Skip to content

Powering an Arduino with a power bank

New Course Coming Soon:

Get Really Good at Git

I was working on an Arduino project and when I finished it I said “well it’d be cool to power it with a USB powerbank and put it outside”.

I did that. I connected the Arduino to the powerbank and it worked!

But after about 20 seconds the Arduino powered off.

Well, the powerbank turned off. And along with it the Arduino.

Turned out the Arduino didn’t consume enough power to be noticeable by the powerbank that thought nothing was connected and it was just wasting its cycles.

I found some solutions to the problem, involving making the Arduino consume more power. Like https://www.instructables.com/USB-External-Battery-Packs-on-Arduino-turns-OFF/.

Or getting a powerbank that didn’t turn off automatically.

In my case I decided to go with a rechargeable battery instead, since I was working with an Arduino MKR 1010 WiFi and it had a 3.7V Li-Po battery option.

Are you intimidated by Git? Can’t figure out merge vs rebase? Are you afraid of screwing up something any time you have to do something in Git? Do you rely on ChatGPT or random people’s answer on StackOverflow to fix your problems? Your coworkers are tired of explaining Git to you all the time? Git is something we all need to use, but few of us really master it. I created this course to improve your Git (and GitHub) knowledge at a radical level. A course that helps you feel less frustrated with Git. Launching Summer 2024. Join the waiting list!

Here is how can I help you: