Jolla and SailfishOS

QiTOH Update

2016-04-07 10:32

The final decision is made!

See QiTOH (4) for the winner.

QiTOH - Part 1

2016-01-30 14:52

Finally it seems, that the industry decided for a single standard, right from the beginning.

More and more devices are equiped with wireless power supply receivers that confirm to the Qi standard of the Wireless Power Consortium.

Seems to be time to work on our own CHEE (that's how you pronounce it, according to [Wikipedia]).

So, here is the goal:

Feeling the wave

First we need some toys to play with:

These days many manufactures produce specialized ICs for Qi transmitters and receivers and provide Reference and Evaluation Kits to promote there products. Pick your favorite electronic supplier. I'm sure they sell some.

I got mine from DigiKey.

Mano's solution shows another approach.

Qi Transmitter

For the transmitting side I choose IDT's P9038 Reference and Evaluation Kit.
IDT P9038 Referenc and Evaluation Kit

On one side it has an entry level price. On the other side it is a serious enough kit, not to be stucked with some crap, if I ever decide to do some tinkering on my own also on the transmitter side.

The chip on board is IDT's P9038. According to the datasheet it should be able to provide up to 8W. At 5V that would be 1600mA, more than enough for Jolla's external 5V port specification of 1000mA.

A nice to have feature is, it uses the same USB port as the Jolla. So you don't need yet another power supply. Well, or maybe you do.

Qi Receiver

For the receiving side I opted for two different modules:

TDI P9025AC

The first one is a matching recevier kit from IDT


IDT P9025AC Referenc and Evaluation Kit

According to the datasheet it should be able to provide up to 6W. At 5V that would be 1200mA. Again, more than enough for Jolla's external 5V port specification of 1000mA.

Yes, in theory all Qi transmitters and receivers of all manufacturers should work together. That is what we have the standard for, right?

Well, if you are in the industry long enough, you eventually find out, that only in theory there is no difference between theory and reality. No matter the standards.

Texas Instruments BQ51013B

The second kit is originally from Adafruit, but I also got mine at DigiKey.

The module is half the price of the IDT receiver kit, but the difference in quality shows, that it is clearly made for a different task.

The chip on board is TI's BQ51013B. According to the datasheet it should be able to provide up to 5W. At 5V that would be 1000mA, exactly the limit of Jolla's external 5V port specification.

What I really like is the very thin PCB the electronic sits on. I wonder who made them the PCB.

I know that Adafruit now sells this Pyralux based flexible PCB material. But this board looks different. Also it is double sided. Anyway...

Which one?

I also don't know yet!

On the other hand:

but

Let's see and tinker around with the new toys a little first.