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Low battery warning, no other components

Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:27 pm
by jakejm79
I've done some search but most of what I found relates to battery monitors (i.e. showing various levels).
What I am hoping to find is some way to take advantage of the LBO pinout on the 1000C and connect it to a GPIO pin, have a script monitor, when LBO drops to low have something display on the screen.

A little more background, on my next build I already have the on/charge/charged lights taken care of (well the light source from them) but:
1. The low battery LED on the 1000C is located in a harder to reach spot (i.e. on the opposite side of the PCB compared to the other LEDs)
and
2. While in my opinion the user doesn't need to be notified while playing about the charge/charging status, low battery warning is important, my other lights show along the top of the cartridge so aren't clearly visible while playing - by design not distracting. But I would like a warning front and center for lower battery.

Since the power components are in the back half of the case and you view the front half, I'd really like to avoid more circuits tying the two halves together, I was hoping for more of a software solution or at least something that consisted of just one wire.

I've done a little bit of searching, but seems the problem of LBO just dropping to low logic <0.8V rather than becoming a true ground signal causes some issues from just straight wiring to a GPIO pin.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Re: Low battery warning, no other components

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:22 am
by tinkerBOY
If you are using a Pro Micro for the controllers you can use one of its analog pins or maybe use something like npn or pnp transistor.

Re: Low battery warning, no other components

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 7:14 am
by rodocop
jakejm79 wrote:
Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:27 pm
SpoilerShow
I've done some search but most of what I found relates to battery monitors (i.e. showing various levels).
What I am hoping to find is some way to take advantage of the LBO pinout on the 1000C and connect it to a GPIO pin, have a script monitor, when LBO drops to low have something display on the screen.

A little more background, on my next build I already have the on/charge/charged lights taken care of (well the light source from them) but:
1. The low battery LED on the 1000C is located in a harder to reach spot (i.e. on the opposite side of the PCB compared to the other LEDs)
and
2. While in my opinion the user doesn't need to be notified while playing about the charge/charging status, low battery warning is important, my other lights show along the top of the cartridge so aren't clearly visible while playing - by design not distracting. But I would like a warning front and center for lower battery.

Since the power components are in the back half of the case and you view the front half, I'd really like to avoid more circuits tying the two halves together, I was hoping for more of a software solution or at least something that consisted of just one wire.

I've done a little bit of searching, but seems the problem of LBO just dropping to low logic <0.8V rather than becoming a true ground signal causes some issues from just straight wiring to a GPIO pin.

Anybody have any suggestions?

i've seen a powerboost used to have an on screen display before, check this thread. It's using a 500C, but 1000C will be the same as well. It seems to be what you are after.

https://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3665

Re: Low battery warning, no other components

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 12:24 pm
by jakejm79
Thanks Rodocop, that is exactly what I am after.

I have wired it up on my most recent build and once I get some mSD card issues taken care of I will see if I can get the software side of things done.