lipoly mini volt meter install ?

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Bottrigg
 
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Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 1:31 pm

lipoly mini volt meter install ?

Post by Bottrigg »

Hello to all,
I'm soldering up my solar lipoly today and had a question about where the two leads for the mini volt meter go. From what I could see from pictures on the net, one example had the pos going to load+ and the (-) going to the ground closest the the bat+. I purchased the 2600mAh battery and 6V solar panel. Thanks in advance.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: lipoly mini volt meter install ?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It depends on what you are trying to monitor. To monitor the battery voltage, connect the positive wire to Bat+. To measure the load voltage (which can be different from the battery voltage when in 'load sharing' mode) connect the positive wire to Load+. All the grounds are common, so any ground will do.

Bottrigg
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2012 1:31 pm

Re: lipoly mini volt meter install ?

Post by Bottrigg »

Thank you. I would like to monitor battery voltage. Seems pretty obvious now :roll: thanks again. I'm enjoying your products.

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ifrpilot999
 
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Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:21 pm

Re: lipoly mini volt meter install ?

Post by ifrpilot999 »

I suspect you were looking at my MintyBoost version that used the Lipo charger and the mini voltmeter. On the Adafruit LiPo USB charger, BATT+ and LOAD+ connections are tied together. To install the voltmeter I cut the BATT+ PCB trace and soldered the small switch into the GND connection on the PCB. This made a good mechanical connection for the switch. Since the switch takes up too much room to get at the BATT+ pad, the + side of the voltmeter was soldered into the LOAD+ connection. If I had to do it over again, I would solder in the voltmeter to the BATT pads on the PCB and simply put the switch on the battery itself to save the small drain from the MintyBoost resistor network.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: lipoly mini volt meter install ?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Yes, the solar charger is a little different than the USB LiPo charger. Instead of connecting the load in parallel with the battery, the solar version will switch the load connections between the battery and the DC input. When there is sufficient input current, it will allow the battery to charge while the load is being powered by the DC input.

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