Other uses for Lipo and how to Protect them
 

Hi Guys,

I've been playing around with ideas on making different things rechargeable.

Lithium Ion, being the GREAT source of power that it is, is ideal for this IMO.

It only has one short coming. The cells MUST be protected and safeguarded against overdischarge.

Any Lipo cell has it's limit on just how low you can discharge it before irreversible damage occurs.

This protection is accomplised in Cell phone, PDA, Laptop, Digital Camera Batteries and many others, by using a Protective Circtuit Board.

The PCB must match the number of cells that you plan on using in a series.

Alot of PCB's have different specs, so you must match the PCB to the cells in use.

A PCB has a Low Voltage Cutout built into it. The LVC turns off the power when any of the cells in the pack reach a preset lower limit.

The one I'm using cuts power when cell voltage just bumps 3.0 volts per cell. This is ideal for Lipo, so is well suited.

Let's look at a few pictures and you'll get a better idea of what's going on.

First picture shows an overview:

I have attached a PCB that I robbed from an old PDA battery that used 3 Lithium Ion Prismatic cells in series.

I'm also using a cell balancer to monitor individual cell voltage. This is a good accurate way to see what the PCB is doing with the pack, since I didn't have actual specs for this PCB.

I'm also using a watt meter to track how many amps our load is.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07865.jpg
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07872.jpg
A Mamba Max Pro is powering a Prop attached to a brushless motor. (Makes for one heck of a fan too...........LOL)

I'm using a servo tester for speed control on the ESC.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07873.jpg

Here's a closeup of the PCB. I have attached to a printed circuit board, 4 female JST balance connectors. This will allow me to attach up to 4 packs in parrallel, for plenty of runtime on whatever the circuit is going to power.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/DSC07874.jpg

I'm thinking of installing the PCB into a Boom Box that runs on 12 volts. But I'm open to useful ideas.

What can we make rechargeable that normally isn't?

I've got one....a blender for the beach! No noise..well except for the ice being blended along w/your favorite frozen beverage! On the weekends I take the family and truck out on the beach for the day... and I am tired of listening to the weed wacker blenders running! Verry annoying. Would need quite a bit of juice to power one for the day

Love the prop cooling fan..very creative. It must throw a lot of air

Thank you.

It does REALLY throw alot of air if turned up. I usually don't turn it up that far though. LOL

I've thought about creating something that would charge itself.

Maybe a Big Boom Box with solar panels on it. It would require a fancy charge controller, but if done right, it would never require external charging.

Oversize the solar, and it would recharge from room lighting.

Seeing you are talking about solar panels...what about incorporating your idea for a fridge..that way if you loose power, no food is lost and seeing as it does not run all the time it would give the batts ample time to recharge

Ha ha I've got a fan setup like that . It's scary at car motor kv's.