Need advice on a powering option for the mbot blue stem kit

#1

From the 4AA battery holder that comes with the mbot you should get about 6 volts, but it doesn’t stay constant. As the voltage drops, turns and speeds don’t remain steady.
Batteries are just frustrating, so here is my idea. I bought a USB cord on Amazon thats USB on one end and a barrel plug on the other end that matches the barrel plug on the AA battery holder. I connected the USB side to a 1amp cellphone charger putting out 5 volts. It seems to work so far, I get constant steady power. I have to hold the cord in the air above it but it works, plus I don’t have to drag the weight of the batteries around.

Am I risking burning anything up on mBot or my iMac computer when uploading a program while its plugged into the phone charger (5V barrel plug, mimicking the battery pack) and the USB cable from the computer (5V) to the mBot at the same time??

Assuming I’m safe with the 5V, 1amp phone charger, what will happen in I use a 2amp phone charger. Will there be any benefit.

#2

The mBot mCore board is similar to the Arduino Uno, so 5V at 1amp should be fine as far as I know. So long as you don’t get a spike from the battery pack (which is, in essence, what the cell phone charger is) you should have any issues. I usually use 3.7V LiPo batteries that I get from Adafruit (link) that have a 2500mAh rating for my mBots. They hold up well and seem to provide a fairly constant discharge rate.

For what it’s worth, most cell phone chargers are just LiPo batteries with a hefty mAh rating.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

#3

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