Arduino LilyPad Simple Board charging capability- Solved!

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Hallo.
I've got 2 questions to the charging ability of the LilyPad Simple Board: DEV-10274 from Sparkfun

I understand the LilyPad Simple Board has a charging circuit for a LiPo battery.

  1. Should any any LiPo 3.7V that runs the LilyPad so far without problems get charged?
  2. If I solder my LiPo to the +- pins directly, will it then be charged if it is plugged
    into USB via the FTDI breakout board into the computer? Or will it only charge if it's
    plugged into the white socket on the board?

Thanks.
Alexandra

2

Hi,

  1. Yes any 3.7V LiPo battery that runs the LilyPad should be able to be charged.

  2. Judging from the schematic posted on Sparkfun, the white LiPo connector only connects to the + and - pins, so soldering your wires there should not make a difference. That said, there is another V+ on the board from the FTDI. When the board is plugged in this voltage is used to drive the charging regulator chip that provides the charge voltage to the battery's V+. All this goes to say just make sure you get the right V+. If you have the correct positive line it should have continuity with pin 3 of the MCP73831 and pin 2 of the white connector.

3

Thanks.
I'll try to empty the LiPo and see if it works.
Then I will post my confirmation.

4

Yes, it charges fine.