2020-07-24

The wireless transmitters I ordered finally arrived, I received the wireless receivers last week. I tested them out soon after they arrived and they appeared to work sending 5 V through 5 mm of wood, but I wanted to do a more detailed test.

So I connected the receiver board to one of the LiPo charger boards I have, and I wanted to observe if I could get a consistent 4.2 V at the LiPo charger. I used a wooden spacer to mimic my use case, which is to providing a wireless charging option for the activity centre I plan on making for my daugther. The enclosure would be made of wood, but I did not want to expose any plugs or wires if I could manage. I performed the test and I observed 4.1 V at the LiPo charger and I was able to draw 110-125 mA of current. I know LiPo can safely be charged at 500 mA to 1.0 A, so a lower current would mean it would take four times longer or more to charge a LiPo battery. I did notice that the wireless transmitter board got noticeably hot after transmitting for a few minutes while I made some measurements, and I had read that may be an issue/concern. So I might need some heatsinks on the wireless transmitter and possibly the coil as well, and I may have found some Aluminum heatsinks at Sayal that are cheap and are about the right size. Though I should think about how the I want to mount the coils, because they need to be as close as possible and directly over each other.

I also need to replace my keyboard and mouse, it seems that the RF signal for both are interferring with the WiFi signal from the adjacent WiFi hotspot. I notice very odd behaviour sporadically, but I also have started to notice keyboard lag, mouse button refusing to click or multiple mouse clicks register. I think I will go back to wired keyboard and mouse this time, but that will make my current working from home arrangement more challenging.