MyOldPCS

Dimensions: 6.5 x 2.5 cm Weight: 10.8 g Continuous Current: 2.4A Dual Output Current: 5V 2.4A Input Voltage (B+ to B-): 3.0 - 4.2V Overcharge Protection Detection Voltage: 4.20 ± 0.05V Release Voltage: 4.100 ± 0.05V Detection Delay: <200 ms Over-discharge Protection Detection Voltage: 3.0 ± 0.10V Release Voltage: 3.10 ± 0.10V Detection Delay: <100 ms The module is marked H961-U v6.1 Quiescent Current The quiescent current from USB (when battery are fully charged) is 18.5 mA. The quiescent current drawn from the battery depends on the module’s state: 26 mA — for a few seconds after activating the module via the button, 15 mA — when the charge status display is on, 3623 µA — display off, but 5V is present at the output, 92 µA — the module has entered sleep mode. Charging Logic This module supports only standard 5V. There is no support for Quick Charge or Power Delivery. Testing with Deeply Discharged Battery The module f...

Testing Conditions and Parameters — In most cases, I tested with an input voltage of 20V and an output set to 5V. The testing was terminated when any component on the module reached a temperature of 212°F(100°C). Dropout Voltage — This is the minimum possible difference between the input and output voltage. For example, if we have a 12V input and a dropout voltage of 0.7V, we cannot obtain more than 11.3V at the output. Quite often, the voltage drop is directly dependent on the current. Quiescent Current - This is the amount of current consumed by the module with no load connected. Switching Frequency - This is the frequency at which the power transistor controls the flow of current to the inductor. Higher frequencies result in lower output ripple, which allows for the use of more compact inductors and capacitors. However, there is a drawback: increasing the frequency increases the heat generation of the power transistors and the level of high-frequency noise. Non-s...

GPIO (General-Purpose Input/Output, or General-Purpose Pins) is a fundamental concept that came into the world of powerful SoCs (System-on-a-Chip) directly from the realm of microcontrollers. It is the main bridge for your single-board computer to interact with simple external devices, in addition to more complex hardware interfaces (such as I2C, SPI, UART, or I2S). While specialized protocols transmit data streams, GPIO allows you to work at the lowest level -controlling individual digital signals. With each pin you can: Read the state (input): For example, check if a button is pressed, or if the signal is “1” or “0”. Control the state (output): For example, turn on an LED, activate a relay, or send a signal to another component. In this article, I want to provide a quick overview of the methods for working with GPIO on the Orange Pi Zero 3 (which is based on the Allwinner H618 SoC ). Of course, these methods are not unique and can be applied to other single-board computers a...

Let’s start from afar and go back 30 years to the time of the first Pentium processors. Back then, every device on a PC had its own separate interface: DIN — for the keyboard. A narrow COM port — for the mouse. A wide COM port — for the modem. Branded computers also had PS/2 ports — separate for the keyboard and mouse. A parallel port (LPT) — for a printer, scanner, or external CD-ROM. External SCSI — for storage drives, CD-ROMs, or scanners. MIDI/Game port — for musical equipment and gamepads. And these were just the standard interfaces. In addition to them, many manufacturers created their own proprietary interfaces for their equipment. This was inconvenient for users and also created problems for manufacturers. To solve this problem, the USB consortium of hardware and software manufacturers was created. Its goal was to implement a single universal bus for connecting wide range of external devices. Of course, no one expected the transition to be quick. Users still had a ...

In one of my projects, I decided to use a board that was new to me - the ESP32-C3. Previously, I had used the standard dual-core ESP32s, but I needed something compact, and the C3 Supermini was a perfect fit. I took a new module and immediately soldered it onto a breadboard. Then I started porting my code—some issues came up, but fixing them didn’t take much time. And only after all this, I noticed a significant issue: the Wi-Fi access point (AP) wouldn’t start. The code executed without any errors, but no device could see the network from the ESP Supermini.   “Okay,” I thought, “maybe the module is damaged.” I took a new one out of the package - and it worked as expected.   Well, I figured I must have killed the first module with static electricity or overheated it while soldering. I desoldered it from the breadboard and, just in case, powered it on one more time. And surprisingly, it also worked! Just like the new one.   I investigated various factors that could...