Adafruit
Adafruit LiIon or LiPoly Charger BFF Add-On for QT Py
The Adafruit LiIon/LiPoly Charger BFF is a compact battery charging add-on designed to mount directly onto the back of any QT Py board. It makes portable pow...
The Adafruit LiIon/LiPoly Charger BFF is a compact battery charging add-on designed to mount directly onto the back of any QT Py board. It makes portable power simple — plug in a standard 3.7 V/4.2 V lithium battery, and the charger handles the rest via the QT Py's USB-C connection.
When USB is connected, the charger tops up your battery at up to 200 mA (yellow LED indicates charging). When USB is removed, battery power feeds through a Schottky diode to the 5 V rail. A built-in slide switch lets you turn power on and off, and a voltage divider on pin A2 lets your firmware detect whether the board is running from USB or battery.
Key Features
- 200 mA Charge Rate – Charges single-cell 3.7 V/4.2 V LiPo/LiIon batteries via USB-C
- Automatic Power Switching – Schottky diode routes battery power to 5 V rail when USB is disconnected
- On/Off Switch – Built-in slide switch for power control
- Battery Monitoring – Voltage divider on A2 pin for detecting USB vs battery power mode
- Charging Indicator – Yellow LED lights during active charging
- BFF Form Factor – Solders directly onto the back of any QT Py for a compact stack
Ideal For
- Making any QT Py project portable with battery power
- Wearable electronics requiring rechargeable batteries
- IoT sensor nodes with battery backup
- Compact prototypes needing USB charging capability
Package Contents
- 1× Adafruit LiIon/LiPoly Charger BFF (assembled and tested)
- Headers for soldering to QT Py
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- Headers
- Rows of metal pins used to plug a module into a breadboard or connect it with jumper wires. Pre-soldered headers make the module easier to use straight away without needing to solder the pins yourself.
- IoT
- Short for Internet of Things, meaning physical devices that connect to networks or the internet to send data or be controlled remotely. It matters if you want projects such as connected sensors, remote controls or classroom data-logging activities.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode is a small electronic component that lights up when current flows through it in the correct direction. In this kit, LEDs create the flashing effect, so polarity and correct soldering matter for the project to work.
- LiPo
- A lithium polymer rechargeable battery commonly used in portable electronics projects. It matters because LiPo batteries need correct charging circuitry and care, and this board includes hardware intended for that battery type.
- TOPS
- TOPS means trillions of operations per second, often used to describe AI accelerator performance. It helps compare whether a computing module is suited to lightweight image recognition or more demanding neural-network workloads.
- USB-C
- A modern reversible USB connector used for power and data connections. On this product it matters because it can connect directly to a computer as well as to a microcontroller project.
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Power & Batteries
Related Tutorials
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