Sunny Buddy with OpenLog Artemis (OLA) - Charging conflict ?

Components & Accessories Power
1

Hello,

I’m currently working on a project to log IMU data and Geophone data with the OLA and ADS1015 modules. I want to make it as independent of me as possible and to only come get the data with my computer once a month with a USB cable (until I can use BLE :wink: ).

To do this, I want to combine it with the Sunny Buddy and a 2W solar panel. I know the OLA consumes practically nothing but it would be a thing less to worry about.

I would like to know if I can, without worry of anything happening to the battery, connect the battery port of the OLA to the LOAD pins of the Sunny buddy. My worry is what would happen if I connect the USB-C to the OLA and the charging circuit doesn’t like having the solar panel and the OLA Lipo charging circuit working together to charge the Lipo. BTW I have the Lipo battery which comes with the OLA kit so a 3.7V 1300 mAh battery.

Otherwise I could connect the load pins to the 3.3V and GND pin of the OLA but connecting to the battery port might also charge the battery faster if needed.

Thank you very much for your help !

2

The easiest thing to do would be to wire a switch between the Sunny Buddy and the battery…then, when you go to pull the data via usb, be sure to switch the Sunny Buddy’s circuit off, then plug in the USB-C cable, and it should try to charge the battery, if power is able to be negotiated over the connection.

But you are correct, hooking up USB-C while the battery is connected will attempt to charge it, and it maybe damage the Sunny Buddy or OLA…

Switches save lives!