I'm trying to determine the most acceptable battery system to use with my project.
I presently use the PKCELL LP503562 3.7V 1200mAH and it provides a full 31 hours of operation before shutdown.
I looked into the PKCELL LP803860 3.7V 2000mAH which by basic calculations should give me about 51 hours of operation.
Here's my problem...I bought it, plugged it into my project, and left it running whilst connected to the USB port of my computer for 24 hours.
During that 24 hours the battery itself discharged and now seems to be dead, gone and buried.
It calls into question whether the MKR1400 GSM board is capable of handling this battery.
Part of me just wants to write off this battery as defective and purchase another.
Part of me is worried that I may damage my Arduino and to stick with the 1200mAH battery to stay on the safe side.
Does anyone have specific knowledge regarding the MKR's battery charging circuit beyond what the manufacturer's data sheet has to say?
I looked at both the MKR schematic and the spec sheet for the BQ24195L and it seems like it should handle any size single cell Li-Ion or LiPo which the 2000mAH battery seems to be.
Most importantly, is there any way I might damage my MKR with this thing?
A Lipo battery should not be discharged beyond about 2.7v. If you discharge one to about 2volts you've pretty much ruined it. Beyond about 3 volts there's really no usable power left.
To protect this you need some sort of low voltage shut off. Usually people use a battery maintenance module. Some recharge modules include a shut off for low voltage. This is an area where you have to do some research cause one size does not fit all.
As far as I know the GSM does not have recharge or shut off built in
It will not hurt you to go to a higher capacity battery. It will last longer and as long as it's the same voltage Ohm's law applies.
As per the previous post !! ( I need to type faster ).....The capacity of the battery ( mAh) only determines how long it lasts . The voltage is the important parameter for it working with your Arduino, so a larger capacity battery cannot cause harm.
LiPo batteries should never be run flat as it is likely to damage them - and this may have happened in your case . Don’t connect two batteries in parallel, if you did that .
The battery may have not been fully charged when you connected it and therefore run down more quickly .
Mr Google may help in trying to recover the battery - I don’t know.
While you are there look up power saving schemes for your circuit , that may be able to increase the run time of your project dramatically.
Thanks for the advise. I'm thinking that it will not kill my MKR. After all, the 1st one didn't so why assume the 2nd try will bring utter disaster, right?
