Afterglow 1.5 voltage question

[marschner]

I have just bought an complete Afterglow board revision 1.5.
However I can not figure out a few things about the 18V and 5V supply voltage.
I am thinking about using a separate power supply for 18V, and not "stealing" it from one of the columns. but what size should it be (Amps)?
Apparently installation should be quite easy but I see on GitHub that special attention should be put to the 5V supply and even maybe some monitoring components are to be put in to prevent voltage drop.
Is this really necessary or does the board include the required components or has it been fused to change the brown out voltage?

Regulating 5V

Pinball retro afterglow. Contribute to bitfieldlabs/afterglow development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/afterglow-led-board-15-voltage-question#postbox

 

[Paul]

@stumblor will more than likely be able to assist here....

 

[caponian]

The board already has the 5V covered. You can just supply 18V, minimum 2A.

 

[David_Vi]

On Daveys ones I've never had to supply 18v. I think the really old ones used a test probe for 5v.

The later ones just need ground.

@stumblor ?

 

[caponian]

Yes, the new boards can also take the +18V directly from the columns and only ground needs to be connected.

 

[marschner]

I know about the possibility of 18V supply from the columns but wondered if it would be better to have an external power supply. Anyway I think I will just go with the columns.
@stumblor also confirmed having used this for many board installations without any issues.
5V brown out issues should not be of any concern either when using a complete assembled board. Only when building an arduino from scratch this should be considered.