sudomod

Hi everyone,

this is probably a total newbie question, but I want to learn and haven't been able to find an answer so far:
I'm trying to replicate wermy's original build and was wondering about how the Adafruit Powerboost 1000 works with the Pi and the connected battery. More specifically: what defines the properties of the batteries that can be connected to it? Does the Powerboost only accepty one specific type of battery? What do I have to look out for when selecting a battery to power my Gameboy Zero?

For example: Wermy used a 3.7V 2000mAh LiPo battery in his original build. I have thought about using a high capacity replacement battery for a Dualshock 4 (see attached photo, it's nicely contained in a plastic case and quite flat). It is also 3.7V 2000mAh but a Li-ion. Could I use that? If not, where can I find which properties the battery has to have?

Again, I am totally new to this and probably have overlooked something, but I want to make sure I don't fry my GBZ or have it explode in my face.

Thanks for your patience.

You can use every battery pack with JST wiring ( the white part with 2 holes ^^ ).

Just be sure there is a protective circuit on the battery to prevent overvoltage

Thanks. Did the one used by wermy have the protective circuit you mentioned? Or can I add one myself?

Also, the batteries I've been looking at give no information of whether they have overvoltage protection or not. The one I posted above reads a maximum voltage of 4.2V so I'm guessing it has no such protection?

4.2v is the regular max voltage for all "3.7v" Li-Ion/LiPo batteries. And yes, those cased batteries should have protection built in.
Watch out for the dual shock replacement batteries though as the JST (the white 2-pin connector) is often wired in reverse polarity to most other JST battery receptacles, like on the powerboost. If in doubt, examine what you have and compare to any of the batteries for sale on the adafruit website. If it's reversed, it's a simple fix to swap the prongs around, or just wire on a different jst

abrugsch wrote:4.2v is the regular max voltage for all "3.7v" Li-Ion/LiPo batteries. And yes, those cased batteries should have protection built in.

Thanks for the info! So the powerboost doesnt output more than that, right?

it charges up to the 4.2 MAX of LiPo's and boosts it to 5v(5.2 actually) to your project.

here's some good/relevant info: https://learn.adafruit.com/li-ion-and-l ... s/voltages
and
https://learn.adafruit.com/li-ion-and-l ... r-charging

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate this. I will read up on the links provided and probably return with more questions.

Sadly, one of the phrases on an Adafruit charger product scared me like this for a while.

For use with Adafruit LiPoly/LiIon batteries only! Other batteries may have different voltage, chemistry, polarity or pinout.

Yes, make sure that the polarity is proper, as a previous poster mentioned they might be switched on the connector end. To make sure they have a protection circuit, look for a board above the battery cell. Ususally, it's within the orange kapton tape at the top of a battery like on all the Adafruit batteries. It's actually a really tiny board like this soldered to the battery cells and covered up with protective tape or the plastic case covering it all.

For the LiPo/Li Ion chargers, don't connect Nickel Cadmuim (NiCd) batteries like the rechargeable AA's. Or any normal not rechargeable battery for that matter.

I'm not for sure, but I think the RC batteries don't have a protection circuit for particular reasons.

If you get a gray battery with an orange end that looks like an Adafruit battery, you're likely to be on the right track.

inches wrote:Sadly, one of the phrases on an Adafruit charger product scared me like this for a while.

yes, standard disclaimer there. but in their learning page that I linked it has the exact bit of info you need, to know what can be mixed and matched successfully and it TL;DR's to: LiPo and LiIon can be charged with the same charger (a LiPo/LiIon one) and as long as the charger max (usually 4.2v) is less than or equal to the battery max, then you're good to go. for instance, many samsung phone batteries are 3.8v nom/4.35 Max but can be charged just fine with a 3.7/4.2 charger but the battery will never reach it's maximum charge.

as an aside, a lipo charger works like a bench power supply (and you can use a bench supply as a lipo charger) as all that's happening is that the charge process goes as follows:
main charging phase: supply is in constant current mode. usually 500mA or 1A for larger batteries, 100mA for ones smaller than 500mAH. when the battery is depleted it will be somewhere around 3.1v and the bench supply will display that. as it charges at constant current, the voltage rises. when it hits 4.2v the supply must switch to constant voltage mode at 4.2v (or 4.35) for the final phase. The current will then slowly drop until it's fully charged when it will be close to 0mA.

The reason this is different from NiCd chargers is that they only have one phase: constant current OR voltage (I can't remember which, voltage I think) and subjecting a LiPo to that will result in a big fire. (not actually joking)