Battery solution for nrf52840 dongle?

[olalonde]

Software engineer here and very new to electronics. I programmed a nrf52840 dongle that activates a signal with a transistor. Now, I'd like to hide it inside the wall but there's no electrical wiring available so I'd like to connect the dongle to a battery instead. The obvious solution would be to stick it in a powerbank but the powerbanks I found are a bit bulky and expensive.

Is there a DIY module I could use to power the dongle from a battery?

As an alternative, I saw that it was also possible to power the Dongle without going through USB but then I am not sure if I can connect a battery pack directly or if I would need a module in between to regulate the voltage.

I found some modules on Aliexpress and Alibaba by searching "powerbank module" but I'm not sure which one would be suitable and also not sure how to use them, I guess their buyers are not noobs like me.

 Any tips appreciated.

Thanks

[Simonr]

Hi

Please check out this very similar case where Andreas explains how you can use the Dongle with a battery if you'd like. A very brief summary of that case: It is very much possible to power the nRF52840 Dongle with a battery or any other external power supply, but  the USB circuitry might be at risk when powering the dongle by anything other than USB. This can be avoided by cutting the VBUS_nRF trace, though. If you're not planning to use the USB circuit this won't be necessary.

Best regards,

Simon