Does the Xenon though? I don’t think it does.
Nope, it does not have the same PMIC but does have a different charging buck regulator.
Look up the data sheet for this charging chip on the Xenon to see what the max input voltage is and if it’s higher than the max voltage output on your solar panel.
See Post #51
I use the Micro USB connector on the Boron for the Solar Panel Input. The Voltaic Panel ships with the correct Micro USB adapter.
I change the other cheap Panels over to Micro USB myself.
But doing this is the same as using the VUSB and GND Pins.
My reasoning was: Having the Solar Panel occupy the Boron's Micro USB connector minimizes the chance that I would accidentally plug-in the Boron to (2) charging sources (Solar + Computer) at the same time in the future.
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As @RWB said, the Xenon is a different animal.
You will need to ensure that the Solar Panel output stays below 6.2V for the Xenon due to it's XC9258 regulator.
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For the Boron, am I correct that the specific pin to connect to the positive terminal on the solar panel is VUSB and the negative terminal on the solar panel gets connected to GND?
Very inexperienced with power supplies here. Since the rating is 3.9-12V, can I hook this pin up directly to a 6V 4.5Ah battery that has a max voltage output of 6.5V?
@Cd5286, powering a boron via (+) VUSB pin and (-) GND pin directly with 6.5V will work fine; however, do not plug anything into the micro USB on the boron while powering via VUSB. If you chose to use the VUSB to power I suggest putting a piece of Kapton taper over the micro USB to prevent a mistake in the heat of battle.
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Thank you very much for the prompt answer.
@Rftop Hello, I was hoping if you could post the code you used to do your Boron trial tests. I would like to do the same thing with a 5V 6W solar panel connected to the microUSB port on my Boron, but I do not know how to go about it. I am not sure what PMIC settings I need to change in order to get it to work properly, as I don't want to damage my Boron.
@pduong4, This test was 5 years ago. Naturally the Particle OS has matured a lot since then.
To perform this basic test, just run your actual user code with the sleep mode you want and publish the Li-Po voltage and SOC for graphing by your backend of choice.
Since a Solar Boron is typically outside, I also track the Battery Temperature - as temp does produce a small change in the expressed Voltage.
Also, now there are several inexpensive battery monitors specifically for low powered devices that produce accurate results without the Lab-Grade price tag. I can't think of the names at the moment but I know several have been discussed on this forum.
Since this initial trial - I've found a Solar Boron is easy if your user code will always put the Boron to sleep, and you have no leakage current from peripherals. A Progressive Sleep Schedule (based on SOC) is a great safety net also. It's fairly easy until you start designing for 2+ weeks of Cloudy weather. At that point, I go with a 12V panel and SLA battery if you have the space.
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