Power Supply for NodeMCU with Battery Charger & Boost Converter

Overview: Power Supply for NodeMCU

In this tutorial, we will learn how we can make Power Supply for NodeMCU ESP8266 Board. We will also integrate a Battery Booster or Boost Converter Circuit so that NodeMCU can be operated through 3.7V Lithium-Ion Battery. The Battery can get discharged after using it for a long time, so we will also integrate a Battery Charger Circuit to the Board which has a feature of Battery Management System. Earlier we designed Power Supply for ESP32, we will redesign the same circuit here for ESP32.

Most of the Lithium-Ion Batteries available in the market can only fully charge up to 4.2V which is not enough for NodeMCU Board. So we need to convert the voltage from Battery to 5V. That is the reason why we are using a small boost converter Module made using some inductors, IC & resistor. Similarly to charge the battery and manage the battery we will use TP4056 Battery Charger Module.

Apart from this we can power this circuit using 9V/12V Adapter as well. The LM7805 Voltage regulator IC limits the voltage up to 5V only. If you don’t want to power the circuit using Battery, you can use the DC Power Adapter.

Power Required By NodeMCU

Nodemcu operates at 5v & 3.3V. For 3.3V there is already an LDO voltage regulator to keep the voltage steady at 3.3V. NodeMCU can be powered using Micro USB jack and VIN pin (External Supply Pin).

The power required by NodeMCU is 600mA, as ESP8266 pulls as much as 80mA during RF transmissions. During boot or wifi operation it’s drawing up to 200mA peak current. Thus supply power from Micro-USB Cable is not enough for NodeMCU Board when we are adding multiple sensors or modules to the Board. This is because Computer USB port can provide less than 500mA of current. Check more about Nodemcu Power requirement here: Nodemcu ESP8266 Datasheets

Bill of Materials

Following are the components required for making this NodeMCU Power Supply project. All the components can be easily purchased from Amazon. The component purchase link is given below.

3.7V to 5V Step-Up Boost Converter Module

This is the Step-Up DC-DC Boost converter module which provides 5V DC stable voltage output at various input ranges between 1.5V to 5V. This small tiny circuit boosts the voltage level and provides the amplified stabilized 5V output. This module operates at a frequency of modules operate at frequency 150KHZ. For the different input ranges, it consumes a different amount of current to produce a balanced output.

1. Input 1-1.5V, output 5V 40-100mA
2. Input 1.5-2V, output 5V 100-150mA
3. Input 2-3V, output 5V 150-380mA
4. Input more than 3V, output 5V 380-480mA

TP4056 Battery Charger Module

This 3.7V Battery Charger TP4056 module is made for charging rechargeable lithium batteries using the constant-current/constant-voltage (CC/CV) charging method. In addition to safely charging a lithium battery, TP4056 BMS Board also provides the necessary protection required by lithium batteries. The TP4056 is suitable for USB power and adapter power supplies. Due to the internal PMOSFET architecture and anti-reverse charging path, no external isolation diodes are required.

To learn more about this module, you can go through its datasheet here: TP4056 Module Datasheet.

Power Supply Circuit for NodeMCU with Battery Charger & Boost Converter

The Circuit Diagram for Power Supply Circuit for NodeMCU with Battery Charger & Boost Converter is given below. The circuit can be powered using two methods, one with 9V/12V DC Adapter and other with 3.7V Lithium-Ion Battery.

For powering the Board using DC Jack, we have used DCJ0202 Female Jack. We used 470uF & 100uF Electrolytic Capacitor to avoid DC fluctuations and remove voltage spikes. The LM7805 Voltage regulator IC can take the input voltage from 7V to 35V. But is recommended to use the input voltage up to 15V only. With an increase in voltage, there is more heat dissipation that requires a bigger heat sink. The output from the Voltage regulator is connected to the Vin pin of NodeMCU & GND is connected to GND. Hence you can power up the module using 9V/12V DC Adapter or by 9V Battery.

On the other hand, if you don’t want to power up the NodeMCU using DC Adapter, you can use 3.7V Lithium-Ion or Lithium Polymer Battery. Using the Boost Converter Module 3.7V is boosted to 5V (can work from 2.8V input to 4.2V input). The 5V boosted voltage is connected to switch and the switch is connected to 5V Vin pin of NodeMCU. The Battery terminal is also connected to the output terminal of the TP4056 Battery Charger Module. Thus the battery can be charged using 5V MicroUSB Data Cable.

The board has an LED connected via 220ohm resistor which is used to indicate the Module is powered ON. While charging the battery, it is recommended to turn off the SPDT switch.

PCB Designing

The PCB for Power Supply for NodeMCU with Battery Charger & Booster is given below. The PCB is designed using EasyEDA PCB Designing tool. The front view & the backview of the PCB is given below.

The Gerber File for the PCB is given below. You can download the Gerber File & go for PCB ordering.

We have also designed a better version of the ESP8266 Battery-powered board that can be used for IoT applications. The board is compact and can be powered with Battery and also has a charging circuit built on the PCB.