Is it safe to connect USB and Battery at the same time while debugging arduino sketch via Serial Monitor.
I’m wondering if this can be done because U201 board is having a hard time finding cell tower and/or dropping the connection to server after several data transfers. (though this is not a problem in U260/U270 board).
Maybe the USB port can’t sustain the 500mAmp++ required current during data transmission?
Anyone tried to attach a battery to the board while it is connected to computer via usb?
Or can the battery overload the USB port and force the computer to shut down?
Also, I found that:
my U201 board is pegged at SIGNAL=99 (very poor signal) even when it is registered to the network / connected to cloud server.
while in U270 – SIGNAL = 13 to 17 (in the good level) when connected/registered to network.
Could it be that the signal strength is related to power given by computer’s USB port… and is related to frequent connection drop and to the long-wait for connection during bootup.
It is possible that if your USB port can’t provide enough power then you might have trouble. There’s no problem with hooking up the battery and the USB port at the same time. The USB power will be used to charge the battery
Hi Reuben,
It’s good to know that USB and battery V+ line is isolated by the board’s charging circuit. I’ll experiment on that and will let you know if doing so will improve the signal strength of U201 while connected to network.
Hi, Arnold,
Just two days now into playing with my Dash 1.2. I have discovered that it seems far more sensitive to input voltage than the previous version: it will lose its cloud connection easily without a strong 5V source. I just made a separate post asking about “best power practices.” So although this board claims to be lower power consumption than the previous version in the deep sleep state, it definitely (at least in my testing) seems more sensitive to power source variations when sending and receiving messages. My $0.02.
Michael
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
