Hi everyone,
I'm considering running my printer from a 24-volt power supply. Before I do so, my main concern is that the Arduino Mega is only rated up to a recommended 12 V, with 20 V being a hard limit. So I'd like to do this without frying my voltage regulators or damaging any components. I know that the Pololu steppers are rated up to 35 V.
So I have a few questions:
1. Is it possible to run the Arduino from a separate, 12-V low-current power supply? Or is it too tightly integrated into the power system on RAMPS?
2. It looks like it receives its power through the diode D1. If I supplied 12 volts to that pin instead of 24, would the Arduino be protected?
3. I'm considering putting a small DC-DC step-down (buck) converter to provide 12 volts to the Arduino. This might require a logic-level power supply. Does the Arduino provide the 5-volt Vcc to the board, through its own voltage regulators? (If so then I wouldn't be able to make use of it for my step-down converter).
4. In the
schematic, are all of the nodes marked "+ 12V" connected together? If so, which of the two input pins (labelled X4-1 and X4-3) are actually supplying the power? What are the differences between the two of these pins connected to ground? Between the two connected (through fuses) to +12V?
Thanks for your help,
Jacob
