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- čas přidán 11. 07. 2024
- Uninterruptable power sources or UPS for your Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or ESP microcontroller usually are quite expensive and also do not always work. When I found these small 2 dollar modules, I asked myself: Can we use them as a UPS? Or are they just junk and false promises? Time for a closer look!
From time to time viewers ask how they should power their projects, especially with batteries. Today we will take a look at this small module and find out if it is any good, how it compares with Power Banks, and where it fits in the “energy supply chain.”
Links:
UPS:s.click.aliexpress.com/e/ccgnehR2 or bit.ly/2RbEP1h
USB Tester: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/by2eDXAo or bit.ly/2FNp1ch
Good Li-Po Batteries: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/c5KnNc8C
Additional info: • Load Sharing for the 1...
Supporting Material and Blog Page: www.sensorsiot.org
Github: www.github.com/sensorsiot
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I think you got the abbreviation wrong. It's Uninterruptable Power Supply.
Generally: You are right. But this module can do much more.
@@AndreasSpiess Maybe you should call it a UUPS
Mr. Spiess was clear about using the abbreviation in the title... looks APA format also.
owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_abbreviations.html
Excellent details and presentation also. Thank you sir! Sure is far better (including video quality and hygiene) than the Sepic Cuk UPS kit I made:
czcams.com/video/6jYt93OUXS/video.html
@@AndreasSpiess he isn't "generally right" he's specifically correct. How is this "universal"? Will it power my home? My car? No, it won't. If you think capable of powering a handful of devices makes it somehow special and "universal" I've got some bad news for you, any old UPS is capable of powering anything with a kettle lead or even more if you branch from the kettle lead to a plug socket, making it a hundred times more "universal" by your measurement.
Man this is twice now ive been looking at a product on ali and you are doing a video on it. i love you for this man, cant wait to see the results of this video.
Twice is a low count :)
I am on my third dozen already...
@@youliantroyanov2941 jeeze man, thats alotta projects. just goes to show the point though, the guy with the swiss accent is on it with the DIY electronics and sensors.
Yeah, I just got mine a couple weeks ago and haven't played with it much yet.
Thanks a lot. I've buyed following your links one shield and two batteries. I've received them now and it's time to test.
I'm a fan of your videos and admire your sense of humor. Your knowledge has been of great help for to me and my final career project about BLE beacons for monitoring pacients in healthcare centers.
Best regards from the north of Argentina!
Thank you for your nice words. I am glad my 2 cents helped you in you career!
@@AndreasSpiess Your contribution is very valuable. Thank you! See you in the next episode. Here is summer and fresh ideas are welcome.
Happy Sunday Mornings😁 another most excellent and worthy subject. As always I didn’t realise the depth of knowledge required to understand this, but I have received another excellent tutorial and a new understanding. I see this video has sparked some real interest in the comments. Hopefully Andreas you can probe into this subject with another video as it’s rather interesting.
Happy NY to all the 100k+ subscribers 🏴
Thank you! Maybe there will be some sort of additional video. We will see...
Thanks for saving me time money and frustration, I needed 3A 5V and got excited to see this module in a online store but suspicious of the aspects, so your video was really helpful
Glad I could help!
Same here. Have you found a solution? This video is 3 years old now so I wonder if there are new options available.
Love your reviews!! They are very detailed and I learned a lot watching them
Thank you!
Great detailed description! Will look into using these in future projects!
Thank you!
At least you have confirmed my findings about the unit shutting down at around 2A on 5V. Thanks
You are welcome!
Good video/explanation, listing the basics for a micro-controller UPS. This is something I need for some future projects. Thanks!
You are welcome!
Thank you and happy new year Andreas!
Happy new year to you, too!
Excellent video as usual Andreas. It always surprises me how you address challenges I've forgotten I already faced, and are able to cover them in far greater detail than I did at the time. Thank you for sharing! I look forward to hearing about your solution for the raspberry pi's extended drain, if you find one :)
The challenges remain the same ;-) We will see when the RPI stuff will come.
this is great, i really hope you do a follow up video to.....
