Bluefruit doesn't seem to turn on with less than 5v

[drewbaumann]

Hello,

First off my apologies for coming off like a total noob, because I am, but I seem to be having trouble powering a Bluefruit EZ-Key http://www.adafruit.com/products/1535.

I was attempting to power it with a https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10161 ... fgodnT0Axw without any luck. I took a multimeter to the single cell charger and saw that it was roughly 4.2-4.4v. I thought that was odd since the Bluefruit requires 3-16v. However I did get a response from it by connecting my trinket's 5v to the vin and grounding it.

Unfortunately that sparkfun product got fried while trying to solve the mystery so I have ordered a http://www.adafruit.com/products/259. Hopefully this will have more desirable results.

I'm not sure if this is standard, if I made a rookie mistake, or I have a defective board. I would just like to build something cool at the end of the day (and by end of the day I mean when all my parts come in).

Thanks!

[adafruit_support_bill]

I was attempting to power it with a ...

Just to be sure: Are you trying to power it with just the charger, or is there a LiPo cell connected as well?

[drewbaumann]

Just the portion that connects to the board.

[adafruit_support_bill]

So you had a fully charged LiPo connected to the charger and the EZ-Key was connected to the load outputs of the charger?

I'm not familiar with the SparkFun charger you linked, but using our USB Lion/LiPoly charger in that configuration should easily power the EZ-Key.

[drewbaumann]

A battery was not connected. Other than that you are correct.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Without a battery connected, many chargers will not work. Not positive about the Sparkfun charger, but our USB LiPo charger needs a battery connected to work properly. It is designed primarily to charge batteries and the output voltage and current regulation are based on the detected battery level.

[drewbaumann]

Great. I will try that once all the parts arrive in a week or so.