This is a placeholder topic for “3-pin LiPo Battery for PiJuice 10000mAh” comments.
10000mAh Lithium-Ion battery that can be used with PiJuice.
Read moreThis is a placeholder topic for “3-pin LiPo Battery for PiJuice 10000mAh” comments.
10000mAh Lithium-Ion battery that can be used with PiJuice.
Read moreHello, I would like to know how to extend the wires from my lipo battery. Ideally I would like an extension with a female 3 pin JST connector one end and a male for the other.
Does anyone know where I can get one of these that would also be OK for 4A current draw?
Thanks in advance
Steve
Welcome to the forum Steve!!
Unfortunately JST-PH connectors, the ones on this battery - are made to be a cable to board connector so there arent any official female sockets that attach to wires.
The best way to make an extension would be to cut one wire at a time and solder on some extension wire
The spools above ought to be good for 3A: AWG - American Wire Gauge Current Ratings
Liam
The description for this product certainly gives the impression that this battery must be used with Pi-Juice. Is this actually the case ?
I am looking for a largish capacity battery for a location where I can’t run mains power - so needing to use a Li-Po battery with solar panel and charger - and I note all Core Electronics’ Li-Po batteries >6000mAh have the 3-wire connector.
I’m all for building protections into the battery to prevent it exploding … but I note that all but one of CE’s Solar Power Controller boards uses 2-pin battery connectors … and the Waveshare uses a 4-pin connector.
I guess this means chopping the 3-wire connector off and connecting the red and black wires to the Solar Power Manager’s Battery screw terminals. I assume the yellow wire is connected to the Onboard NTC Temperature Sensor and so goes to an ADC pin on the microcontroller ?
How does the Built-in protection circuit PCM prevent overcharging or over-discharging ? By just disconnecting the battery ? So this should be considered a backup in case the Solar Power Manager isn’t doing its job of managing the battery ?
For single-cell batteries you can’t go by the number of pins to determine what the protection arrangement is. The CE controllers might be designed for use with unprotected batteries (the controller provides the protection) or they might be designed for use only with protected batteries.
As the CE06798 has protection built in, it could be used in either case. However your starting point should always be the manufacturer’s specification for the batteries that are suitable for each device. You might find, for instance, that your controller supports battery temperature monitoring as a separate function - it is common to consider battery protection as quite distinct from temperature monitoring.
The mechanism for disconnecting the battery is demonstrated in the datasheet. The diodes across the MOSfets mean that a single device can protect against both over-charge and over-discharge.
Hi Donald, Jeff and All
I have not gone into this but I noted the following
Yes I believe so. On the negative or low side.
Is it a good idea to have 2 separate protection systems active on the one battery??? I would imagine that both would offer protection in the disconnection of the battery if something did not agree with some setttings or conditions.
I have not had any thoughts on what would actually happen here but if someone knows for sure what the result could be perhaps they could step in here and offer some advice
It could be that when using a charging system with built in protection a non protected battery (or single cell) should be used
Cheers Bob
Maybe its because i come from a computer programming background rather than being an electronics engineer … but I am not happy for the power to my microcontroller to just shut off without any warning.
Please advise which of CE’s other Solar Power Manager products allows for battery temperature monitoring ? Is that why CE is promoting these batteries as specially for PiJuice ?
Hey @Donald23173,
We are recommending these batteries specifically for Pi Juice based on the form factor and the connector type used being compatible with that platform. The flat, rectangular battery make it easy to fit into an existing case and stack with Pi HATs. The 3 pin connector used is the same as the PiJuice so it will connect without modification.
For a Solar Power Manager that contains over-temperature protection, I would recommend looking into the Sunflower solar power manager. These boards come in a few varieties and contain most of the protection circuits you can think of with the exception of over-voltage protection.
Hope this helps!
Hi Donald, Jeff and Bob!
tldr: If you’re looking to power up an ESP32 this battery is perfect, you are already leagues above what most Makers get to with battery power!
This battery will work in place with any other 2 wire, single-cell LiPo - the added temperature sensor is a bonus (and used for the PiJuice)
If you are looking at the WS-26363 the connector is no different electrically than a 2 pin connector (positive and negative connections, with the extra wires presumably for more current capability).
Correct, using the PiJuice as an example it seems to use a microcontroller onboard to manage just the battery safety, comms to the Pi and other features: GitHub - PiSupply/PiJuice: Resources for PiJuice HAT for Raspberry Pi - use your Pi Anywhere
Jeff covered the how, while it is a back-up, it is very abrubt and is more concerned about making sure the battery does not become unsafe. (spontaneously combust).
Fair enough, but by the time the onboard-PCM is kicking in the battery is well below its charge where the lifespan is of any consideration.
Hooking up the voltage output of the battery to an ADC pin is more than sufficient to make a decision to instantly go back to sleep or continue normal operation.
Agreed, these batteries seem ideal for the PiJuice - which seems to be a real “Solar Power Manager” (unlike the DFRobot and Waveshare units), with driver software that passes the relevant data (especially low battery notification) to the Raspberry Pi. I was originally intending to use PiJuice with an older RasPi 4 for my project; but the power consumption pointed me toward 12V battery, before deciding an ESP32 would be more suited.
My issue is not with the batteries, but with the other Solar Power Managers and the extra work and cost required to use them with a microcontroller.
I did purchase the Sunflower 5V model, and also looked at the 12V battery version and the $66 one. None have any mention of being able to connect a thermistor, of monitoring battery temperature, or any capability to report battery voltage to a microcontroller. Maybe they were designed a decade ago before battery temperature was known to be important ?
Exactly !!! But why do we need to do all this extra work adding voltage monitors to report to a microcontroller what the “power manager” already knows. Conclusion is that (apart from PiJuice) these Solar Power “Manager” boards are simply not intended for powering an IoT project / microcomputer.
Hi @Donald23173
Most of the readily available solar managers are just that, they will take the output of the solar panel, use it to charge the battery and provide power for the microcontroller to run. Unless the manager was embedded into the IoT device itself or designed to be directly compatible with a specific device. Given that most managers are a fraction of the cost of the PiJuice and not designed for a specific module it is only to be expected that some DIY is required to have them work as required.
I am no electronics engineer, but I don’t think it needs to go that far. Adding an INA3221 to the Power “Manager” board would allow voltage readings to be sent via i2c to whatever microcontroller the user chooses (or not connected at all).
Being able to pass the battery thermistor reading via the same i2c would also be convenient, but may not be cost-effective to add a single ADC, especially while makers continue to use the (older?) 2-pin batteries.