1) build the auto-disconnect protection
2) daisy chain these together in parrellel
3) build a circuit to use existing powerbanks and treat them as UPS
love your channel
The first might become true for an RPi. I already did one in the past (similar).
Thanks Andreas ! Always precise like a swiss watch !! Very thorough analysis !
You are welcome!
Thank you for this wonderful analysis, will buy a few when i start to work on project again.
You are welcome!
This was very timely, I just had a couple of these delivered.
:-)
I love this video. Such a great explanation. Some of the links are not working but I can find elsewhere. Excellent.
Unfortunately I cannot keep all links op-to-date :-(
Very helpful Andreas!! Thank you from Brazil!
You are welcome!
Interesting video. I was looking for something like that, so you saved me a lot of time. Thank you Andreas,
You are welcome!
Andreas Happy new year! THank you for the video review - I sq this in one of your previous videos - Already got it - never had time to test it! So.. its great that you did this review!
Happy new year to you, too!
Wow great timing, I’m in need of just such a thing! BTW I noticed a few battery bank makers are now offering charging and output at the same time.
Good to know.
Thanks for testing this module's UPS capabilities! I bought 4 of these after I saw them recommended on Ralph S. Bacon's CZcams channel, for using them as UPS' on my robot.
Ralph's videos where he mentions this module:
czcams.com/video/8fiYvnBDsDE/video.html
czcams.com/video/jqFl8ydUzZM/video.html
Thank you for the links
Thanks for your amazing videos as always!
My pleasure!
Happy New Year to Guru G...As usual very informative for me...Power supplies are backbone of any system...A good power supply enhance the reliability of system...Thank you... Namaste.
This is maybe not the best. But one of the cheapest ;-)
Excelent found. thank you for explanation. I will buy and test for my raspberry project
Awesome video .. AGAIN.
Really like your stuff brother... Howdy from North Carolina...USA
Like your area. I had a customer (Syngenta) in Greensboro and still remember Kitty Hawk.
Thanks for this video. More than I expected
Thank you!
Awesome video Andreas. This video was very helpful. Have an amazing Sunday, Andreas from Off Grid Sweden 🇸🇪
A little late: Thank you and have a nice evening!
@@AndreasSpiess No problem man. Have a great evening
Nice finding, and interesting project 😄👍
Thanks for sharing 😀👍
You are welcome!
amazing video! keep up the great work!
Thank you!
Useful and interesting, as usual !
Thank you!
"Atleast for a particular time or when the sun doesn't shine"
Rhymes pretty good :)
I took a different approach on this topic, I made a small low power module that can charge a battery and power a device separately. for this I used a P channel mosfet (between boost and battery) and extra shottky diode. My module contains TP4057, smaller sot23-6 version of TP4056, some protection designed to cut off at about 3V, boost converter is MT3608 set for whatever voltage you need. When I connect usb lead, charger charges battery, mosfets disconnects boost from battery, and current flows from usb lead to boost part through a diode. As I made this to power up a DSO Shell, it's small, with everything on one side, but I think that mosfet swiching thing can be easily scaled up for higher current demands.
Post the schematic please
@@arduinosynod1571 Here it is: easyeda.com/kjur18/Li_ion_charger__boost-55ecc63cf3e34ea082e9d6b1d53dafa5
that is a much better design! you want to eliminate the number of power conversions in your circuits if possible. so the diode sends 5v directly to the loads dropping only 0.5v (could be less with a schottky) where with the power going through a TP4056 you get at most a 0.8v drop (not to mention the excessive wear on the cell when acting as a capacitor). this is always going to be a higher voltage than the battery so the diode in the mosfet will not conduct. Once usb power is gone then the mosfet will conduct the battery voltage directly to the load with very little voltage drop. I just wonder if there is a way to replace the diode with another mosfet, I think the trouble is getting it to turn on and off properly.
