I am using an Argon, and I understand there is no fuel gauge chip:
"The Argon device does not have a fuel gauge chip, however you can determine the voltage of the LiPo battery, if present."
I therefore have two (2) questions:
- The documentation states that I can measure the battery voltage by:
float voltage = analogRead(BATT) * 0.0011224;
which seems to be providing a reasonable number (4.11 with fully charged batteries). My question is, at what point should I consider the voltage drop too low to continue, and must charge the device? 3.8V? 3.6V? 3.0V? Any recommendations?
- The documentation also states that the charge indicator on the Argon can be read using:
bool charging = !digitalRead(CHG);
"In other words, the CHG input is 0 when charging and 1 when not charging, and the ! inverts this logic to make it easier to use."
However, using the following code:
if (!digitalRead(CHG)) {
Particle.publish("Battery", "Charging");
} else {
Particle.publish("Battery", "Not Charging");
}
it always says "Charging", even when there is nothing plugged in at the USB. So what am I doing wrong?
Note: I am using 2x Lithium-Ion (18650) batteries in parallel, so not LiPo, but the electrical characteristics appear to be the same, and I wouldn't guess that a different battery chemistry should affect whether or not the Argon thinks its charging when there is nothing plugged in to the USB.
Thanks,
Dave Filip