Adafruit Micro Lipo w/MicroUSB Jack - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1 (ADA1904)

Support Adafruit
1

This is a placeholder topic for “Adafruit Micro Lipo w/MicroUSB Jack - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1” comments.

1904-06.jpg970×728 182 KB


Oh so handy, this little lipo charger is so small and easy to use you can keep it on your desk or mount it easily into any project! Simply plug it via any MicroUSB … read more

Read more

1 Like
2

Hi Tech Team, I was just wondering if this charger is able to be modified by wiring up a few batteries to it at once, in parallel/series?

3

I’m not part of the tech team, but you possibly might be able to get away with it, as long as you use the same capacity batteries. I’m not sure if it will have mismatch detection, so you don’t want to have a 150mAh one and a 300mAh one and find the smaller one is about to blow it’s guts and release magic smoke because the 300mAh isn’t fully charged.

1 Like
4

The forum is for everyone! Thanks for dropping by Matthew :slight_smile:

It’s not designed to charge more than one single-cell battery at a time. If your project needs significant power, then use a single-cell battery that is manufactured as one complete unit, such as this:

5

Thanks Matthew58819! The guys on the phone said the tech team would answer the query in an hour… Lucky you came in to help! Cheers

6

Thanks Graham. It’d be great if I could use just one battery and charge it with this product, but I’ve found that three smaller batteries (of identical specifications) work best for my design and was hoping to be able to wire them up in parallel to the charger. I know this isn’t the typical use case for the charger but was hoping that I might gain an insight into whether this can work?

7

While it might work, I wouldn’t recommend it. Unbalanced LiPo cells often don’t fail quietly or safely.

8

Ok thanks. I’ll keep charging them individually for now, and will incorporate a single battery once I update the design :slight_smile:

1 Like
9

Does this make the battery charge and discharge at same time. can i use the battery charge while it is charging

1 Like
10

Not recommended.
The MCP73631 is specifically designed to charge the LiPo at the rate the LiPo needs at the time.
Putting other loads on the battery would change what the MCP73831 sees as the LiPo voltage and possible result in damage to LiPo and/or the charge board.

I just use this device stand alone, and it works perfectly.

Cheers
Jim

1 Like
11

Hey Chippy,

Welcome to the community!!

Also electrically you cant have a current flowing in two directions in the same wire(one pushing charge into the battery and one consuming).
I’d have a look at an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) as that sounds like what you are after, it manages the battery charging and protection, plus handles the smarts when connecting and disconnecting a power supply.

1 Like
12

Hi Liam,

thank you very much. I am after something that can charge the battery and at the same time the power can be used for another system.

1 Like
13

This device allows charging and supplying power at same time. When charging the the power is shared between charging and suppling power. With just the LiPo connected it provides power.
You need to ensure the USB power source is capable of providing charge current and supply current at the same time. As the web page says if you need 1A supply you need the USB to provide up to 2A.

cheers
Jim

1 Like