Open UpCell is a USB Type-C PD single cell lithium-ion battery management system with either 5 v or 3.3 v outputs, up to 14 v input, and an i2c interface for battery and charge status monitoring. You can check battery fuel gauge, charge status, charge voltage selection, charge current selection, and more via the provided Arduino IDE and PlatformIO SDKs. Output and i2c voltage is selectable between 3.3 v and 5 v, and the board comes with Seeed Groove (JST-PH) and Stemma QT (JST-XH) 4 pin connectors to enable plug and play operation with pre-existing projects. Open UpCell is also capable of being a simple, rudimentary inverter for a project, with an up to 15 W output (5 v, 3 A) - enough to power a Raspberry Pi Board or small router.
Open UpCell enables rapid prototyping of battery dependent projects while keeping things simple from setup to charging. It can be used to power existing Seeed Grove module chains and Adafruit Stemma QT module chains. It can also keep your projects powered and usable off grid, perfect for some IoT and Edge projects, like an IoT soil sensor cluster or a simple PIR motion detector. And, at just a few mm larger than a standard 18650 battery, this useful system is small enough to be concealed in a DIY wearable project.
Features & Specifications
- Safety: Short circuit protection, temperature loop control, input over voltage protection, input over current protection, over charge protection, fused input
- 3.3 v and 5 v output options
- STEMMA QT and Seeed Groove connectors for plug and play
- Battery gauge over i2c
- Charge control, status and monitoring over i2c (1.8 v, 3.3 v and 5 v compliant i2c)
- Arduino IDE SDK for i2c communication
- 5 v, 9 v, 12 v USB PD and Fast Charge capable (Up to 14 v or 3 A)
- Compatible with any capacity of Li-Po or 18650 cell, 21600 cell or equivalent lithium chemistry cell (must be single cell)
Open Source
Schematics, ECAD, Gerber files and BOM can be found in our Github repo.
