maximum wattage throughput of a picaxe 18m2 or any picaxe

[aduy]

i have some 12v rgb common cathode leds that run at 12v and 2.4 watts per channel, and i was wondering how many watts can the picaxe handle when i hook the anodes to the picaxe.

 

[Dippy]

PICAXE Manual 1 Page 8 "At a glance specifications:"

Try and get into the habit of searching through the Manuals first.

More specific information can be obtained from getting (and reading) the enormous PIC Data Sheets downloadable from Micro chip.
Search them for "Absolute Maximum" and Absolute Maximum ratings should pop up.

I know all the searching can take a few minutes but it's educational

 

[aduy]

i actually did read through the data sheet but it said nothing about wattage, or amperage, and i forgot about the manual duh.

 

[westaust55]

i actually did read through the data sheet but it said nothing about wattage, or amperage, and i forgot about the manual duh.

Ummmm . . .

The Microchip datasheet for every PIC chips states the maximum voltages and currents permitted.
The currents are usually expressed in milliamperes (mA) [ 1 mA = 0.001 A)

You should identify the Absolute max current but then operate at a slightly reduced current.

Then having seen the maximum current for one IO pin, also take into consideration (a) the maximum current for 1 entire port of 8 pins, and (b) the maximum current for the entire chip.

Attached are the 16F1827 (~18M2) datasheet page which took all of a minute to find the data.
And in this particular case the total power consumption (800 mW) is also given.

 

[aduy]

yeah i just searched watts, wattage, amps and amperage, so thats why. anyways ill just have to use some transistors then.

 

[westaust55]

Far better in general to use the datasheet index at the left side (if you have that enabled) and just go directly to the relevant section of the datasheet.
Except for some specific driver IC's the current ratings for IC's are in general in mA rather than Amps/Amperes.

In the general PICAXE world, even the ubiquitous
- ULN2803 is only rated at ~500 mA MAXIMUM per Darlington transistor
- L293D is only rated at ~600 mA MAXIMUM per channel