There are two ways to provide power to the QuickLogic Thing Plus: USB connector (J5) or Battery connector (J4).
When both ports are connected at the same time, the USB power activates the battery charging circuit that provide
charging current to the battery.
When using a rechargeable battery, the minimum input voltage will determine the maximum currents that the
system needs to support. This is important when connecting additional peripherals to the QuickLogic Thing Plus
that also requires connection to +3.3V for supplies.
The MCP73831 LiPo charger is set to ~212.76mA for the default charge rate. Before you plug a battery into the
charger, you should be aware of your
battery's capacity
and the
charge current
supplied by the charger. To be
safe, you should keep the charge current
at or below 1C
of your battery. That means you should connect a LiPo
battery that has a capacity of ~212.75mAh or higher to charge safely. For more information on the charge LED's
status, check out the LiPo USB Charger breakout board for the MCP73831.
RGB LED
Speaking of LEDs, the board includes a build in RGB LED. As listed earlier in the tutorial, the leds can be
controlled using pin 22 (red),p in 21 (green), and pin 18 (blue). Note that the pins are not routed to the edge of the
board.
