Power shield does not power electron from battery only

Hardware
1

Hello,

I have an electron that I am planning on powering with solar/battery. I am trying to do this using the power shield. Unfortunately, I am having issues getting the electron or the shield itself to power up when everything but the battery is removed.

The shield powers up with the electron when dc power from usb is applied. If I then plug in the battery, the charge status light turns blue (and if I leave it long enough solid red). This tells me the battery is being recognized at least. But if I plug in the battery alone, no lights turn on.

I am aware of the issues with inrush current on the power shield. I have not added the recommended capacitor yet, though if I have usb and battery connected, and then unplug usb, everything turns off immediately. This indicates to me that there is a different problem at play.

I have tried three batteries and two power shields (all brand new).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

The Electron has its own charging circuit on board, no Power Shield required.

1 Like
3

Hello, thanks for the reply. I thought the only charge input on the electron was the usb port. I need to charge from a solar panel, so that won’t work. Am I mistaken?

4

Here is the doc:

VIN This pin can be used as an input or output. As an input, supply 5VDC to 12VDC to power the Electron. When the Electron is powered via the USB port, this pin will output a voltage of approximately 4.8VDC due to a reverse polarity protection series Schottky diode between VUSB and VIN. When used as an output, the max load on VIN is 1Amp.

https://docs.particle.io/datasheets/electron-datasheet/#pin-description

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5

Ah, that makes sense, I can’t believe I missed that. Thanks bko!

This makes my issue here moot, though not resolved. I will provide information as requested if anyone wants to take a stab at the original issue.

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