@@SuperBrainAK I added possible solution for this, it might work. N channel mosfet with gate with a pull down resistor tied to the source connected to a usb power, and drain connected to a boost part of the schematic. This way when there is no usb power, mosfet is turned off, and when you connect power to it, that mosfet should open and conduct without any problems. Probably.
@@kjur18 You can test one if the ideal diode modules you can get off eBay..
Another very good explanation as always. Tks
Thank you!
Very well researched video!
Thank you!
Great video. The correct way to deal with the issue of charging the battery whilst connected to a load is to run the Vin through a schottky diode to the boost converter bypassing the LiPo charger. The LiPo cell is then connected with P-channel mosfet to the boost converter with the gate of the mosfet also connected to Vin. This will allow the battery to be charge independently of the load but will also switch the battery into play as soon as there is no input power. It's not good practice to sap the load power off the battery charger as you highlighted.
What are the advantages for the application described here?
Andreas Spiess By drawing power for the load separately from the LiPo charger whilst charging it would overcome the issue you mention in the video where the load of say a Pi doesn’t have enough current to function properly if the battery is charging but at a almost empty state. There’s a fantastic write up by Zak Kemble blog.zakkemble.net/a-lithium-battery-charger-with-load-sharing/
Very informative..as always!..thanks Andreas :)
You are welcome!
Very useful and cheap. I will put that on my list to order.
:-)
It's really nice to see that in the transaction history of the UPS on aliexpress the first 17 pages (of 30 total) are from today... they will have to do a lot of packaging there!
:-)) I order quite a few things from them and so far, all was ok.
WOW!! I have two of these in my junk drawer, guess I better get them out an do some testing. Thanks.
:-))
Great video. As always!!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
"The sun does not always shine." That's deep man
Yes!
AFTER E.O.V I DIRECTLY SUBSCRIBED . BEST VIDEO AND THOROUGHLY EXPLAINED.
Welcome aboard the channel!
@@AndreasSpiess
Sir,
Lithium ion polymer 4000mah,
The charging module tp4506 with dw01 battery over discharge protection,
The booster stepup step down circuit 3.3volt constant output,
An Esp32wroom,
The 2amp/5volt DC wall socket 230ac adapter
Will this step simultaneously charge the battery as well as the esp32 and can this setup work as ups
Sir,
I was expecting an expert advise regarding the question
Really useful, thank you. I will follow the link and buy a few. I use the exact same components (less the boost converter) in some of my projects and think I would generally: 1) remove the boost converter completely and 2) remove two of the LDO regulators as I normally don't need the full Ampere. That way I see a neater board that is easily suitable for small solar projects at a price lower than I can do it by assembling the parts (4056, protection circuit and LDO reg). Thinking back to your previous comparison of these charging boards, the 4056, this was my firm favourite as all of the switch mode versions failed to pass any charge current in dull weather, where this actually does pretty well even down to 1mA. Thanks again, thumbs up. :-)
And I have ordered 5 of them so hopefully you will see a few cents from me. Thanks for the hint.
This is why I called it "universal. You can remove things if you do not need them. They are so cheap. Thank you for your support!
This is the module I used for my solar backpack. Bypassed charging circuit by soldering SX01-3A solar controller output to the battery holder. Worked great this summer but now it is winter and the boost converter that is always on drains battery.
As said it always draws at least 0.3mA if you do not disable 5V
@@AndreasSpiess Yes you did.
Thanks Spiess, i have two with panel solar 5v and a lora32u4II with one18650, i send a message every hour.
I installed it 6 months ago and I have never had to change the battery. Thanks, byyyye.
Thank you for your feedback!
Thanks, great video! I'm running MCUs off the 5V USB-A pins, rather than the 5V rails, to utilise the switch. I'm using it as a powerbank, but this would turn off most of the load in your trickle charging scenario as well.
Thank you for sharing your exprerience.
Andreas, you have a large enough viewer base. Why not design a product like this but with the modifications you just mentioned, and then open source the design or contact a chinese manufacturer to create it cheaply?
That is a freaking great idea.
