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I recently got an ESP32-01 Breakout and Development Board from EzSBC.com. It is advertised as a board specifically designed for use with batteries because of it's low current draw when in sleep.

As a test I loaded the basic Arduino blink sketch onto the board using pin 19 as the built in test LED. When I power the board from the computer through the USB connection the LED blinks as expected, but when I connect a battery accross VIN -> GND nothing happens.

What am I doing wrong?

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There is a subtle design choice in this board that took be hours to figure out.

According the connection schematic the blue leg of the LS3528RGB LED is connected to IO19 through a 1k resister (R2-1). However the power leg is connected to Vusb not 3.3V like the other RGB LED. This means that the LED connected to IO19 is only usable when the board is connected through the micro-USB port and not when connected directly to battery.

This can be useful for programmatically reading whether the board is running on battery or USB.

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    so the pin works? only the on-board LED is not powered?
    – Juraj
    Feb 20, 2020 at 10:23
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    This can be useful for programmatically reading whether the board is running on battery or USB. -- also good for saving power when on batteries.
    – Majenko
    Feb 20, 2020 at 10:49
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    Juraj, that is correct. When the USB is plugged in the pin will be pulled high by a 1k resister. When on battery, it will be an open circuit. Feb 21, 2020 at 5:21

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