Electron - will the LiPo charge from VIN?

Hardware
1

Hi Forum,
Looking at the block diagram in the Particle Electron Datasheet, it seems to me that LiPo battery could charge from VIN, rather than the USB port. Can anyone confirm this?

2

Correct. VIN and 5v from USB flow to the same PMIC input pins to charge the battery.

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2 Likes
3

Thanks for the prompt response :slight_smile:

4

Have you validated this? I’m trying to do this and it doesn’t appear to work…or at least, the battery chargin LED ceases to work when using VIN rather than USB to charge the LiPo.

5

Charging via VIN does indeed work just fine.

6

Is it expected that the charging LED doesn’t work when powered through VIN? Or is that just my board?

7

The RED charging LED does still work the same as if the USB was used.

The RED LED will turn off when the charging current is below 50mA if I remember correctly.

So if the battery is full then the RED charging LED will turn off or if the charging current drops below 50mA then the RED LED will turn off also.

There is code that turns the RED charging LED OFF but you should know if you ran that code or not.

8

Perfect! Thanks for the information!