Nextion single LiPo

julianE

Senior Member
I'm experimenting with a Nextion display picaxe 20x2 combination. My goal is to have the nextion as a portable serial monitor for other projects.
The Nextion is a 5V device but it does work with a single LiPo battery, albeit, not for long. Anyone on the forum run the nextion on a single LiPo.
I'm thinking a cheap buck step up to 5V should do it, any advice on a reliable efficient unit. Thanks in advance.
 

papaof2

Senior Member
How much power (amps) does the Nextion need?
Check aliexpress.com and banggood.com or one of the major distributors (Mouser, etc) for 3v to 5v boost converters that can handle the Nextion's current.
I have an XL6009 (minimum input 5 volts) from Banggood that's been powered LED strip lights in a shed for 3 years, but at half the chip's rated current - same applies for many products from the less expensive vendors.
 

julianE

Senior Member
These have worked well on a robot with a single 18650, can deliver up to 2A and solved a brownout when motors started.
Thank you sir, that's what I was looking for, first hand experience.

Also, thanks for the fast reply papaof2, appreciate it.
 

Goeytex

Senior Member
Another option for longer battery life might be to use an inexpensive "power bank". I have used these successfully for remote powering of various projects. Can easily supply 5V @ 100ma for a Nextion.

This particular brand/model works well with relatively low current. To keep it "alive" when current draw is less than 10ma simply pulse an I/O pin high through a 330 ohm resistor for a few ms ever 25secs so that it detects current being drawn. Capacity is 10,000 mAh.

 
Last edited:

julianE

Senior Member
Another option for longer battery life might be to use an inexpensive "power bank".
I like the power banks myself, great for powering raspberry pi zero. I'm trying to make the nextion, hand held, as small as possible, tho, I have seen very thin power bank units so might be a viable solution. I'll probably set it up so that the nextion is only on as needed while the 20X2 can run all the time, I have also added a 24LC256 for logging data. It will take me forever to program the nextion interface but i should look at it as fun.

Completely off the subject, I bought a no contract phone for an elder family member and it's stunning the phone you get for under $30. I'm thinking they would make dandy interfaces to picaxe projects either through bluetooth or browser based.
 

manuka

Senior Member
Indeed - & NOT off topic but appropiate "state of the art" technology - Android smart phones make for great e-engines ! Their global abundance & familiarity eases operating ergonomics of course too.

Aside from BT & WiFi serial display (suiting modern micros which offer wireless ) direct wire linking via versatile OTG (On The Go) $ range cables/adapters also suits USB-serial adapter use. Refer Google's Play Store for diverse display apps.

Additionally OTG allows the phone's battery to conveniently power external circuitry - short term anyway! This has been popular for add on LoRa 900 MHz 2 way wireless messenger modules -Meshtastic etc.
=> https://www.hackster.io/scottpowell69/lora-mesh-chat-5267d9

Add on SDR (Software Defined Radio) portable USB receivers benefit too => https://www.electronicsforu.com/electronics-projects/software-defined-radio-with-android-smartphones/amp

I'm often suprised to run into e-tech folks who've never heard of OTG setups ...
 

Attachments

Last edited:

julianE

Senior Member
The booster supply https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089JYBF25 came in and it works well.
I have started making a multiple use portable nextion box. I have an RF transmitter working and now I'm working on an RF receiver.
I'd like to have one text box and keep adding lines of text to it as new serial data comes in and have the older lines scroll of.
I'm not sure how to do it on the Nextion side, can text be appended to the text box?
Other option is to do everything on the picaxe side, format the text and send it as a single command.
Another option is to have multiple text boxes and move data between the boxes as new data comes in.
Any help very much appreciated.
 

andrd

New Member
The booster supply https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089JYBF25 came in and it works well.
I have started making a multiple use portable nextion box. I have an RF transmitter working and now I'm working on an RF receiver.
I'd like to have one text box and keep adding lines of text to it as new serial data comes in and have the older lines scroll of.
I'm not sure how to do it on the Nextion side, can text be appended to the text box?
Other option is to do everything on the picaxe side, format the text and send it as a single command.
Another option is to have multiple text boxes and move data between the boxes as new data comes in.
Any help very much appreciated.
I use nextion displays with picaxe in various projects, the first thing I want to warn you about is... Be cautious about 5 volt supply stability, when supplying your nextion displays. They have an embedded boost converter to supply the backlight (8.2v), the oscillator chip in it, is very sensitive and prone to fail. Happen to me 2 times, as I can't find a equivalent replacement, now I need to feed 8.2v directly on display backlight pins plus the regular 5 v supply on order to reuse the displays.
Apart of that that, those displays are great the possibilities are "endless" you can use it like a serial debugging console like the picaxe terminal, very easy and with just a few lines of code in the nextion side, if that is what you pretend.
 

julianE

Senior Member
Hi, have another problem with the nextion, i have a 433 MHz receiver near the the display and the RF interference from the Nextion severely limits the reception distance. Did a little research and seems to be a known problem with Nextion displays. Not sure how I will work around it, might have to switch to simple OLED display since they do not interfere with the RF. Always something. Other option is to turn off nextion while receiving data and store it for later display but that's very cludgy.
 
Top