Hi, I am working on a rover project and intend to used high power battery (24V - 50Ah or 100Ah) for my rover. I need to step down voltage to 5V - 12V to power control boards and other electronic components and sensors. Are there any limit of input current of the voltage converter? and Can I connect multiple voltage converters in parallel? Which method is the good one for step down and stabilise input voltage for my project. Thanks a lot.
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Hi Minh,
Welcome to the forum!!
A voltage converter will have some maximum rated power - dependent on the difference in voltage. For the Pololu regulators there are plots in the product pages.
You definitely can connect them in parallel. In series the efficiency will compound rather than add. Using the raw DC voltage for both regulators (and making sure they can handle the max voltage from the battery, as the battery discharges the voltage will drop).
Also I can’t reiterate this enough LiPo cells store a lot of energy. Make sure you have to correct charge profile and don’t over discharge them.
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Hi Minh, Welcome to the forum 
I just wanted to clarify a point
Your load devices (sensors and electronic components) will draw what current they need, rather than the battery pushing as much current as its capacity allows.
Just because the batteries can supply a lot of current instantaneously doesn’t mean they will unless the load placed on them is very high.
To work out what kind of voltage regulator you need start at the other end and work out what current your electronic components and sensors will draw as a maximum and their operating voltage. Then find a voltage regulator with an output that matches the load devices and an input range that matches your battery voltage range.
You can use multiple voltage regulators if you want to, but it’s probably simpler to use one for each operating voltage your load devices need and just check it is powerful enough to output for all of them at their maximum load conditions.
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Hi Liam, thanks for your response. I am now understanding that if we connect multiple voltage converter in parallel, their input voltage are the same and input current is the sum of current need to feed loads in those branches. Is it right? And how about connect in series? I have no idea what happen if they are connected in series. Thanks.
Hi Minh
Don’t even think about it.
Cheers Bob
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