The new JeeNode USB v3 includes a resistor divider to track the voltage level before the voltage regulator. This signal is connected to the otherwise-unused A6 input of the ATmega328 SMD chip.

Here’s a little sketch to see what it does:

In prose: read out analog pin 6 once a second, and broadcast the measured value as wireless data packet on netgroup 2. The readings are also sent to the serial port.

Since a 1:2 voltage divider is used, the full-scale of the ADC (i.e. 3.3V in) is 6.6V, a value which can never be reached on the JeeNode USB. The map() function is used to scale this back to an integer in the range 0..660, i.e. hundredths of a volt.

Here is the serial output while connected:

This is exactly as expected: the LiPo charger outputs 4.2 Volt when no battery is connected, which then goes into the on-board voltage regulator.

Here’s the serial output when a fully charged LiPo battery is connected (still plugged into USB):

Again as expected: the battery pulls down the voltage slightly to 4.17 Volt.

But the interesting bit of course is when unplugging the USB cable. That’s why the RF part was included in this example: we can’t use the serial port anymore, and have to pick up the packets with a second JeeNode or JeeLink.

Sample output:

That’s two bytes in each packet, forming a little-endian 16-bit int. The corresponding value is 161 + 256 * 1 = 417. The battery is still charged, so we’re still getting the same 4.17 Volt readout.

By leaving this sketch running on the LiPo battery for a while, it will slowly discharge. Output after one hour:

Not much difference: 4.16 Volt.

Here’s a different LiPo battery which has been lying around unused for several months:

Still a very respectable 126 + 256 * 1, i.e. 3.82 Volt!

So there you go. The node can run off a LiPo battery, and track its charge state. This could be used to power down the node when the voltage becomes critically low – perhaps 3V or so. LiPo’s don’t like being run down completely, and this is how a node can avoid doing so.

You may be wondering why the voltage readings were not immediately stable on startup, as seen in the first two output screens. Even if restarted, this same behavior will be observed, i.e. even if there was no power dip.

I think this is due to the fact that two very high impedance 1 MΩ resistors are being used for the voltage divider. These cannot supply a lot of current, which means the input charge for the ADC’s sample-and-hold isn’t being built up quickly enough. This will probably happen each time the ADC is switched over from another channel.

But there is a good reason for this: with 1 MΩ resistors, the leakage from this voltage divider is only 2 µA. For a battery-powered application, where every constant current drain affects its total lifetime, this matters.