Powering Argon from 5V on Lipo Pin

Hardware
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There are a few posts about powering Argon with a 5v power supply most of these posts say it’s fine to do.

I was planning to supply 5v (ok 4.98v) to the LiPo pin. Looking at the Absolute Maximums and doing a quick power-on test this does work. However, since the recommended power range is 4.4v what I’m wondering is what is the long-term harm in powering with 5v and if it’s worth adding a linear regulator (I’m designing my own PCB), and if so which one? I found a lot of ones that will drop the volts down to 3.3v but thats’ also below the 3.6v recommended.

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I actually think to play it safe I’ll just add a TPS79942DDCR which should take in my 5v just find and output a clean 4.2V. Doesn’t add much cost for a one-off project like this and it’s best to be within the recommended range when possible.

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Definitely do not power the Argon at 5V from the Li+ pin. You should use the recommended limit as the limit, not the absolute maximum.

Normally when powering the Argon at 5V you just connect it to VUSB, no regulator required. VUSB can be an input or an output pin.

There is a special case where if you are using sleep modes and powering via LI+ at 4.2V or lower can reduce the sleep current, but this only applies to the bq24195 devices like the Boron. It does not apply to the Argon so there’s really no advantage to using LI+ over VUSB on the Argon if you have 5V.

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