The tutorial do not cover the power source very well, so i did a lot of research, and since this would be my first custom PCB i need to make sure i got things right:
-I will be using a 3.7v lipo battery with a TP4056 board + 5V Booster converter, this is something i know will work without problem but I want to know is:
Can I use the 3.7v lipo battery without the 5V booster (to save space And money) ?
Idealy, could I just use a 9V regular battery directly ? (the entire project will be placed into a very small 1/43 vehicle die cast and I'm looking at the smaller option I have)
9V block batteries have very limited capacity and won't last long. Plus, you waste about half the battery energy as heat in the on board voltage regulator.
The Arduino will run just fine on 3.7V, if powered through Vcc (5V pin, not RAW), but you should set the Arduino clock rate to 8 MHz. The 3.3V Pro Minis from eBay cost only about $2, and are perfect for standalone applications.
Only problem with lipo batteries without a voltage booster is that the battery won't last quite as long with blue and white leds as it will with red, amber or yellow leds. (With green leds, it depends.) This is because blue and white leds have a higher "forward voltage" (Vf) than red and yellow. Blue and white leds have Vf around 3.2V. As the lipo battery's voltage falls to around 3.4V, the leds will no longer light, but red/yellow leds will carry on until the lipo is empty (at around 3.0V).
nordi:
-I will be using a 3.7v lipo battery with a TP4056 board + 5V Booster converter, this is something i know will work without problem but I want to know is:
Do you have a schematic for this? Will you be operating the device while you're charging the battery?