Easiest way to power a portable teensy project

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BoMadsen

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Hi,

I am currently powering my little teensy project using a:
http://skpang.co.uk/catalog/breadboard-power-supply-stick-5v33v-p-521.html

But, hopefully soon, my little project will be hitting the road and I need some way of powering it. I could just include the breadboard power supply stick, but that seems a tad bit overkill. So any suggestions as to what is the easiest/cheapest way of powering a little portable teensy project?

ps. I am quite new to electronics, so I am sure that there is some basic solution that I don't know of. So feel free to suggest the obvious, I wont be offended in any way :D
 
I run my portable projects (a light painting staff and a set of Pixel Poi (POV batons)) from 4XAAA batteries and 4XAA batteries. I don't need these to run for more than an hour, so this works well. Both sets of batteries are rechargeable, with the AA rated at 2000mAh each and the AAA rated at 1000mAh each. For the big 147 led light painting staff, I had to upgrade to 4XAAA rated at 2700mAh each (songpus brand) as the draw from the leds was too much for the small batteries to handle, and the behaviour became erratic.

It really depends on what you need to run, and for how long, as if it is a very low draw, you could have plenty of different powering options. (solar recharger with limiter board?)
 
But 4 four batteries is around 6 volts? That would require some kind of downscaling circuit before attaching to the teensy?
 
Currently, I power my Teensy 3.0 with USB battery chargers, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/EZOPower-Univ...=1389188267&sr=8-2&keywords=ezopower+5000+mah. I don't think I've done a timing test on the Teensy, but an Arduino Uno ran for 4 days running the standard blink pattern. The USB chargers are great, because you don't need any additional wiring, just a standard USB cable. I don't recall how much a Teensy draws off hand, so you might have a different run time comparing Uno/Teensy. For most of the stuff I think about or do, it is adequate if the battery lasts most of a day, and I can recharge it overnight. I try to have backup batteries, just in case.

Unfortunately, with some chargers there is the problem that the Teensy might not draw enough power to prevent the charger from going to sleep. There was a discussion on this in the last couple of months.

I'm probably going to switch to the single cell lipo batteries as they are much smaller, such as this 1200maH battery from Adafruit: http://www.adafruit.com/products/258 (you will need a lipo charger for these, Adafruit sells a few different versions). I ran an Adafruit Gemma powering two neopixel rings for more than 24 hours with this battery. With the lipo's you attach it to the VIN pin, but you have to make sure you don't have USB power connected at the same time (either by only using one or the other, or by cutting the trace between VIN and VUSB).
 
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Or insert one of the many uber-useful boards from pololu (http://www.pololu.com)

e.g. http://www.pololu.com/product/2122
Pololu 3.3V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S7V8F3:
"The S7V8F3 switching step-up/step-down regulator efficiently produces a fixed 3.3 V output from input voltages between 2.7 V and 11.8 V. Its ability to convert both higher and lower input voltages makes it useful for applications where the power supply voltage can vary greatly, as with batteries that start above but discharge below the regulated voltage."

Or one of the many step-ups would work, too, if you powered from 2 AA:
http://www.pololu.com/product/2563
Pololu 3.3V Step-Up Voltage Regulator U1V10F3

Just pay attention to your current draw (i.e. don't try to drive more than what the boards are spec'd for).

David
 
yep, lots of options to give you joy. You can take the power for whatever your Teensy is controlling from the power source without running through the Teensy, and run the Teensy from a controlled feed from the power source also. Really, depends on what loading.
 
BoMadsen said:
I like the idea of using a lipo battery, but since I would like the project contained within a box, without having to extract the battery for recharging, wouldn't I need something like this for charging/providing power?:
http://skpang.co.uk/catalog/power-cell-lipo-chargerbooster-p-836.html
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You can get boards that allow for charging lipo batteries in place using either USB or 5-12v DC power, such as: http://www.adafruit.com/products/280

If you were going to a place with plenty of sunshine, you could even go with a solar charger, such as: http://www.adafruit.com/products/417. Adafruit recommends a different charger for use with solar panels (this charger could also be used for non-solar charging, but the max voltage is 6v, rather than 12v): http://www.adafruit.com/products/390.

Or depending on how easy it is to open the box, just carry at least 2 batteries, use one while recharging the second.

I just tend to post Adafruit and Sparkfun products, because I order from them in the US. In the UK, it looks like 4tronix sells some Adafruit products: http://www.4tronix.co.uk/store/, but it looks like they don't sell batteries or chargers. There are many other makers of lipo batteries and chargers.
 
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MichaelMeissner said:
If you were going to a place with plenty of sunshine...
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That would be nice, but unfortunately it will be used in Denmark where I live. And while you can say a lot of nice things about Denmark, you can't exactly call it sunny :)

MichaelMeissner said:
II just tend to post Adafruit and Sparkfun products, because I order from them in the US. In the UK, it looks like 4tronix sells some Adafruit products: http://www.4tronix.co.uk/store/, but it looks like they don't sell batteries or chargers. There are many other makers of lipo batteries and chargers.
Click to expand...
No problem, we have several suppliers of both brands here in Europe, so (disregarding the sometimes high premium they charge) we are ok.

Thank you guys for the help!
 
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