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DPiór.1
Associate III
March 28, 2025
Solved

power nucleo 32 from lipo battery

  • March 28, 2025
  • 7 replies
  • 1301 views

Hi,

I have STM32 NUCLEO-L432KC Nucleo-32, I would like to power it from a li-pol battery. Is it possible?

Best answer by Peter BENSCH

@DPiór.1 It depends on which part of the NUCLEO-L432KC you want to supply with the LiPO battery:

  • only the STM32L432KC without ST-LINK, then
    • connect the LiPO battery to +5V (CN4.4)
  • the STM32L432KC including ST-LINK, then you have to tinker a little and connect the battery to U5V (of course without a USB host connected), e.g. to
    • Pin 1 of the USB socket or
    • Pin 1, 2 of U1 (top side, between U2 and USB socket)
    • Anode D1 (top side, close to USB socket)

Please note that with this connection there are no protective measures against deep discharge of the LiPO and you must take care of this yourself.

7 replies

Andrew Neil
Super User
March 28, 2025
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
DPiór.1
DPiór.1Author
Associate III
March 28, 2025

@Andrew Neil thanks for prompt reply.

According to the documentation, Nucleo can be powered from source which gives 3-3,6V or 4,75-5,25V. The li-pol battery has 3,7-4,2V. What would you suggest to do, to power the Nucleo from the li-po battery?

Peter BENSCH
Peter BENSCHBest answer
Technical Moderator
March 28, 2025

@DPiór.1 It depends on which part of the NUCLEO-L432KC you want to supply with the LiPO battery:

  • only the STM32L432KC without ST-LINK, then
    • connect the LiPO battery to +5V (CN4.4)
  • the STM32L432KC including ST-LINK, then you have to tinker a little and connect the battery to U5V (of course without a USB host connected), e.g. to
    • Pin 1 of the USB socket or
    • Pin 1, 2 of U1 (top side, between U2 and USB socket)
    • Anode D1 (top side, close to USB socket)

Please note that with this connection there are no protective measures against deep discharge of the LiPO and you must take care of this yourself.

DPiór.1
DPiór.1Author
Associate III
March 28, 2025

@Peter BENSCH I only need to power the board without the ST-LINK. Do you mean that I can connect the li-po battery to +5V even thought the documentation says that it's voltage range is 4,75-5,25 V?

 

Maybe I should provide the full picture:
I will have solar cell connected to AEM10941 (https://www.tindie.com/products/jaspersikken/solar-harvesting-into-li-ion-battery/). The lipo battery will be charged from the AEM10941. The Nucleo will be powered from that lipo battery. 

Can I directly connect the lipo to the +5V and GND of the Nucleo board?

 

 

Andrew Neil
Super User
March 28, 2025

Take a look at the schematics for the board.

Presumably, the +5V input goes to a regulator - so look at the specs for that regulator ...

 

PS:

Schematics here: https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/nucleo-l432kc.html#cad-resources

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
DPiór.1
DPiór.1Author
Associate III
March 28, 2025

Thank you for forcing me to learn something :)

It looks that +5V goes to LD39050PU33R, which has operating input voltage 1,5-5,5 V. That means that indeed I can power Nucleo from lipo battery via this PIN.

This is great news, because I was afraid that I will need to add some component between lipo and Nucleo.

 

Last question: is it ok, that the battery will be connected to Nuclea and AEM10941?

Andrew Neil
Super User
March 28, 2025

@DPiór.1 wrote:

which has operating input voltage 1,5-5,5 V. 


More important would be the dropout voltage - ie, can it maintain 3.3V output regulation when the input is only 3.7V.

(that might not matter - so long as the output doesn't drop below the minimum operating voltage of the STM32L432KC, and/or anything else on the board)

 

PS:

It's 400mV max - so you should be OK:

AndrewNeil_0-1743175754231.png

https://www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/ld39050.pdf#page=7

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.
DPiór.1
DPiór.1Author
Associate III
March 28, 2025

@Peter BENSCH  @Andrew Neil  thank you very much for your help!

DPiór.1
DPiór.1Author
Associate III
March 29, 2025

One more question: does the SB9 need to be removed when connecting battery to +5V (and USB not connected)?

In manual, in the table it does not say that it needs to be removed.

5v table.png

However in other place of the manual it says that it must be removed.

5v desc.png

Looking at the schematics, I think that when SB9 is ON and USB not connected, then reset will be permanently ON. But I'm not sure about that.

 

Peter BENSCH
Technical Moderator
April 8, 2025

If you want to supply the NUCLEO-L432KC exclusively via +5V (CN4.4), the embedded ST-LINK receives no supply voltage due to D3 and D4, so that its output PB0 (T_NRST) is undefined and is usually read as low. For this reason, the second sentence you framed recommends removing SB9 so as not to block the target.