Nowadays almost every electronic gadgets are powered or recharged by a USB port (full size, mini o micro) as well as many of consumer products we use every day, including our smartphone. To recharge or give power to such products, there are many portable rechargers which have a rechargeable lithium battery and the electronics necessary to convert the battery voltage to 5V and to recharge the internal cell. The cost of these smart chargers is very affordable but we’re hardware makers, aren’t we? So why don’t to do it by ourselves to give power to our Raspberry Pi, arduino or Beaglebone black? We’ll show you a possible way to design one of these intelligent portable power supply. Continue reading →