Test Equipment
Microcontroller Boards
Power Management
This project is launching soon.
Open UpCell is a USB Type-C PD single cell lithium-ion battery management system with either 5 V or 3.3 V outputs, up to 14 V input, and an i2c interface for battery and charge status monitoring. You can check battery levels, charge status, charge voltage selection, charge current selection, and more via the provided Arduino IDE and PlatformIO SDKs. Output and i2c voltage is selectable between 3.3 V and 5 V, and the board comes with Seeed Groove (JST-PH) and Stemma QT (JST-XH) 4 pin connectors to enable plug and play operation with pre-existing projects. Open UpCell is also capable of being a simple, rudimentary inverter for a project, with an up to 15 W output (5 V, 3 A) - enough to power a Raspberry Pi Board or small router.
Open UpCell enables rapid prototyping of battery dependent projects while keeping things simple from setup to charging. It can be used to power existing Seeed Grove module chains and Adafruit Stemma QT module chains. It can also keep your projects powered and usable off grid, perfect for some IoT and Edge projects, like an IoT soil sensor cluster or a simple PIR motion detector. And, at just a few mm larger than a standard 18650 battery, this useful system is small enough to be concealed in a DIY wearable project.
| Open UpCell | 18650 Shield | LiFePO4wered/Pi+ | OEM Power Bank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Output - V | 3.3 V / 5 V | 3.3 V, 5 V | 5 V | 5 V |
| Output - I | 3 A | 1 A, 2.2 A | 2 A | 1 A - 3 A |
| Cell Types | 18650 Size Li-ion or LiFePO4; 2 Pin Li-Po | 18650 size Li-ion | 18650, 14500 size LiFePO4 | N/A |
| Input Over Voltage Protection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Input Over Current Protection | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Output Short Circuit Protection | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Fused Inputs | Yes | No | No | No |
| Temperature Loop Control | Yes | No | No | No |
| Over Charge Protection | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Open Source | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Battery Capacity | Any | Any | 600 - 1500 mAh | Multiple |
| Battery Metering | i2c | LEDs | i2c, LEDs | LEDs |
| Charging | USB-C PD, Fast charging | Micro - B | Micro-B | USB - C |
| Qwiic (JST-SH) Compatible | Yes | No | No | No |
| Seeed Grove (JST-PH) Compatible | Yes | No | No | No |
| Automatic H/W UPS | No (can be done in software) | No | Yes | No |
| Charge Control | over i2c, default mode configured | None, only default mode | over i2c, default mode configured | No |
| Additional components required | Battery | Battery | None | None |
| SDK/API for charge control and metering | Yes, over i2c | No | Yes, over i2c | No |
This project is proudly open source and OSHWA certified. Schematics, ECAD, Gerber files and BOM can be found in our Github repo.
You can sign up to be notified when this campaign launches, and to get any other useful updates, right at the top of this page. We work hard to only send out useful information and you can unsubscribe at any time.
"Despite its impressive feature list, the Open UpCell is also compact — measuring only marginally more than the footprint of an 18650 cell."
"[Open UpCell] can also keep your projects powered and usable off-grid, perfect for some IoT and Edge projects, like an IoT soil sensor cluster or a simple PIR motion detector. "
