Powering Arduino from a 12v LiIon Battery

Projects General Guidance
1

I've been looking for a portable power supply for my Tascam DR-100 for a while now (the DR-100's a fantastic recorder, but its battery life & lack of charging options in the field are ridiculous) and I ran across a 12v 4800mAh rechargeable LiIon battery on eBay and figured for the cost it was worth taking a punt..

800×532 9.3 KB

After chatting with some of the guys in the Sparkfun IRC channel, I figured I could get a nice stable 5v power supply for the DR-100 using an LM2575, a couple of caps, a diode and a an inductor. Great.

Then it struck me that the Arduino also uses 5v, although obviously I can't go into the barrel jack, because it needs at least 7v. But, presumably I could just put a USB plug on the end of this (after my LM2575 circuit, obviously) and power it via the USB socket as it's a nice regulated 5v supply? Would it also be safe to go straight into the 5v & ground pins on the arduino?

2

Hi,

Where was the Ebay seller located??

Lately China has stopped allowing Lithium based batteries in Hong Kong Post etc... Bummer!

I'd love to get some of the batteries I see on Ebay...

3

Fortunately for me, this particular one was already in the UK. But I did see a couple of others listed (larger capacities than this, one was 9800mAh) from Chinese sellers too.