PowerBoost 500 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 500mA+

by Adafruit

PowerBoost 500C is the perfect power supply for your portable project!

With a built-in battery charger circuit, you'll be able to keep your project running even while recharging the battery!

  • This little DC/DC boost converter module can be powered by any 3.7V LiIon/LiPoly battery, and convert the battery output to 5.2V DC for running your 5V projects.
  • output tweaked to be 5.2V instead of a straight-up 5.0V so that there's a little bit of 'headroom' for long cables, high draw, the addition of a diode on the output if you wish, etc.
  • The 5.2V is safe for all 5V-powered electronics like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or Beagle Bone while preventing icky brown-outs during high current draw because of USB cable resistance. 

The PowerBoost 500C has at the heart a TPS61090 boost converter from TI. This boost converter chip has some really nice extras such as low battery detection, 2A internal switch, synchronous conversion, excellent efficiency, and 700KHz high-frequency operation. Check out these specs!

  • Synchronous operation means you can disconnect the output completely by connecting the ENable pin to ground. This will completely turn off the output
  • 2A internal switch (~2.5A peak limiting) means you can get 500mA+ from a 3.7V LiPoly/LiIon battery. We had no problem drawing 1000mA, just make sure your battery can handle it!
  • Low battery indicator LED lights up red when the voltage dips below 3.2V, optimized for LiPo/LiIon battery usage
  • Onboard 500mA charge-rate 'iOS' data resistors. Solder in the USB connector and you can plug in any iPhone or iPod for 500mA charge rate. Not suggested for large iPads.
  • Full breakout for battery in, control pins and power out
  • 90%+ operating efficiency in most cases (see datasheet for efficiency graphs), and low quiescent current: 5mA when enabled and power LED is on, 20uA when disabled (power and low batt LED are off)

To make this even more useful, Adafruit stuck a MicroLipo charger on the other side. The charger circuitry is powered from a microUSB jack, and will recharge any 3.7V/4.2V LiIon or LiPoly battery at 500mA max rate. There's two LEDs for monitoring the charge rate, a yellow one tells you its working, a green one lights up when its done. You can charge and boost at the same time no problem, without any interruption on the output so its fine for use as a "UPS" (un-interruptable power supply). Just be aware that the charge rate is 500mA max, so if you're drawing more than ~300mA continuously from the 5V output side, the battery will slowly drain since the charge rate is less than the dis-charge rate. You do have to always have a LiPo plugged into manage the load spikes, it's not optional!

Each order comes with one fully assembled and tested PCB and a loose USB A jack. If you are powering your project from USB, solder the USB A jack in (a 3-minute soldering task). If you would like to use a terminal block, you'll need to solder a 3.5mm 2pin block (not included) to the output spot where the USB jack would go. Or don't solder anything in for a more compact power pack.

You can also solder a switch in to create an output on/off switch!

Each order comes with a fully assembled and tested PowerBoost 500C + USB jack. Does not come with a Lipoly or LiIon battery, just pick one with more than 500mAh of capacity. Also doesn't come with the nice iPhone or charger cable.  Be sure to read Adafruits lovely tutorial for details, schematics, and more!

 

13 customer reviews

4 years ago
An ideal way of adding a rechargeable battery to a project with moderate power demands or an existing device where space is at a premium. Plus a simple switch can put it into a very low power "sleep" mode to preserve your battery. I have used a few of these when upcycling old radios and found them to be useful aids. Whenever possible I solder the output to a lead rather than use the supplied (loose) USB-A connector as mounting that to the board means only two mounting points are available. There's no weight to the board but I would rather not fix it to a chassis using two points along one narrow edge - but it's not worth knocking a star off of when space is at a premium.
by Anonymous about PowerBoost 500 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 500mA+ via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
I use this with a Lipo battery to replace the 3 NiMh cells in my ancient Panasonic radio. Very easy to use and beautifully made. The only issue I have is that there are 2 LEDs - yellow to indicate that it is charging the cell, green to indicate the cell is fully charged. Unfortunately, they are very close to one another and of similar colour so at a distance I cannot tell them apart. I shrouded one to help me see when charging was finished more easily.
by Roddy about PowerBoost 500 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 500mA+ via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Excellent service as usual with Pimoroni. Very handy little breakout for semi permanent (rechargeable) assembly of li-po powered Raspberry pi zero w (check your power requirements and also consider the Powerboost 1000C). Also, sorry for shouting but CHECK YOUR Li-Po JST WIRE ORDER WITH THE PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPH it is possible your battery connector has wires reversed (and it is super easy to remove the wires and re-insert them in the right order back to the JST), I know I didn't and burned my first charger :)
by pedro about PowerBoost 500 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 500mA+ via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
The first 500C that arrived didn't work. Having never seen one it took quite a while to work out if it was the charger or me that was to blame. Now I have seen one working, thanks to the outstanding customer services of Pimoroni who dispatched a replacement the same day, it is easy to spot the fault, no blue light, no output. I am using it to power Audio FX Sound Board and it makes it possible to fit all the bits that are needed within a small space (smaller battery etc). Again, huge thanks to Matt at Pimoroni who helped with the design of the circuit and all that was needed afterwards to make it all work!
by Dave about PowerBoost 500 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 500mA+ via REVIEWS.io