Single Cell LiPo Battery Care

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Contributors: bboyho
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Introduction

Note: This tutorial was ported over from the older LiPo Battery Care tutorial. Tips from the LilyPad Basics: Powering Your Project (Power Options: Rechargeable Lithium Polymer Batteries) were also added to this tutorial.

Lithium-Ion Polymer (LiPo) batteries are a favorite of ours. Very light weight and some of the highest energy densities available. We affectionately call this battery the 'car battery' because it's huge. Not physically (it's 110 grams!) but because this 6Ah LiPo in capable of outputting 6 Amps over the period of one hour! This is a very large amount of power in our low-power embedded world. Please don't confuse this with a real car battery!

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A LiPo battery capable of producing 6 Amps for one hour!

Required Materials

To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials at a minimum. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary. Below is a wishlist of the parts that you need to get started if you were to charge a LiPo battery and then remove the connector.

Single Cell LiPo Chargers

There are a variety of development boards and breakout boards with a dedicated single cell LiPo battery charge circuit. Below are a few examples from the SparkFun catalog that have the MCP73831. The charge IC used and charge rate will depend on the design.

SparkFun IoT RedBoard - ESP32 Development Board

SparkFun IoT RedBoard - ESP32 Development Board

WRL-19177
$29.95
7
SparkFun Adjustable LiPo Charger

SparkFun Adjustable LiPo Charger

PRT-14380
$13.50
4
SparkFun LiPo Charger Basic - Mini-USB

SparkFun LiPo Charger Basic - Mini-USB

PRT-10401
$10.50
3
SparkFun MicroMod Main Board - Single

SparkFun MicroMod Main Board - Single

DEV-20748
$15.95

Single Cell LiPo Battery

Of course, you will also need a single cell LiPo battery. Below are a few LiPo batteries to choose from in the SparkFun catalog.

Lithium Ion Battery - 1250mAh (IEC62133 Certified)

Lithium Ion Battery - 1250mAh (IEC62133 Certified)

PRT-18286
$10.95
2
Lithium Ion Battery - 400mAh

Lithium Ion Battery - 400mAh

PRT-13851
$5.50
11
Lithium Ion Battery - 850mAh

Lithium Ion Battery - 850mAh

PRT-13854
$10.95
2
Lithium Ion Battery - 6Ah

Lithium Ion Battery - 6Ah

PRT-13856
$32.50
7

Tools

Need some help removing the single cell LiPo battery from the JST connector? Try grabbing a needle nose plier or diagonal cutters. Or you can use a hobby knife to whittle down the JST-PH's locking tabs.

Needle Nose Pliers

Needle Nose Pliers

TOL-08793
$3.50
1
Diagonal Cutters

Diagonal Cutters

TOL-08794
$2.75
3
Hobby Knife

Hobby Knife

TOL-09200
$3.50
2

You May Also Need

For strain relief, you can use some electrical tape and scissors to secure the wires on the single cell LiPo battery. You may want a marker to label the battery.

  • Electrical Tape
  • Scissors
  • Marker

Suggested Reading

If you aren’t familiar with the following concepts, we also recommend checking out a few of these tutorials before continuing

Connector Basics

Connectors are a major source of confusion for people just beginning electronics. The number of different options, terms, and names of connectors can make selecting one, or finding the one you need, daunting. This article will help you get a jump on the world of connectors.

Battery Technologies

The basics behind the batteries used in portable electronic devices: LiPo, NiMH, coin cells, and alkaline.

How Lithium Polymer Batteries are Made

We got the opportunity to tour the Great Power Battery factory. Checkout how LiPos are made!

How to Use a Multimeter

Learn the basics of using a multimeter to measure continuity, voltage, resistance and current.

What is a Battery?

An overview of the inner workings of a battery and how it was invented.