Thing Plus ESP32 C6 - Cannot Charge LiPo Battery With VBAT Connected

Development Boards ESP32
1

I’m using a Sparkfun Thing Plus ESP32 C6 with an LED strip powered off a lipo battery.

When the LEDs are plugged into VUSB for power the battery charges fine however, if the LEDs are plugged into VBAT then the battery does not charge, even with the LEDs off it’s draining the battery. Is this expected? Any suggestions to avoid this, I assume extra hardware might be needed. The LEDs need to be powered by the battery.

Thanks in advance!

2

You can use a separate battery charging circuit to power the LEDs independently from the battery with a dedicated charger. This isolates the power requirements of the LEDs from the ESP32 board’s charging circuit.