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Charging 3,7v LiPo battery

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 8:39 am
by ajocius
What charger can I use to charge small Lipo battery, like this:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/shenzhe ... 21b32jjM8H

Thinking of using this battery with ESP8266 12E, this should be most compact solution for single sensor setup. Minimum cables, long battery life.

Re: Charging 3,7v LiPo battery

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:33 am
by OutoftheBOTS_
I tend to use a module like this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Sh ... st=ae803_5

edit I just looked closer at your battery and noticed it is onyl a 500Mha battery and the linked charger module charges at 1amp by default so this would be a 2c charge rate on a 500Mha battery which is a super fast charge. Most of the batteries I use are a little larger and charge nice at 1amp. If your any good with a solder iron you can change the FB resistor on the module to set lower charging rates just read the datasheet for the TP2046 charging IC

Re: Charging 3,7v LiPo battery

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 4:17 pm
by ajocius
Thanks, let me ask you follow up question. I understand there are two options for me: either choose 1A batteries ( I only chose 500mA as I thought that should be sufficient for low energy board like ESP8266 12E with deep sleep hopefully for a year ant it is small size) or adjust charging module or perhaps find another charger. Can you please drop a link to battery type you use? If was to use 500mA battery that I indicated and would want to use charger that you use, what exactly do I need to solder and where?

Re: Charging 3,7v LiPo battery

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 8:59 pm
by loboris
The LiPo charger charging current only indicates the maximum current it can provide.
So, you can safely charge 500 mAh battery with the 5A LiPo charger or charge 6000 mAh battery with 500 mA charger.
The charger circuitry and the battery chemistry will take care to charge the battery at the right rate.

With the standard LiPo charger, no matter for which maximal current it is rated, you will never charge the battery with the current higher than its chemistry allows.

Re: Charging 3,7v LiPo battery

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:13 pm
by OutoftheBOTS_
20190123_065923.jpg
20190123_065923.jpg (39.29 KiB) Viewed 4058 times
Here is the 2000Mah that I use as I find it small enough to fit on my projects. Charging with 1 of those modules at 1amp is 1/2 C which is perfect slow charge recommend for battery life. The TP2406 is a very good CC/CV charger with a very nice charge curve for Lithium batteries. It is a max of 1amp charge current but the set by the little resistor on the FB pin.

Here is a search for 3.7v 2000mah batteries in Aliexpress https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?in ... y=n&page=1

I usually do try to find batteries that have the little protection circuits on the battery like the ones in my pic you can see the little PCB at the top of the battery and it has over current, over discharge and over charge protection.

Re: Charging 3,7v LiPo battery

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 9:17 pm
by ajocius
Thank you both!

Re: Charging 3,7v LiPo battery

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:56 am
by mcauser
Another option is to use one of those 18650 power bricks.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2017-Ne ... 07666.html
Consisting of a micro-usb for charging, usb-a for powering your device and comes in various pretty colours and battery counts.
They boost the battery to 5V so there's a little inefficiency. The good ones come with a keychain. :D
Add some salvaged 18650s from an old laptop battery and you've got yourself a cheap power supply.