Help with Ideas for Battery Power Projects Primer

Thread Starter

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,071
Howdy folks.

Prompted by a thread here, I am working on a primer to help people build up a tool box to power their projects with batteries. The idea here is to focus on secondary cells, particular LiPo and related chemistries. I want to provide both theoretical and very practical information.

The goal is to equip a neophytes with the ideas, parts, and assemblies that will make doing battery power the right way easy and flexible.

I am looking for possible help with a few things:

Sources and recommendations for batteries and modules (e.g.: BMS, power management, "UPS" style boards, etc.), as well as connectors (JST, etc.)
Practical experiences that you learned from, particularly solutions to "gotcha" type problems
Examples of completed projects you'd want to share (photos, even write-ups if you want)

And, of course, anything I have forgotten to mention that you might think is important.

For now, I want to focus own LiPo for Arduino-style projects but expanding to other chemistries, high capacity, solar power, etc. is certainly a possibility.

Thanks for any help you can provide as I make an outline for this. I will be buying some parts to photograph and assemble into useful configurations over the next little while but I am getting started now.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
... I am working on a primer to help people build up a tool box to power their projects with batteries. The idea here is to focus on secondary cells, particular LiPo and related chemistries. I want to provide both theoretical and very practical information.
Challenging and ambitious!

I'm sure you're aware of Battery University. It would be proper in my opinion to be sure to acknowledge that source and to build on what's there. Don't compete with it, rather use and expand upon it. Use consistent terminology and, where appropriate, draw distinctions if/where there is conflicting information.

One question that may not be addressed there and seems to come up repeatedly here is the question of sizing the battery. Soooo many people want to power their headlights with a 9V battery. OK, kidding, it's not usually quite that bad but sometimes it's close.
 

Thread Starter

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,071
Challenging and ambitious!

I'm sure you're aware of Battery University. It would be proper in my opinion to be sure to acknowledge that source and to build on what's there. Don't compete with it, rather use and expand upon it. Use consistent terminology and, where appropriate, draw distinctions if/where there is conflicting information.

One question that may not be addressed there and seems to come up repeatedly here is the question of sizing the battery. Soooo many people want to power their headlights with a 9V battery. OK, kidding, it's not usually quite that bad but sometimes it's close.
Yes, I have been an avid reader and user of BU for many years. It is an excellent resource.

My idea is to make using well designed battery power easy or at least easier for people who don't know about it. Capacity planning is certainly a very good thing to include and I've noted it. In the "choosing your battery" section I currently have chemistry, form factor, and capacity.

Who knows, eventually maybe we can do a cooperative project to produce a nice board for MCU projects that has the features to make this easy. I really that 3525FC I posted above, and it would be nice to include a programmable voltage supervisor to allow graceful shutdown as the battery gets low.

Thanks.
 

sghioto

Joined Dec 31, 2017
5,380
I've seen a lot of request from folks who want to power projects and Arduinos using lipo batteries that are also connected to chargers or solar cells. I believe there is a lot of misinformation on how to achieve this correctly.
I think this should be added to your Primer.
 

Thread Starter

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,071
I've seen a lot of request from folks who want to power projects and Arduinos using lipo batteries that are also connected to chargers or solar cells. I believe there is a lot of misinformation on how to achieve this correctly.
I think this should be added to your Primer.
Yes, that’s actually on the list. It’s an excellent topic. I have some boards like the Seeed Li-Po Rider Pro which handles just that, including solar, but I want to have multiple options including parts selection to roll your own.

Thanks!
 
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