The Andreas brand will rule the market. I for one will be a fan for life.
Professor Spiess, also it would be great if this new product had one more USB input port or even another Micro USB input port for the solar panel. Congratulations for this great class and I hope you design this new product! Thanks!
I sold hardware in the 1980 when one computer cost at least a million. Then it was fun. Today I will no more touch hardware as a seller. Sorry. Sometimes manufacturers also watch my channel. Maybe they react themselves.
@@AndreasSpiess actually, for the most part, if you design something useful, and at least do a test or prototype run, you will find nearly exact "clones" on your usual far east marketplace sites within a few months. But I do think you should release something of more ideal design under the "Swiss Accent" brand name;
@@zerog2000 If he made a circuit and had JLCPCB or anyone else make it, I'd buy it just as support. Like other channels do t-shirts etc
I'd really love to see a vid about the problem you mention with the Pi battery voltage protection, I've looked into some of these ICs but not a lot of examples
Awesome, thanks Andreas!
You are welcome!
Would love to see the PSB01012B reviewed. And the challenges with 3V/5V-mix projects.
The PSB01012B seems not completely different. Just other chips for the charging and the booster. And no 3.3 volts.
Hello. Great work! Well done! BTW... I spent 34$ on Banggood using your ref link.
Thank you for your support!
good idea. thought about the 18650 case as UPS but didn't get around evaluating it. thanks
You are welcome!
Good video, thumbs up!
Thank you!
Having over 10h of protection time after the power was cut off is pretty good for my MCU projects. Very nice.
Thank you!
Hi Andreas, greeting from Italu and nice video, a lot of useful informations here! I'm a bit disappointed that the boost IC consume so much, I'll try for sure to disconnect it
Good idea!
Very cool. Thank you sir!
You are welcome
Been working with Stubblefield coils. Found that I was doing it wrong. I was running current same way and creating stationary magnet field in Stubblefield coils. Therefore not getting any extra current from emf. Using some of the coils to move the magnet fields was the solution. Electricity is as simple as galvanized rod and cooper rod in dirt. With super capacitors we don't need batteries. But need resistor to keep from frying stuff. Have a pi zero running off 3 earth battery cells and a buck/boost converter. It runs my WiFi continuously and will keep doing so till corrosion eventually kills it.
Thanks for the Video!
Its a really nice thing if you dont need to watch out for LowPower.
My ESP32 Modules only need 8µA while in Deepsleep. This regulators and LEDs would take to much energy.
My favorite for low power still is LiFePo.
@@AndreasSpiess Thats what im using to sometimes. Even on Li-Ion with the HT7833 you are having a good LowPower performance
Great video! HNY the guy with the Swiss accent. 😁
Thank you!
NIce video. I have found that a low profile boost converter in combination with TP4056 ic for charging (and associated protection chips) is the best combination to use when powering something.
Specifically, I personaly choose to boost the voltage to 6.4V and feed that to the LDO of the uC i happen to be using as I have found that they are always very good in regulating the 5V bus at exactly 5V +- a couple mV. This is critical if using a hall sensor like ACS712 which needs exactly 5V to produce the 2.5V middle voltage.
Good solution for your special need. Not very power efficient, I assume...
Andreas, thank you so much for research and broadcast effort. In your video #155 you speak about the good performance of the TP4056 as a good solar charger board. In this device, the TP4056 will extract the maximum power of a photovoltaic panel connected to the micro USB port or it will be needed an additional piece for doing the job? Regards!
You maybe have to adjust R2 as shown in the solar charger video.
Thanks for very informative video Andreas.
Please do you have suggestions for someone who is starting learning IoT. If you can point to some learning resources and suggestions in IoT kits etc.
Iot is a wide area. Google is a good source. And, if I believe my viewers, also this channel. Most important: Search a project you want to do.
Nice video 🙂
Thank you!
Since I'm playing with two voltages on my DIY raspad (12V for the 10 inch lcd and 5V for the rpi3), I've used 4 li-ion cells in series. Used supposedly "20A" voltage regulators each (for the lcd and rpi3). Planning to try out an XL4015 since it's rated "5A."
webslinger2011 and did you solve the challenge of charging while using?
