The Power Station Block in an essential block as it provides power to all the other blocks in the stack.
Input Voltage
Majority of the time you will be either using the provided 5V battery pack or power from your computer's USB hub.
If desired, the Power Station Block can be powered from alternative power sources.
The supply voltage range is: 3.3V - 10.5V
WARNING: Blocks WILL BE DAMAGED if they are connected outside of this range!
Power Station Properties
The Power Station properties can be accessed by clicking on the Properties Gear icon when the Power Station Block is inserted into the Workspace.
Within the Power Station there are three properties that can be changed. By default these properties are turned off. To change any of them click on the corresponding switch and click Save within the Properties Panel.
Power Piping
Power piping allows for power to be piped from the input port to the Output port of the Power Station Block.
Read Data From Input Port
By turning this setting on it allows for data to be read from the Input port of the Power Station Block.
Send Data To Output Port
This setting sends data to the Output port of the Power Station Block.
Chaining up blocks
By chaining up blocks you can use a single battery source and Wifi Block to control more blocks. It is useful when trying to use two blocks that are required to be on top, like the LED and Touch blocks.
If there are no additional Power Station Blocks chained to a Power Station Block no properties will need to be changed.
If a Power Station Block is Connected to the output of that block it must be configured to send power and information out to the next block. Without this the next block will not run. Additionally the next block will need to be configured to receive information. This is because normally the blocks only receive power from their input ports.
In order to do this you will need to configure the properties of the blocks as below:
Block Sending | Block Receiving | Block sending and Receiving |
The first block in the chain should be configured to send. Following blocks can either be configured to only receive or both send and receive if they will have further blocks connected to them.
By doing this you can daisy chain many blocks together like the image below.
If your block is in Power Piping mode the LEDs will flash across the side of the block.
Voltage Monitoring
Power Station Blocks with hardware versions older than 3 will not have this functionality. To check your Power Station Block's hardware version hover over the Power Station heading in the Properties Panel.
Using Input Voltage in Logic
As soon as the block is placed in the Workspace it will begin showing the current voltage that is being fed into the Power Station Block.
This voltage reading is also available within the Logic Maker through an INPUT Gate.
You could use this to measure the drain of your battery and create an alert email when the battery is low.