Photon/Sparkfun Battery Shield and HC-SR04 Issues

Hardware
1

I am having issues with a HC-SR04 Range Sensor once disconnected from USB power. My set up is:

A photon on the sparkfun battery shield with the HC-SR04 Range Sensor and a 3.7V 6Ah/22.2Wh Lipo battery.

Battery Shield
Solar Panel
Range Sensor

It works fine when the photon is connected to USB. I have an event that fires every second and writes the distance measured by the range sensor to the cloud. When I run it off usb using the lipo and solar panel the sensor goes dead. It returns zeros. I know it has to do with the 5v sensor and the photon’s power output. Is there a way to get this to work using a booster, LIPO with more Voltage or a 3.3V Range Sensor???

2

You’re definitely running into a voltage issue since it’s a 5v sensor. You could use something like this to boost your voltage, just keep in mind that as you increase voltage, you lose amperage, so make sure you’re providing enough input power.

Or you could try this sensor:

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