Gemma - battery question

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kalessaradan
 
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Gemma - battery question

Post by kalessaradan »

I recently purchased this battery - http://www.adafruit.com/products/1317#tutorials
and this recharger - http://www.adafruit.com/products/1304#tutorials

I was wondering if the charger I bought would work on this battery as well, http://www.adafruit.com/product/328.

Anyone know, I am new to all of this. Thanks.

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: Gemma - battery question

Post by michaelmeissner »

It should, though it may take a lot of time to charge up, since the default for that charger is to charge at the lowest level (100mA). There is a solder jumper underneath the charger to charge at a faster rate (500mA) that should be 5 times faster, but then you won't be able to charge lower power batteries.

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kalessaradan
 
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Re: Gemma - battery question

Post by kalessaradan »

That should be fine. The Gemma is being used on a costume, so I could plug it in on a Friday night, and then use the battery on Saturday night. Hopefully it would fully charge in 24 hours. But even if it doesn't, I guess the main thing was to know if it would charge at all. It is would, I can always figure out the required charging time (no matter how slow) and plan accordingly.

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: Gemma - battery question

Post by michaelmeissner »

FWIW, the goggles (2 rings of 16 LEDs) on my icon photo were powered with a Gemma and the 1200 mA battery. By keeping the power level down to about 30, the goggles were powered for at least 24 hours (when I came back from work at 36 hours after I started the test, the battery was depleted).

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kalessaradan
 
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Re: Gemma - battery question

Post by kalessaradan »

Well, I also came up with another solution tonight. I have the Gemma with the 150 mAh battery powering a couple of LEDs at the top of the staff, fading bright to dim between white and blue. At the bottom of the staff is a 9 LED cheap flashlight from Harbor Freight. So the staff glows mostly white at all times and it extremely bright, and then the top portion oscillates between blue and white. Pretty cheap solution to the problem, since those flashlights are typically free with a coupon. :)

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: Gemma - battery question

Post by michaelmeissner »

If desired and you have unused pins on the Gemma, you could probably turn on/off the flashlight in the Gemma using a transistor, relay, or opto-coupler to complete the circuit (you would replace the switch on the flashlight with wires that go to your Gemmat).

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