Looking to use a Bluno Beetle on an Arduino based watch and wondering how to keep it powered. Would I have to use an Adafruit PowerBoost and wire it to the VIN on the Beetle? Any help greatly appreciated
I looked up the voltage regulator (HT7850) on VIN of the Bluno Beetle, and it appears to need 6v to 8v to generate the 5v needed to supply the device.
If you’re stepping up your LIPO to 5v, you can just feed it straight into the 5V pin of the Beetle and bypass the regulator altogether.
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Thanks for your quick reply! Your advice was really helpful. I cant thank you enough as I am a bit of a noob when it comes to these things!
Late reply, but I’m just chiming in to say I’ve successfully used the beetle on a 3V CR2032 (3.1v actual)
3V connected to the 5V pin, and bluetooth works fine, so a lipo at 3.7v has plenty of voltage.
Oh, and I also wrote an app to control it on google play:
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App looks good, i’ll have to have a go soon.
I never thought to look up the datasheet for the chips, good find that it’ll run down to 3 ( or 3.1 ) volts. Good to know!
although it’s been a while I conducted thorough tests I really wouldn’t recommend powering up a Bleetle from a CR2032. It will work, for a short while, but IIRC, as soon as the voltage drops below 2.8V or so you can’t expect reliable operation.
… 3.7V lipo should be alright but using a power bank where possible is best. It’s not necessarily practical for a watch, but that is the reality of the Bleetle, it’s great for most portable applications that require BLE but a watch form-factor might be a bit of a push. YMMV!
Thanks, I am not too worried about form factor and I have gotten it to a size i’m happy with as it’s more of a project for fun. but good to know about the CR2032 as I was thinking of using one in a project I had an idea with.