The Flora runs at 3.3V with an onboard regulator to keep the voltage steady. You'll need to power the board with a 3.6V or greater battery. For that reason, we find 3 x AA or AAA or a lithium-polymer battery to be ideal. You can only power FLORA through its onboard JST port.
After loading your program onto the FLORA, you'll want to unplug the USB cable and go portable with battery power! USB will always power the board, but battery power (through the JST connector) can be turned on and off with Flora's onboard switch (near the "ON" text on the board). We recommend our 3xAAA holder for beginners, which conveniently plugs into FLORAs JST port.
More advanced users may wish to use a rechargeable lithium polymer battery for their smaller size and longer duration. These batteries pose added risk if abused, shorted, bent, crushed, or punctured. FLORA does not have onboard charging, so you would also need a separate LiPoly charger.
The VBATT Pad
The most commonly confused part of the Flora is the VBATT pad and how power management is handled in the Flora. We designed the flora to be mainly powered via the JST connector. You can power it with a battery pack or lipo battery. That input is polarity protected and also controlled via the on/off switch. The battery output after the switch is VBATT. You shouldn't use VBATT as an input as you might damage your battery if you also plug in the USB connector to a computer! The ideal use of VBATT is when you want to power something like NeoPixels or a servo, something that requires more than the 150mA available from the onboard regulator.