@@JensRoland I haven't installed a bms on the battery ( waiting for it to arrive). Need to test an XL4015 on the pi. So I haven't gotten to it yet.
I found it very useful
Thank you!
Great mini UPS, let's hope the company watch your video and change the board with switching off the FP6298 and not just the USB output port. On Aliexpress the 5V Amps rating are changed to 2A in the description, bit closer to your load test :-)
Interesting that they changed the description...
Andreas thank you for sharing. Very very helpful as always. But can you suggest a different reliable 18650 batteries provider? That shop only ships to a few countries!!
I only can recommend something I have used :-(
If I had a dollar for every time I successfully bent the pin of an SMD chip, I’d have 0 dollars
lmao
Even if I could I wouldn't xD
take a slice of mica, melt and put the slice of mica under the pin
My personal solution
Great video and cool discovery, Andreas! Did you have the chance to check if changing the cut-off voltage of the board to 3V would be possible to prevent the TP 4056 to go into trickle charging mode in the first place? Maybe this could be a solution for applications where reliability is worth more than the lost capacity by the premature cut-off?
I think this is an internal function and cannot be changed. At least, I do not know, how.
Sehr interessanter Beitrag.
Danke!
Great Video, I would really like to see a good circuit for low power application with 3,3v and two alkine batteries. All the hardware needed to run the ESP stable. What Mosfet or other device would you recommend to turn on and off a rfm95 or other sensors to safe power?
Maybe you watch my videos about the Amazon dash buttons?
Thanks for the video. I also tested two of them. Bad solder joints on both. One dead after a month, and one DOA. I had to repair both, a chip lead, a fused resister, and a usb pin. Ordered months apart. In the real world an rpi cannot run off one. The battery voltage will drop over time. There just isn't enough headroom with 600mah. At least that was my experience on the two I tested. After 4 days, a fully charged lipo which started at 4.2v, was at 3.87v and dropping. So it's not reliable for an rpi without changes. And recovery isn't an option after an outage like you mentioned. For esp's though, it's potentially fine. I considered making one with two usb inputs, and switching. This would leave enough overhead to manage the charging vs discharging separately. That's the design I think I'd like to see. A real ups should switch power sources, not unreliably limit the whole thing.
One dead after a month, with current well below 1A...
Deep sleep current was not 300µA all the time.
No battery reverse polarity protection (you need to often remove it to make a full reboot).
Good idea, although a "v2" would be greatly needed ;)
I have 4 of them. None was DOA, at least :-). Maybe you change R2 as shown to increase charging current to 1A
I have two of these that I bought 6 months ago. I use them all the time but not on RPi, just on Arduinos (ESPxxx or ATmega). They are very convenient for breadboard projects and I have never had any trouble with them. The only “problem” I see is that if I change the 18650, I also need to connect the USB-in port to a power source before any power comes out the USB-out port. I have assumed this is some kind of reset mechanism. However, I don’t think I would try to use one of these in a permanent project. For that I would usually go with a board that had a battery port on board. My LoRa gateway is based on a Heltec ESP32 + OLED with an 18650 inside the box wired to the battery port on the Heltec. Most of the time the Heltec gets power from its USB port but switches over to the 18650 instantaneously if USB power goes away. When USB power comes back, it instantaneously switches back to USB power and recharges the 18650. If that doesn’t qualify as “uninterruptible” I don’t know what does.
@@AndreasSpiess yeah I was going to give that a try :) Was super informative. r1 is actually what burned up on the original one I had. So I need to replace that guy already. No clue why it did that or if it was a physical failure.... However an rpi runs pretty much all my home automation. So not starting after a long power failure, is actually worse than the power failure :) I'm working on centralizing my backup power. I've got all the parts, just not all the time to invest. :) Best wishes and thanks again. I enjoy your videos.
