Can feathers charge two parallel Lipoly batteries?

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ramonasharples
 
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Can feathers charge two parallel Lipoly batteries?

Post by ramonasharples »

Hello! I’ve been trying to figure out an answer to this with no luck so far. I’m making a wearable with a feather and I’d like to use two smaller lipoly batteries in parallel instead of one larger one to fit my space constraints better, and I was wondering if the built in Lipoly charging circuitry on the feather could handle two 400mAh batteries in parallel.

Thanks in advance!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Can feathers charge two parallel Lipoly batteries?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Generally not a good idea to connect LiPo cells in parallel. Small variations in charge/discharge characteristics can lead to dangerous overheating. Factory assembled packs are made from carefully matched and balanced cells.

A single CR123 would be similar in size to a pair of 400mA flat cells and most are rated for about 1500mAh.

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ramonasharples
 
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Re: Can feathers charge two parallel Lipoly batteries?

Post by ramonasharples »

Oh gotcha — that makes sense, thanks!

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Re: Can feathers charge two parallel Lipoly batteries?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

One bit of caution. CR123 cells come in several different chemistries that have different nominal voltages. The charge controller on the Feathers is designed for cells with a 3.7V chemistry.

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