My lipo batteries are showing zero voltage as soon as they arrived

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1

Hi!

I ordered 2 sparkfun MPPT chargers along with 2 boost converters and 2 lipo batteries. but my lipo batteries are showing zero voltage as I receive them. not sure why. but it should not be the case with the batteries.

2

Hi Faizan,

In your origin email to us, it suggests the batteries were working for an undisclosed period of time. If indeed you’ve missed something in the setup guide for the Solar Buddy then the batteries would be below the safe voltage threshold for a charger to automatically manage to recharge.

The batteries should now be considered unstable, and you really do need to be careful while they are in that state.

There are many tips online on how to recover your batteries. Do not leave them unattended, and take a high degree of caution with shorting wires / heat / votlages.

I recommend that once the batteries are recovered to a safe voltage level, that every aspect of the Solar Buddy guide is followed. Grab a multimeter and test voltages / currents beforehand so you have total confidence that the charger is working, and you will collect enough energy throughout the day to power your project for weeks/months.

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/sunny-buddy-solar-charger-v13-hookup-guide-

3

Hi graham!

I hooked them up in the same manner with the load too. but batteries were showing zero voltage soon as i checked them. they are unable to work for undisclosed period of time.

4

Something is not right with the setup then - would be worth revisiting that and also recovering your LiPos to a safe voltage. You’ll need to know how to manage these sorts of things for solar projects as you’ll sometimes hit them when things do not work out the way you first expect (a totally normal occurrence with hobby electronics and the odd mistake baked in!)

5

So, how to recover lipo?

i used same sparkfun MPPT chip with lipo to try recovering it. But, how much voltage it needs to have to be able to see it is recovered. Sparkfun gives 4 volts at the battery output. is that right?

6

Hi graham!

I used sunny buddy and lipo battery with an output which is my device. There was no solar panel. before running this i manage to charge my lipo to 4V and then i used this topology without solar to power my thing just
to see how long battery would last. and it last only hours. where as battery capacity is 6000mAH and my project needs only 120 mA.

Thus, i feel there might be some wrong in the these lipo batteries. they are not working. they showed zero voltage when i receive them.

7

Hi Faizan,

Thanks for that info. Charging to 4V isn’t really enough to determine a fully charged battery. It might be worth doing some background research on how LiPo’s work. Here’s a great starting point.

8

Hi!

But why they were showing zero volts when i receive them?

9

It would have been great to have been there at the time to say why - I can confirm that other batteries from the same batch are in very healthy voltage levels on our shelf. Perhaps your DMM was misconfigured at the time of measurement - because two devices in the state you have described is unheard of in my experience.

10

There is no problem with the DMM absolutely.

Batteries have some trouble it seems to me.

11

Hi Faizan,

There very well might be no issue at all with the hardware. You have not yet described a full charge and power drain, and I am fairly confident that you’re a fast mover given all of the recent forum interactions in this and other forum topics. It might be worth stepping back for a moment, and really getting into those guides I’ve shared. While I’m not able to build your projects, I am more than happy to help out along the way.