Solar Lipo charger questions

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wheresbing
 
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Solar Lipo charger questions

Post by wheresbing »

Hi there,

I'm currently working on an Arduino project that is drawing about 0.2A @ 5V.
I've got a Solar Lipo Charger with a 3.7V 6Ah Lipo battery pack connected to batt and a Mintyboost connected on the load terminal to provide power to the Arduino.
A medium 6V 3.4W solar panel is connected to the charger as well.

I've got it set up and running now but have a couple of dumb questions.
1. Regarding the "load sharing" feature on the MCP73871, does it mean when I'm getting optimum sunlight on the panels, the Solar lipo charger switches the power from the Solar panel to the Load side entirely without charging the Lipo battery? Or does it splits the current intelligently between the Lipo battery and Load?

2. If I would like to add additional Lipo battery packs to the circuit, can I simply parallel more packs to the output of the Solar lipo charger? The individual packs has got its own protection circuitry.

3. Same like the Lipo battery packs, if I go with 2 or more 6V 3.4W solar panels in parallel directly to the Solar lipo charger, is this possible to just add on easily?

Thanks for your time.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Solar Lipo charger questions

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

1 - The battery will continue to charge if there is sufficient power from the panel for both load and charging.

2 - Don't connect LiPo batteries in parallel. It is not safe to do so.

3 - Panels in parallel require blocking diodes to prevent reverse current in the event that one panel becomes shaded.

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wheresbing
 
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Re: Solar Lipo charger questions

Post by wheresbing »

Thanks Bill for your response!

Well noted on your points. Is there any safe way to connect the batteries in parallel to the Solar lipo charger?

I've read the article about multi-cell lipo charging https://learn.adafruit.com/multi-cell-l ... g?view=all
It seems more suited for projects with lipo batteries in parallel.
Unless the only safe way is to add each Solar lipo charger to each individual batteries with individual panels?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Solar Lipo charger questions

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

If you go through the whole multi-cell tutorial, you will see that the cells are only connected in parallel while charging. When discharging, they are in series.

The only safe way to discharge cells in parallel is if they have been precision matched at the factory as with the three cells in our 6600mAh batteries.

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