Customer:
I bought an Inkplate 10 with enclosure and it came with no battery. What are the correct dimensions for a battery that fits in the enclosure?
I’m in the US and found this battery that looks like it might work: Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 2500mAh : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits with size 785060 (7.8mm thick). I saw a forum post mentioning someone using it. Your standard 3000mAh battery is 5.7mm thick. Will the thicker Adafruit battery fit? Ordering a battery from Croatia would be expensive with shipping.
Originally submitted via email support on 30 January 2025. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.
Soldered Support:
The Inkplate enclosure has two battery slots. The larger slot is for a Li-ion battery 3000mAh 3.7V with dimensions 5.7 x 49.8 x 81.1mm.
The Adafruit battery (50mm x 60mm x 7.3mm) is a little thicker, but it should still fit in the slot as there is some wiggle room. If the slot ends up being too thin, the small amount of filament which holds the battery in place in the corners of the battery slot can easily be removed, so it should not be a problem.
The connector and pinout of the Adafruit battery is correct and should fit Inkplate 10.
Customer:
I’m considering ordering the Adafruit battery, but shipping within the US will also be slow and expensive. I might first try to use a mobile phone battery if I can find one that fits. Before that I will try to run the Inkplate on USB power. Does the battery connector have reverse polarity protection? I want to know if I need to worry about this.
Soldered Support:
See the battery connection article here: Inkplate Hardware Reference — Inkplate docs documentation
The polarity is different than many JST connectors on the market. The battery charging IC is MCP73831T. You can find the datasheet here: https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/H.pdf
The datasheet contains a useful table for min-max voltage values allowed. To check exactly which value is which, see the schematic for Inkplate 10: Soldered-Inkplate-10-hardware-design/OUTPUTS/V1.3.1/Soldered Inkplate 10 Schematics.pdf at main · SolderedElectronics/Soldered-Inkplate-10-hardware-design · GitHub - the charging IC is on sheet 3/6.
Inkplate on USB power should run just fine without any battery.
Customer:
I ordered a battery from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/mah-Electric-Massager-Equipment-Rechargeable/dp/B0876NWQ38) that is the right size. Does the polarity look right to you? I will check the schematic and can reverse the connector if necessary.
My plan for the Inkplate is to use it as a text display to communicate with my mom, who is hearing impaired. I would type messages on another computer so they will appear on the Inkplate for her to read.
Soldered Support:
Looking at the connector from the Amazon product page, it is indeed flipped compared to our batteries. You will need to flip the polarity. You can see on the back of the Inkplate PCB at the battery connector there are markings for what the correct polarity is. The reference is: looking at the connector with the notch on the top, the red wire should be on the right. On our batteries it’s on the left.
For your use case with your mom, you can do this very simply via Bluetooth. Check out this example code: Inkplate-Arduino-library/examples/Inkplate10/Advanced/Communications/Inkplate10_Bluetooth_Serial/Inkplate10_Bluetooth_Serial.ino at master · SolderedElectronics/Inkplate-Arduino-library · GitHub
This will allow messages to be displayed over Bluetooth from a mobile device or laptop via a Bluetooth Serial terminal. Further implementations can do something similar over WiFi.
Attachment omitted in migration: image.png