First we'll add a battery extension cable. Then we'll solder the on/off switch, and then stack the Feather and PropMaker FeatherWing using the pre-soldered headers.
Battery Extension Cable
Add some solder to tin the two pads/wires on the back of the JST battery connector on your Feather. Be generous, but also careful not to get any solder on the other components on the board.
Solder the wires as shown -- with the JST port facing away from you, the black wire goes on the left and the red wire goes on the right. Be careful not to get this backwards! It's probably the quickest way to fry your board.
Plug your battery in and make sure your board turns on. Once you're sure the soldering is rock-solid, put some hot glue on top of the connections.
Tug on the wires and make extra, extra sure they are secure and won't come off. This connection will get buried inside the FeatherWing sandwich and be totally inaccessible later on, so if it comes undone you'll basically need to scrap the whole project and start over. So make sure it's a good connection before proceeding!
On/Off Switch
The on/off switch is designed to mount in your enclosure. We'll solder a connector to it, so we can mount it later on and plug it into the Feather at final assembly.
Trim your male 4-pin connector to about 4 inches. Slip a piece of heat shrink onto each wire. Strip a bit of shielding from the ends of the wires.
With the switch pins facing you, arrange them along the bottom edge of the switch (like a smile!). The green wire gets soldered to the leftmost pin, then the white wire to the second pin. The third pin we'll leave alone. Solder the red wire to the fourth pin and the black wire to the fifth and final pin.
Now we'll solder the female connector to the PropMaker Featherwing as follows:
Solder the black wire to G and the green wire to A1. These are the pins on either side of the pin with "(o)" parentheses around it.
Solder the white wire to G and the red wire to EN. These pins are located right next to the speaker connector.
Stack the PropMaker FeatherWing on top of the Feather Sense, with all the pins sliding into all the holes. Flip the assembly upside down and solder all the pins.
Plug all the components in and click the switch to "on" to test and be sure everything is working. If you've already uploaded the code, the LED light on your button should glow when it's in its "on" position, and the yellow "charging" light should appear on your Feather, showing that the battery is being charged.
Page last edited March 08, 2024
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