Powering an NRF24L01 with an Arduino Nano and battery

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

I am building a remote control with an Arduino Nano, an NRF24L01 radio transceiver, and a battery. I would like to use a chargeable USB battery pack (5V, 1A) to power the Arduino, but I could also use a 9V. Would either of these sufficiently power the Arduino and radio transceiver, and would I need a capacitor, voltage regulator, or a base module for the NRF24L01? Thanks for any ideas!

2

Hi,

I highly recommend the base module; it runs from the same 5V as Arduino and provides good 3.3V and good bypass capacitors for the nRF24L01.

Some info HERE.

3

@cork09,
You get more bang for the buck from an 18650 (or 2) or AAs. Also, your stock Nano puts out 3.3v to power peripherals that need it. Be mindful of logic levels in comms, of course.

You would be wise to use at least one capacitor as mentioned here. I put as large a cap as is practical here to solve 2 issues, the noise/interference and the voltage draw when transmit starts. There is a draw on the PS greater than at any other time when the Nordic (or clone) chip starts transmitting that can cause the output signal to be weak enough for a split second to not transmit the first characters at a signal high enough to be read by the receiver.

You can't see this, of course, but to the receiver(s), it seems like you started a sentence in the middle. It tosses it away, as it didn't hear the beginning. The NRFs aren't the most power efficient boards out there, nor do they have a decent range, but they are dirt cheap. I did a way too long video on pimping them out here. Its in real time and YT cut the audio really low. They don't let you edit in situ. :frowning:

HTH

4

This Simple nRF24L01+ Tutorial may be of interest.

I have made a few breadboard Atmega 328s running at 8MHz and the Atmega 328 and the nRF24 powered by a pair of AA alkaline cells.

...R

5

Thank you for your replies. I've decided to use a base module with the NRF24L01. If I use 2 18650s or AAs (or a different number of batteries if this does not seem reasonable), can I just connect it straight into the Vin pin? Also if you have experience with the 18650 batteries, can I charge them with a regular rechargeable AA battery charger? Thanks!