07-28-2022, 06:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-28-2022, 07:18 AM by CounterPillow.)
Hi, there's two different types of batteries here.
The RTC Battery
This is a battery that will not be recharged by the board, it's simply there to keep the RTC clock ticking while the board is powered off. This is the only kind of battery the Model B supports. The connector for it is right behind the Ethernet jack.
Battery holders that fit this are the following on the store:
No special drivers or anything are needed to make this work, the battery will passively keep the RTC circuitry alive while the board is powered off, making sure that the next time it boots the clock is still more or less correct. The battery not being recharged by the board is fine, it draws so little power from it that it will last for literal years. The CMOS battery in many computers is also non-rechargeable, and I've had some last for a decade.
The Rechargeable LiPo Battery
This is a battery that will be recharged by the board, and will power the entire board when wall power is removed. This is the only kind of battery the Model A supports. The battery chemistry of this is Lithium-Polymer. The charging and discharging of the battery is handled by the RK817 PMIC. The connector is a 3 pin one (Positive, temperature sensor, negative). Any single-cell Lithium Polymer battery will work, provided you modify the device tree accordingly to specify its proper capacity, and make sure the wires on the connector are the right order. This battery will also power the RTC circuitry if the board is switched off, see the schematic diagram of the RK817 PMIC on sheet 21 out of 89 for that: VCC_RTC is connected though a diode to BAT1.
The driver for the RK817 battery charger functionality still has not been merged into mainline as of the time of writing (July 2022). I will be doing some testing on the driver patchset and hope to accelerate its merging into the mainline tree as soon as I get the time to. Before you have such a driver, you should not be connecting a battery to the board, even though the PMIC has safe limits programmed in by default it's better to be safe than sorry.
Once it is merged, I will write a wiki article detailing instructions on how to connect and use a battery with the Quartz64 Model A. I can already tell you that the connector it uses is a 2.0mm type PH connector, here's the datasheet. I've seen that many Lithium Polymer batteries come with a connector like this, but I've had to change the order of wires on one of mine. If you have a passable crimp tool, it's of course also possible to buy the crimps and connector housings and make your own connector.
The RTC Battery
This is a battery that will not be recharged by the board, it's simply there to keep the RTC clock ticking while the board is powered off. This is the only kind of battery the Model B supports. The connector for it is right behind the Ethernet jack.
Battery holders that fit this are the following on the store:
- https://pine64.com/product/rtc-backup-ba...r-cr-2032/
- https://pine64.com/product/rtc-backup-ba...r-2-x-aaa/
No special drivers or anything are needed to make this work, the battery will passively keep the RTC circuitry alive while the board is powered off, making sure that the next time it boots the clock is still more or less correct. The battery not being recharged by the board is fine, it draws so little power from it that it will last for literal years. The CMOS battery in many computers is also non-rechargeable, and I've had some last for a decade.
The Rechargeable LiPo Battery
This is a battery that will be recharged by the board, and will power the entire board when wall power is removed. This is the only kind of battery the Model A supports. The battery chemistry of this is Lithium-Polymer. The charging and discharging of the battery is handled by the RK817 PMIC. The connector is a 3 pin one (Positive, temperature sensor, negative). Any single-cell Lithium Polymer battery will work, provided you modify the device tree accordingly to specify its proper capacity, and make sure the wires on the connector are the right order. This battery will also power the RTC circuitry if the board is switched off, see the schematic diagram of the RK817 PMIC on sheet 21 out of 89 for that: VCC_RTC is connected though a diode to BAT1.
The driver for the RK817 battery charger functionality still has not been merged into mainline as of the time of writing (July 2022). I will be doing some testing on the driver patchset and hope to accelerate its merging into the mainline tree as soon as I get the time to. Before you have such a driver, you should not be connecting a battery to the board, even though the PMIC has safe limits programmed in by default it's better to be safe than sorry.
Once it is merged, I will write a wiki article detailing instructions on how to connect and use a battery with the Quartz64 Model A. I can already tell you that the connector it uses is a 2.0mm type PH connector, here's the datasheet. I've seen that many Lithium Polymer batteries come with a connector like this, but I've had to change the order of wires on one of mine. If you have a passable crimp tool, it's of course also possible to buy the crimps and connector housings and make your own connector.
Occasional Linux Kernel Contributor, Avid Wiki Updater, Ask Me About Quartz64
Open Hardware Quartz64 Model A TOSLink Adapter
Pi-bus GPIO Extender For ROCKPro64 And Quartz64 Model A
Plebian GNU/Linux