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by taste_the_code
A common problem when making battery-powered electronic projects is how to have a stable 5V output from a battery
that is constantly reduced in voltage.
Additionally, when using lithium batteries, you must make sure that the battery is never discharged beyond a set voltage
in order to prevent permanent damage to the battery chemistry.
To solve this, there are a variety of modules like the TP4056 and others that solve part of the puzzle but it's always up to
the project maker to decide how to mount the battery and where to place the control electronics.
When working on the RGB play button, I used a power bank module to protect the battery and also to have a way how
to charge it and while at it, I came to the idea that I can actually make a custom PCB that can then be used to solve this
problem.
I had the PCB manufactured by my friends at PCBWay and in this Instructable, I'll tell you all about it as well as how to
assemble it for yourself.
Supplies:
https://youtu.be/Ze9JscCxLx8
To control the charging of the 18650 cell as well as to provide a steady 5V output for the project, I'm using a so-called
power bank module. These modules are used in small power banks and are readily available online.
The board has two USB ports, one for charging (micro USB) and a standard female USB port for the output.
Electronics Projects Power Bank: Page 3
The board has two downsides. The rst one is that there are no direct pads for the output 5V so in order to use that
power and transfer it to the PCB as output, we need to solder wires directly to the USB pad. Since the USB is easily
accessible, this is not a big problem if you have at least some experience with soldering.
The second issue with the board is that it is designed in such a way that it will turn o if the current draw is less than
60mA. For situations where we have a higher load, this is not a problem but if our project requires less than that, we can
add a dummy load resistor to the output so that the module stays on.
The J1 position on the PCB disconnects the battery from the circuit. I've added this in the PCB so it can be used to add a
switch in the circuit if we ever want to completely turn o the device that we are working on.
To start making the power bank module, we rst need to solder the battery holder.
Electronics Projects Power Bank: Page 6
Since the battery holder can be soldered in any direction, the PCB has markings of B1 and B2 respectively for the battery
terminals.
Depending on how you orient the holder and its markings, you will need to make sure that you then orient the power
bank module in the same way, so for example, if you connect the positive side of the battery holder to B1, the module B+
terminal will also need to be soldered to B1.
Out of all assembly, this is probably the most tricky part as it requires a steady hand and a soldering iron with a small tip.
I rst carefully added some fresh solder to the outside pads on the USB port which are the 5V output on the right and
GND on the left.
Then I used a bare copper wire and I carefully soldered it in place on both pads. I made sure to leave some extra as that
can be clipped later on once we solder the module to the main PCB.
Now with the module prepared we need to apply solder to both the pads on the main PCB as well as to the battery
terminals on the power bank module.
Once we have solder on both, we can tread in the output wires that we've soldered previously and align the polarity as
explained previously.
With the two solder blobs next to each other, we can place the soldering iron on top of both and that will connect the
two PCBs together. We can then repat the procedure on the other terminal and once that is done, we can solder the
output wires from the bottom.
To test out the output, we can now plug in any USB-powered device and if we did everything right, it should now work.
To make sure that the voltage is right, I used a USB tester and it properly showed the 5.1V on the output.
To charge the board, we can simply plug a charger cable into the micro USB port and the red LED will start blinking
indicating that the battery is being charged. When full the LED will stop blinking and depending on the module, you
might even have a second LED that will power on.
Since the switch port is between the battery and the module, we must have it in the ON position when charging the
battery so please keep that in mind.
As mentioned before, these modules will turn o if the current is less than 60mA. Since the current draw will still be
present, it will then turn on again, but that will reset any microcontroller that we have attached so that might be an issue
depending on the application.
To prevent this from happening, the added R1? position can be used to add an additional resistor to the circuit so more
current can be pulled through the module and it will stay on. You can use Ohm's law for this where a 470 Ohm resistor
will add an additional 10mA of current to the load of the project.
Depending on the application, you might not need this as in the case where I placed two RGB ashing LEDs on the
output and that was enough to keep the module constantly on.
I hope that you liked this project and that you found it interesting. I have many others that you can check out and you
can also consider subscribing to my YouTube channel .
Thanks for reading!