fileneed/ posts/ rfbee battery pack

RFBee Battery Pack

The RFBee is a great little open source wireless microcontroller module. We now need a suitable partner board that will power it.

This board needs:

  • small size, same as RFBee
  • 3.3V converter with low uA idle current (perhaps TPS61070DDCR)
  • li-ion charger chip, usb charging compatible
  • solder pads for battery and charge
  • battery undervoltage protection
  • RFBee 20pin breakout 0.1" on inside (like the XBee adapter breakout board)
  • solder pads for 3.3V+ and GND

Optional, but nice to have:

  • included small li-ion battery
  • micro usb charging connector
  • sleep button
  • FTDI cable pin pads for programming

So, an RFBee and this battery back would be all we need to run a tiny wireless node, low-power and mobile. With our easy-to-program custom Arduino code, basing on the RFBee firmware. Want!

I have looked, and it doesn't exist... yet! So we need to design it? Should not be TOO hard... ;)

There are some things already out there, which are quite close: the fabrick.it coin cell module, also the seeeduino film has some of this worked out.

The devil is, as always, in the details - this thing should not waste any power, doubly so when the RFBee is sleeping or powered down itself. Here the power converter/regulator will contribute most, so it should be picked out and tested carefully.

An interesting feature would be an over-the-radio bootloader. Not sure how to best make that work, though... it should not support bricking the RFBee ;)

Anybody up to this challenge?