@@HIBAW why then not consider ol' good 12v lead battery if it is home automation and size/weight aren't an issue? Use tiny one, like 4.5AH. Controllers can be bought cheaply at firms that sell fire alarm / security hardware
Very good video !!! Do you know if it is possible to connect two of those shields in parallel?
It should be possible. But maybe you will not get double the output power.
For young players a good general overview of the do's and donts when relying on a non mains power source, I would just add that you characterize your devices ( main mcu/sbc, sensors ) thoroughly aswell as your systems duty cycle. I liked the nod to the 'non deep sleep' note on your consumption numbers.
I actually purchased a couple of solar charging boards from a EE on hackster IO after long conversations and alot of research, I was ok with the price which was a little more than these from China, but I had the added bonus that these were actually fielded in the real world power both esp8266 and esp32 boards of various types and sensors without issues.
Just as a note also for bigger iron ( Pi, BeagleBones etc etc ) you might do better with a hat/shield/cape as these are specifically targetted for these systems over being more generic, trade off is always going to be cost / your budget. Remember one thing though 'You get what you pay for'.
Again great video Andreas, as always great food for thought!
I have such a hat and it did not work properly. I had to „Pimp“ it :-(
What about us older players who don't know much. ;^)
@@dikl2689 Thats why we have Andreas ;)..
How does your version behave if you cut input power from it? Will it deliver output power uninterrupted? I purchased one, but it looks different and for a few seconds, cuts the power when input power is removed. Thanks!
HELPFUL !!! . . . . thanks much.
You are welcome!
I am trying to do the same thing. What I figured is to use the tp4056+dw01 module for the battery charging and a MT3608 boost converter for powering the pi/mcu. I need to figure out a way to sense the battery voltage on the actual device(pi/mcu) to trigger a safe shutdown when the battery gets low. A simple comparator ckt can take care of turning the device on when the battery voltage gets above 3V.
I made a video about that.
And ordered. This channel keeps getting more expensive :-)
:-))
Thanks for the video Andreas, I was looking for a module to hotswap 18650 but I wasn't able to find one, maybe you with your experience can suggest one. Something with back to back mosfet would be nice
I never had this requirement. So I never searched for it :-(
Hi Andreas, thank you for this video! I'm new in DIY electronics, just a basic question, how the 5v 2a pins in the PCB can be easily used? What type of connector should I solder/use)
This question is too general. I would say: Any connector which fits your needs and the dimensions of the holes. Most people probably would start with the small pins used on all MCU boards and cut 2 of them. Or solder two wires instead of a connector because it is more reliable.
Hello,
I use it to power breadboards (with red and blue lines), it fits the spacing between outputs.
Thanks for the tip! Good idea.
I've never seen a Chinese product like this that works all that well and I have a little pile of puffed up lipo cells to show for it. I don't think it's easy to make something that works well with the cheap discrete components making up the charger->protection->regulation path. Richtek has some cheap (~50cents from taobao) parts that can do almost everything and have "power path switching" that switches the load directly to the input so it doesn't fight with the charger. Those would work well for a board like this. Aside from that there are PMIC chips that have the charger, power path and programmable DC-DC supplies for not much more that would probably would well if integrated into module with an ESP32. You'd be able to put sensors etc on their own DC-DC converters and turn them off when not needed, see the state of the battery etc.
There are some very nice chips used in tablets. However, I never saw them on a module.
@@AndreasSpiess
>There are some very nice chips used in tablets.
Exactly. Something like the AXP203 that's used in cheap chinese tablets would be good I think.
donpalmera That's how the C.H.I.P. (which is sadly no longer made) did its onboard battery charging, since it was basically a Pi competitor using cheap tablet tech. Unfortunately I'm not sure there's anything like that being made today.
@@makomk
The chip was based on an Allwinner SoC. The Allwinner SoCs are always paired with an AXP PMIC...
Allwinner make a chip with a 1.2ghz Cortex A7 and 64MB of RAM in an QFP package (hand solderable) that costs about $4. :D
Good morning! This may be a comment to late but Andreas did you ever revisit this UUPS and make all the modifications that you mentioned within the video..?
