Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

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Froggy92030
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

Sorry I'm a bit confused. The pot has 5 wires
The red/black/yellow set are currently wired to 3v, gnd, and A0. The 2 remaining wires would originally be going to the powerboost but are now being wired to the feather. One to EN and the second is where I seem to be getting confused. Does is go to the 3v along with the red wire that is already there? Thank you so much for your patience :)

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dastels
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by dastels »

Yes. It's the switch and was used to enable the Powerboost. Now it's going to be used to enable the .. oh wait. That won't work now that I think about it more. The 3v is the output from the voltage regulator that the EN pin controls.

Dave

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dastels
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by dastels »

OK. I dug a bit deeper. Connect the pot switch between The USB pin (assuming you are powering through the USB connector) and the EN pin. As I said you'll need a pulldown resistor on EN to overpower the pullup that's on the board. The pullup is 10k so you'll need something smaller to pull it down. EN should be less than 0.4v to disable the regulator. A pulldown of 800 ohms should do it, maybe a bit less. That will mean a current draw of about 0.4mA when it's off, and ~6mA when it's on.

A better solution would be to find a pot with an SPDT switch which would normally (when the pot is "off") connect EN to ground and use the existing pullup to enable it when the pot is "on".

An easier alternative is to use a separate toggle switch such as https://www.adafruit.com/product/3221 instead of the pot switch. That can be wired between EN and ground.

Dave

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Froggy92030
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

dastels wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:21 pm OK. I dug a bit deeper. Connect the pot switch between The USB pin (assuming you are powering through the USB connector) and the EN pin. As I said you'll need a pulldown resistor on EN to overpower the pullup that's on the board. The pullup is 10k so you'll need something smaller to pull it down. EN should be less than 0.4v to disable the regulator. A pulldown of 800 ohms should do it, maybe a bit less. That will mean a current draw of about 0.4mA when it's off, and ~6mA when it's on.

A better solution would be to find a pot with an SPDT switch which would normally (when the pot is "off") connect EN to ground and use the existing pullup to enable it when the pot is "on".

An easier alternative is to use a separate toggle switch such as https://www.adafruit.com/product/3221 instead of the pot switch. That can be wired between EN and ground.

Dave

I have some 10k resistors already since they are used in the original design on the project with the powerboost board. So if I'm reading the correctly add a resistor between USB and EN along with the corresponding wires. Would it be the red wire to EN and black to USB?
I would like to try to use the supplies i already I have on hand if at all possible. If not I'll order the toggle switch.

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Froggy92030
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

Froggy92030 wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 1:11 am
dastels wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:21 pm OK. I dug a bit deeper. Connect the pot switch between The USB pin (assuming you are powering through the USB connector) and the EN pin. As I said you'll need a pulldown resistor on EN to overpower the pullup that's on the board. The pullup is 10k so you'll need something smaller to pull it down. EN should be less than 0.4v to disable the regulator. A pulldown of 800 ohms should do it, maybe a bit less. That will mean a current draw of about 0.4mA when it's off, and ~6mA when it's on.

A better solution would be to find a pot with an SPDT switch which would normally (when the pot is "off") connect EN to ground and use the existing pullup to enable it when the pot is "on".

An easier alternative is to use a separate toggle switch such as https://www.adafruit.com/product/3221 instead of the pot switch. That can be wired between EN and ground.

Dave

I have some 10k resistors already since they are used in the original design on the project with the powerboost board. So if I'm reading the correctly add a resistor between USB and EN along with the corresponding wires. Would it be the red wire to EN and black to USB?
I would like to try to use the supplies i already I have on hand if at all possible. If not I'll order the toggle switch.

Forgot to add...this is the resistor I have
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2784

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dastels
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by dastels »

Froggy92030 wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 1:11 am I have some 10k resistors already since they are used in the original design on the project with the powerboost board. So if I'm reading the correctly add a resistor between USB and EN along with the corresponding wires. Would it be the red wire to EN and black to USB?
I would like to try to use the supplies i already I have on hand if at all possible. If not I'll order the toggle switch.
You won't need the 10K resistors for the EN pin on the Feather. As I said there is a 10K pullup (i.e. between EN and the input to the regulator which will be USB in your plans) Using the SPST pot switch you'd need to have it connect EN to USB. That means that you need to pull EN down (to less than 0,4v) when the pot switch is off. That's what the 800 ohm resistor is for.

Also, IMO using a separate toggle switch for the EN (connecting it to ground when you want the wings powered off) is the better approach.

Dave

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Froggy92030
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

I think a lot of adjustment to the code will have to be made using a toggle switch. The wings move really fast when the pot is turned all the way on and almost glitcy slow when it's just barely on. A toggle switch won't allow me to adjust my speed on command. I was hoping this conversion to a powerbank was going to be an easy solve. Thanks for your help. I'll look into different supplies as I literally have everything for several sets of wings minus the powerboost

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dastels
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by dastels »

The toggle switch replaces the pot switch, not the pot. It has nothing to do with the code and just controls power to the Feather.

Dave

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Froggy92030
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

The pot that is in this project is the on off switch. Would that still work or would a different pot need to be purchased as well?

This is the pot that is used
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3481

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dastels
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by dastels »

The switch on the pot is completely separate from the variable resistor part. Well, other than being triggered by the rotation of the same shaft. Electrically it's a completely separate part, though.

Dave

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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

Ok. I think of inderstand lol. Again, thanks for being patient with me lol.

So how would a toggle switch be wired in? Would the pot get wired to the toggle switch and then the toggle switch wired to the feather? And I'm assuming the toggle would remain in the on position (since its on/on lol)and the pot used to turn it on and off

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dastels
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by dastels »

The 3 wires from the pot would be as they are (3v, A0, and Ground). and the toggle would be wired to EN and ground.

The toggle would be used to turn it on/off. Turning the pot would (as in the project) control the flapping.

All that's happening is that the switch on the back of the pot is being replaced with a separate switch. The way the pot switch works doesn't really work well with the EN on the Feather.

Dave

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Froggy92030
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

Ok got it! Hopefully the last of my questions lol. Do I not wire the bottom 2 pins on the potentiometer? And is the toggle getting wired to the same ground pin as the pot since there is only 1 ground pin on the feather?

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dastels
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by dastels »

Yes, you can ignore the 2 switch pins on the pot. Yes, there is only one ground in the circuit. All ground connections should be wired together. A common ground is how different parts of the circuit have a common understanding of what the voltages and signals are. All voltages are relative to ground.

Dave

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Froggy92030
 
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Re: Question about the Powerboost part used with the fairy wings project

Post by Froggy92030 »

Perfect! I'll give it a try thanks again!

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