Author Topic: fancy lithium battery  (Read 12000 times)

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spacecase0

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Re: fancy lithium battery
« Reply #15 on: August 01, 2015, 04:51:40 PM »
a standard solar charge controller is not going to work well
your max charge voltage of 14.2V is just fine, but your cut in voltage is usually 13V, and that is 30% capacity on the battery
that is near what your load disconnect voltage should be
you are going to need something like that DC to DC switcher I linked to (as it will not cycle your batteries pointlessly)
or a solar charger that has the correct voltages for the LiPO4, cut in charge voltage 13.2V would work but 13V is way to low
some of the ones you already have might be adjustable, but many out there are not.

edit:
would using the standard lead acid hardware work ? yes
it would still be lighter than lead, but might not last longer
« Last Edit: August 01, 2015, 04:55:53 PM by spacecase0 »

spacecase0

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Re: fancy lithium battery
« Reply #16 on: August 02, 2015, 08:26:36 PM »
update,
the new soldering iron had plenty of power to solder it well,
also the noise on charging went away after I resoldered

AD

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Re: fancy lithium battery
« Reply #17 on: August 02, 2015, 09:44:29 PM »
Good to know thanks for the update. 
The only dumb question is the one that did not get asked!!

Tevin

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Re: fancy lithium battery
« Reply #18 on: August 02, 2015, 10:51:40 PM »
spacecase0 I'm glad you found a relatively easy answer.

Update for me...

After a weekend of research on the feasibility of upgrading the battery in my go kit setup, I have for now shelved the idea because I cannot find a practical way to interface a LiFePo4 battery with my solar panel. The solutions I did find were either too technically complex for my application and/or required more hardware that I'm willing to lug around.

As it sits right now my go kit fits in a backpack and weighs less than 20 pounds; that includes dipole antennas, coax, battery, solar, radio...everything I need to go on the air on HF up to 440. I'm not going to do much batter than that. Trading out a heavy SLA battery for a LiFePo4 that is lighter but needs extra junk to make it work is at best a break-even proposition and in many ways is going backwards.

I gotta quit overthinking this stuff.  :o



spacecase0

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Re: fancy lithium battery
« Reply #19 on: August 03, 2015, 12:32:11 AM »
did you find this ?
http://www.amazon.com/Bioenno-Power-Controller-Phosphate-Batteries/dp/B00CQGCMMU
they have small ones that deal with less current that are also cheep,
but you have to open it up and reset the voltages (3 of them)

also all the controllers they make need the battery connected first, it then confirms that it got the voltage range it is to be using,
this is critical as connecting the solar first will damage it

Tevin

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Re: fancy lithium battery
« Reply #20 on: August 03, 2015, 05:21:28 PM »
did you find this ?
http://www.amazon.com/Bioenno-Power-Controller-Phosphate-Batteries/dp/B00CQGCMMU
they have small ones that deal with less current that are also cheep,
but you have to open it up and reset the voltages (3 of them)

also all the controllers they make need the battery connected first, it then confirms that it got the voltage range it is to be using,
this is critical as connecting the solar first will damage it

I saw that but glossed over it. Will add it to the Amazon "wish list" and deal with it later.

Thanks for the tip!