No, unfortunately not
Typically boost converters and LDO can have an enable input. Correct scaling of these enable inputs allows low battery voltage detection and reduction of drain current below your 60mA required for charging deep discharged battery.
You are right. But not here.
nice work, i'm searching for a LM1084-5V, i'm from spain, is the voltage regulator for a makerbot board rev e
Your video is truly helpful and give valuable information (i couldn't find complete datasheet of V3 or the other shields nowhere)..
I just want to mention my problem in case you or someone has any knowledge.
I have the V8 model(2 18650 batteries)..and instead of switch there is a button in order to activate the 3.3 and 5v pins on each side.. the problem is that even if there is current need (e.g. a led) that uses these pins..there automatically deactivates after a minute..
Many powerbanks deactivate if not enough power is used. They are useless for low power projects :-(
@@AndreasSpiess but the one you use in the video the 3.3V and 5V pins are always on, even if you draw very little current..right?
Hi Andreas, nice video! I know there is a power bank with the same capabilities, I just do not have the link anymore to the seller, I saw it on Julians channel a time ago.
Anker makes SOME powerbanks that can both charge and discharge at the same time. The way they do it, without disconnecting the load during charging, means the battery degrades faster. Not ideal but OK
Thanks for the very informative post. I'm trying to run a $4US LED (normally 3 AAA batteries) off of one of these modules. I have different varieties of LED. With one of them, with a USB LCD display of volts and amps in between, I get a reading of 1.55A, and it cuts off after 4 seconds and I have to remove and reinsert the battery. If I am providing power to the module, it continues running, but after several minutes, the LED dims and the display turns off. Flipping the switch off and on brings it back to 1.55A for a few minutes, then dim again (output USB voltage has dropped to 2V6).
With a different LED, it shows 1.33A and runs for several minutes (no mains charging). With mains, it runs for longer--but then burned out some of the LEDs and dropped to 0.041A. Oh, well.
One of the same type as the first LED has run on a 5V mains charger now for several months continuously. I'll next try one of the charging battery holders with 2 18650s.
Hope they come out with an iteration of this module which incorporates your suggestions and also delivers the current which it advertises.
I did not have users with more then one Ampere in mind as the battery would depleat very quickly.
These are absolutely great, I use them to drive and power the WS2812B smart leds on an electric skateboard. I was hoping to play with a accelerometer so add some sort of roll and acceleration effects.
Just a thought, nobody seems to do anything with wind powered ICs - would you consider covering some sort of self powered ESP32?
I tested at least one ESP module with battery.
I just wanted to say that I am interested in wind power for very small devices. But it is harder to work with than solar, because the mechanical turbine does not just switch off happily when the battery is full. Real wind turbines, even small ones, need some sort of 'brake' and a way to trigger it. Overspeed operation is a real hazard. See also "dump load."
Thank you for this. I had a question: Is there any way for the ESP32 to be notified that power is being supplied by the battery, ie: main power loss? For example, I would like my esp32 to notify an MQTT topic that it was being powered via battery and not mains, so i could do something about it before the battery gets too low. Thanks!
The ESP32 can measure voltage and react on it. Jost connect such a pin to the voltage you want to measure and make sure it is always less than 3,3 volts
Nice video, appreciating your research. Also thank you for links.
But how about to set 2 or more such modules in parallel for RPi to provide more than 1A?
I probably would use a different module for an RPi
@@AndreasSpiess it would be great if you make video for true RPi UPS (:
I don't like the DW01. Wherever possible, I replace it with a Fortune FS312F. It is a drop-in replacement that has much better voltage constraints; it cuts out at 2.9 volts on discharge and 4.25 volts on charge.
Thanks for the tip. I will try it out
I can vouch that the black hole is real... Not only the holiday expenses, but the first week of January is when I also have to pay all of my professional license fees for the upcoming year, or else I'm not allowed to work this year. :(
This product looks interesting, just ordered a couple for testing. I mostly use Arduinos so I'm not too worried about discharging the cells too profoundly.
