WS2812B low voltage behavior??
Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 12:19 pm
Hello,
I have recently purchased a solar charger, a 6000mAh battery, and a Powerboost 1000 basic 5V converter from adafruit to run a battery powered data acquisition system. I added a voltage comparator between the charger and converter to prevent my battery from overdischarge by triggering the enable pin of the regulator at a voltage of 3.2V. The output of the regulator is to a USB output, 15 WS2812B LEDs, and an arduino nano.
I however, noticed an issue such that if I've drained the battery overnight and I leave the device to charge on its own in the low solar energy available in the morning, my device would fluctuate between my 3.2 V threshold and 3.3 V which would present low voltage values to both my microcontroller and LEDs. These low voltages would cause my LEDs to do some random things like turn 7 leds on with a green color which is not something I specified the leds to do in my code.
That being said, once enough charge has been supplied to the drained battery, the device would start functioning normally again.
Is there a way I would be able to overcome the rough startup of my device?? Would maybe adding a mosfet to keep the 5 V line to the LEDs open until my arduino sends a signal to close the open circuit be the way to go?? What is happening to the LEDs to cause them to malfunction like this??
On a side note, removing the connection between my voltage comparator output and the 5 V converter enable pin would also allow my device to run properly. This comes at the expense of my overdischarge protection however...
Thank you,
Ibrahim
I have recently purchased a solar charger, a 6000mAh battery, and a Powerboost 1000 basic 5V converter from adafruit to run a battery powered data acquisition system. I added a voltage comparator between the charger and converter to prevent my battery from overdischarge by triggering the enable pin of the regulator at a voltage of 3.2V. The output of the regulator is to a USB output, 15 WS2812B LEDs, and an arduino nano.
I however, noticed an issue such that if I've drained the battery overnight and I leave the device to charge on its own in the low solar energy available in the morning, my device would fluctuate between my 3.2 V threshold and 3.3 V which would present low voltage values to both my microcontroller and LEDs. These low voltages would cause my LEDs to do some random things like turn 7 leds on with a green color which is not something I specified the leds to do in my code.
That being said, once enough charge has been supplied to the drained battery, the device would start functioning normally again.
Is there a way I would be able to overcome the rough startup of my device?? Would maybe adding a mosfet to keep the 5 V line to the LEDs open until my arduino sends a signal to close the open circuit be the way to go?? What is happening to the LEDs to cause them to malfunction like this??
On a side note, removing the connection between my voltage comparator output and the 5 V converter enable pin would also allow my device to run properly. This comes at the expense of my overdischarge protection however...
Thank you,
Ibrahim