External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

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Tomas0413
 
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External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by Tomas0413 »

Hello,

I'd like to attach external LEDs on the POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER.
I'd like to have RED light indicating when battery is low and needs charging, AMBER when charge is in progress and GREEN when battery is charged.

Can someone help me how to do this and which LEDs could I use use? I'd the LED to be small, similar to MagSafe charge indicator.


Tomas

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The LBO signal is broken out to a hole on the side of the PCB, but the status signals aren't. You'd have to connect taps to the SMT LEDs on the board.

That's possible, but it's fine-detail work. How comfortable are you with SMT soldering?

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Cristov9000
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by Cristov9000 »

Hello,

Sorry to high jack someone else's thread but I am looking to do approximately the same thing; break out the lights on a 1000C so they are visible on the outside of a case. Without a transistor it doesn't look like you can do this with one LED.

For the LBO: Wire from the LBO break out pin to the + side of a LED, - side of LED to resister and from there to ground. This would light up the LED when the 1000C 5v output is on and then the LED would turn off when the 1000C is on and there is low battery power. Is that correct?

For the charging and full charge light: 5V from the USB pin on the 1000C to the + of the LED, - side of the LED to the resistor and from there to the SMT resistor on the 1000C board. That sound right?

The wiring diagram on the website is fuzzy and hard to read.

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Tomas0413
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by Tomas0413 »

Hi, Mike,

>> How comfortable are you with SMT soldering?

Never did SMT soldering in my life and don't have special equipment, just regular soldering.
I might need to fight electronics repair shop that could do SMT soldering for me.

Cristov9000,
don't worry about hijacking the thread, the more people trying to do the same, the better.

I'm still waiting for the POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER to be delivered so I can't see properly in the image what goes where.
I can see that there is:
1. USB
2. Bat
3. Vs
4. EN
5. GND
6. N/A
7. G
8. 5V

But I can't find description of each pin, I can only guess what some of them mean.

When it comes to LEDs, it would be great to use something like this:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1655

But I have no idea how to wire everything and what extra components would be needed.

When I receive POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER I'll experiment a bit with it, but it would be great if someone shares ideas on how everything could be wired.


Tomas

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The MCP73871's STAT pins are the ones marked by the green arrows:
2465-06.jpg
2465-06.jpg (94.84 KiB) Viewed 2320 times
The only points where you can connect to those signals will be at the six red circles.

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Tomas0413
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by Tomas0413 »

Thanks, Mike! This is very useful. Can you also suggest which LEDs could be used and also do the on-board LEDs need to be removed or I can just attach external LEDs on top of the existing ones?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

If you want to use the existing signals, you won't be able to use anything from the WS28xx family.. those want digital control signals. To connect one of those you'd have to hook the PowerBoost's signals to a microcontroller like the Trinket, then use that to generate the pixel control signals.

If you want something you can connect directly, you'll need standard RGB pixels. If you want something in a 5050 package, we have them (https://www.adafruit.com/products/619) but working with them can be a challenge. You'd probably want a PCB carrier (https://www.adafruit.com/products/1762). We have square-package RGB LEDs with pin connections that will probably be easier to work with: https://www.adafruit.com/products/315 Otherwise, we have standard RGB LEDs: https://www.adafruit.com/products/302

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Tomas0413
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by Tomas0413 »

Thanks, Mike! This is very useful! I think I have enough info for now.

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Tomas0413
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by Tomas0413 »

Hi, just wanted to let you know that I used https://www.adafruit.com/products/619 LEDs and everything worked well.


Thanks!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: External RGB LEDs for POWERBOOST 1000 CHARGER

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Glad to hear it's working for you.

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