Externally Powering the Arduino Fio Help Please

Projects General Guidance
1

I have some questions regarding externally powering the Arduino Fio. Here is what has happened to me. After having the Arduino powered using a USB during the coding of my sensors I then needed to do some range capability testing on my project so I decided to power it externally. On the Fio there are a pair of holes marked BAT + and -. After reading the Arduino Fio webpage it says the Input Voltage 3.35 -12 V. So I decided to use a 9 V battery with a cap on it and soldered the wires to the corresponding BAT holes. I then tried to run my code again and it was no longer working giving me an error message saying "programmer not responding" and the CHG led would stay on even though nothing was connected or soldered to it. I decided to get another Fio :frowning: , but don't wan't ruin this one as well so I ask for your help please. :blush:

Should I have never done this? Am I allowed to freely attach a source to those holes as long as it is within 3.35V-12V?

Do I have put a regulated 3.3 V at the BAT + and -?

Could I have ruined it by having the soldering iron on there for too long? Or having wires soldered on (not connected to a battery) but then still trying to power it via usb?

Is using the LiPo connectors the best way to go? (I want to stay away from LiPo batteries since this project is eventually intended for babies)

Any help is much appreciated.

2

I'm new to the Fio too, and I am having trouble finding decent documentation about it. I have no Lipo batteries on hand, so I took a chance and connected a 9v battery to the BATT thru-holes on the board, trusting that the spec on the Arduino.cc hardware description page was right about the input being 3.3 to 12v.

It worked fine for me, but I've only programmed it a couple times so far. I ran it on the 9v batt for a few minutes after programming with no ill effects, but I don't know about long term use. I'm planning on using a larger capacity battery pack anyway. My goal is to get the Fio to sleep for the several minutes between quick awake periods where it samples a sensor, transmits via Xbee, and then goes back to sleep. I'm having an incredibly hard time finding examples of other people doing this. Surely I can't be the only one.

3

Maybe your FIO's are already dead or you figured out this by yourself.

Aren't you supposed to connect external powersupply to CHG-holes. They are after the USB-port and according to schematic its before the regulator.