Novel way to power Arduino

Development Boards Arduino
1

Hi all,

first time poster but going to be a regular one.

Some one must have suggested this as it is so obvious but I’ll ask anyway.

Like many others here, I’ve been banging my head against the wall finding lipo

charge/control and management boards etc.

Why not use one of those rechargeable portable battery packs we use for

our phones/tablets etc? They have a regulated 5v output. Build in charging circuits and

low voltage cutouts and indicator leds. Usually come with a couple of different USB cables.

They’re cheap, I can get an average quality 2000mAH for $20-$25 here in Australia.

Plus the variety of shapes should mean you could find one for any purpose.

Only downside would be the need to wire up another usb socket.

What are peoples thoughts on this? Good idea?

Andrew

2

Yep, they work and is a very easy solution. I’ve used these to power a R-Pi and various PIC processors.

You do need to by-pass the Voltage regulator on the Arduino but this is easy to do.

The hard part is adding a USB connector to the processor board as you mentioned.

3

waltr:
Yep, they work and is a very easy solution. I’ve used these to power a R-Pi and various PIC processors.

You do need to by-pass the Voltage regulator on the Arduino but this is easy to do.

The hard part is adding a USB connector to the processor board as you mentioned.

Why does one need to bypass the voltage regulator on the arduino? I’ve powered an arduino project this way before and it seemed to work well? Was I risking some sort of damage I wasn’t aware of?

Thanks

4

Usually pumping a dc line through a VReg, ie lm1117 7805 etc, results in a voltage drop.

Eg, 7vdc into a 7805 typically comes out as 5vdc. So, I don’t know exact details of lm1117,

5vdc into a 1117 is going to come out at least down to 4vdc maybe 3vdc. So it could be

possible to power an arduino off 4vdc and maybe 3vdc, but it depends entirely upon the quality of components, tolerances of components etc eetc blah blah. Ie, some pcs can be overclocked and some can’t.

You might just be lucky to have a really well made piece of kit!

Hope this answers the query,

Andrew

Ps, referring to 5v powered arduinos!