Modding SOIC8 chips this way is tricky, those pins are fragile. If I were to attempt it, I'd lift the pin only slightly, place a layer or two of Kapton tape between the lifted pin and the pad underneath, solder a wire to the pin and then the second wire somewhere along the trace away from the pad. And then glue the wires to the PCB with epoxy close to the solder points to avoid them getting yanked out by mistake.
I am sure I would be more cautious the second time ;-)
Perfect!
Thank you very much Andreas!
Is this charger board also suitable for LiFePo accu?
It does not work with LiFePo.
dont forget the 4, LiFePO4 you can also call it an LFP battery
Looks like handy module there Andreas ;) And worse case scenario - have some sort of power monitor that controls the output to both shut down the load as the batter nears critically flat, and ensure that the battery is on bulk rather than recovery charge before enabling the load. I believe the power bank manufacturers generally don't offer a passthrough / UPS like function is due to not wanting to deal with the battery charge termination when under load. Anker powerbanks in particular supported this, but I'm sure I saw mention that their newer models have omitted this feature as the charge termination wasn't working properly and reducing the life of the batteries. I thought Xaomi did also, but my newer power bank has a nasty 'feature' of turning the output off for a second (and then back on again) when the charger power goes on or off :-/
In addition most banks I have switch off if I only connect an MCU. They think there is no load :-(
Yeah, that is a bit problem. I have one commercial powerbank that has press on, press off functionality (i.e. it will run until the battery is flat)... but it is the rare, not the norm :( Paul Stoffregen did a article that made Hackaday about using a MCU to pulse a load on a powerbank so that it would not turn off, whilst wasting the least amount of energy possible. Whilst the original page is down, thankfully the Wayback Machine has an archive of it : web.archive.org/web/20160415053411/www.dorkbotpdx.org:80/blog/paul/battery_pack_load
Thanks Andreas. I learned some interesting things here. I wonder if it's possible for you to feedack to the manufacturer of the board about the trickle current resistance so that they could perhaps add it by default? I know that there are 100s of these suppliers and most will not care but just a thought. Anyway thanks for this tutorial.
They don't do that because the charge current you get might be too high for some cheap 1200mah or similar 18650 s people might put in there. It would be risky so they played it safe
Some of them watch my videos...
I seem to remember a video (possibly adafruit) showing 6v power spikes when switching from battery to mains power with solutions using the tp4056. Did you notice how clean the supplied voltage was when switching power sources? Could be all the additional circuitry on this model fixes this.
I checked it out now. I connected the oscilloscope to 5V and unplugged an re-plugged the charging USB cable. And really, I saw big spikes (>20V). If I kept ground connected to the wall charger (as it is if you lose mains power), I only saw 3x 10nS spikes (very short). They are comparable with the 200mV spikes from ripple. The big ones most probably came from the ground problems (measuring errors). So I would say this is ok.
So if I connect this 18650 shield to the charger as well as to a Pi, it should automatically manage interruptions in power supply to keep the RPi running by switching to the 18650?
Then upon return of power supply it'll charge the battery till it is charged then direct the power to the Pi.
I want a solution to handle short power outages without restarting the Pi, in a setup that can be deployed then doesn't need to be touched so the power supply will be connected to the shield 24*7. Is it good for that function or will I need to make some modifications?
You have to try. There are different designs in the market now. But there is a fair chance that it works. The Pi4 is the hardest, because it consumes lots of current.
Hey Andreas!
Did you measure the quiescent current?
I want something like this to power an esp32 based sensor that is on deep sleep 99.9% of the time
If it is not in the video I did not measure it.
Im just about to build a solar panel power bank that can charge and discharge simultaneously using 6 or more 18650s (3000mAh each). Could and should I use one of these UBS charger board for each cell in parallel? If not, do you have any suggestions?
It is definitively better to use them in parallel. But for such larger solar panels it might be good to look at an MPPT charger.