How to power the esp32 feather on the notecarrier board to upload arduino code

Hardware
1

I bought these boards back in mid 2025 and I am getting back to using them:

  • Notecarrier F (Feather)

  • Notecard Cellular

When I first got them I tested them and everything seemed ok but I forgot how to power the esp32 feather so I can upload and use the Arduino serial monitor on my WIN10 machine. I found a post that said to ‘always power everything from the Notecarrier USB’ but I do not think that will let me connect the Arduino IDE to load code and use the serial window in the arduino IDE.

My question is what is the power connection sequence I should follow:

  1. first plug in a lipo battery on the notecarrier, I think I read somewhere where it needs a lipo plugged in for an extra boast in current for the GPS notecarrier module and the USB on the notecarrier itself may not be enough to power it at times ?
  2. next plug in a USB connector to the esp32 board and when I am done programming and debugging the Arduino code unplug the esp32 board USB and plug the USB back into the notecarrier board ?
  3. I assume bad things would happen if I plugged a USB into both the notecarrier AND the esp32 at the same time ?
  4. once everything is set and I want to use this in production I only need the lipo battery and solar charger plugged in -OR- just use the USB on the notecarrier board -OR- both are needed?

Thanks

3

Hi @JimK,

The most fool-proof way to both power your Notecard/Notecarrier and program your Feather is to plug a LiPo into the Notecarrier and plug your computer’s USB cable into the Feather. This will provide ample power to the Notecard while also allowing you to program the Feather/read from the serial monitor and so on.

The only reasons you would want a separate (2nd) USB cable plugged into your Notecarrier is to 1) send commands to the Notecard directly 2) charge the LiPo.

No that’s totally fine.

Just the LiPo battery (and yes optionally a solar panel).

Thanks,
Rob