The optimal voltage for the ESP32 is 3.3V. The nominal voltage of a Li-ion battery is 3.7V but it can be anywhere between 3V and 4.2V. Many of the development kits come with the AMS1117, which has a drop out voltage which is far too big for a Li-ion battery. What is the recommended solution? A LDO regulator? A buck–boost converter? Something else?
The obvious solution would be to use something like an lm1117 3.3v regulator, but they have >1v of dropout and would be useless. Is there anyway to regulate the battery to 3.3v without significant battery life losses due to dropout. Is there some sort of 3.3v regulator which can either step up or step down depending on input voltage.
Input 2-5VDC on ... The ESP32-WROOM-32 from Az-Delivery has a 3.3V pin. If the manufacturer states that it is OK to use this as input for 3.3V power, then an energy efficient solution is to use a 3.7V LiPo battery, and this stepdown regulator:
So depending on the utilization of the ESP32 the 3.3V will be unstable and most likely will shutdown the ESP32. Depending on which ESP32, I believe most have a 5V input that passes through a voltage regulator to drop it to a stable 3.3V. Or get a switching DC-DC step down converter and put the battery through that.
Nominal Voltage: This is the battery’s “advertised” voltage. For a single lithium-ion cell, it’s typically 3.6V or 3.7V. Open Circuit Voltage: This is the voltage when the battery isn’t connected to anything. It’s usually around 3.6V to 3.7V for a fully charged cell. Working Voltage: This is the actual voltage when the battery is in use.
For a standard lithium-ion cell, 50% charge is typically around 3.6V to 3.7V. However, this can vary slightly depending on the specific battery chemistry and design. Is 13.2 volts good for a battery?