maze Digital interface will work with any DC power supply that has an output voltage of between 9V and 32V and an output current of 1A or more - for example, a 12V 1A supply would be ideal. You should find that the output voltage and current are shown on a label on the power supply itself.

In order to physically connect to the ANY-maze Digital interface the power supply will need to use a '2.1mm power jack' as its connector (it doesn't matter whether the connector is 'centre positive' or 'centre negative').

You can plug the power supply in at any time (including while the interface is running); when you do so, you should find that the configuration window shows the Current power source as DC power supply.

Power supplies which meet the above requirements aren't hard to find, a Google search will probably find quite a few. Alternatively we can provide a DC power supply specifically for use with ANY-maze interface devices, see our web site for details.

ANY-maze help topic T1056