sudomod

KonnorJ wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 28, 2018 6:40 am

As long as it isn't below 3v then its safe to use

So, despite having putting together some of the projects from here, I'm still lacking in the technical knowledge of a lot of this stuff. I'm definitely still a newbie to DIY electronics in general, haha

When you say as long as it isn't below 3V, does the V decrease over time, or when you leave it sitting? Or is that like what the battery just normally pumps out and has nothing to do with capacity? The only thing I have to test it is a little board from adafruit that lights up blue when a battery is plugged into it; it's an Adafruit Powerboost1000 Charger ( https://www.adafruit.com/product/2465 ). I plugged the battery in an it lit up so I just automatically thought "Ah it's still working!", but of course I'm not really sure.

I know I can use a multimeter for a proper test. I bought a multimeter from Amazon that broke on me right out of the box, so I never really learned how to use it. I actually bought it thinking that I would be using it all the time, but despite that, I never had a chance to, so I let it sit for awhile, then I decided I wanted to use it for funsies and found that it didn't work. I was way passed the time of return window.

Thanks for the reply by the way! Learning about this stuff is a ton of fun!

I think battery voltage can drop over time, but if it's connected to the poeerboost and it's not complaining, I'd say it's alright, just give it a charge, see if it takes it, if it does leave it for a bit and go ahead and use it.

demodummy wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 27, 2018 7:09 pm

This may be a random question, but how long can I have this battery sit? I actually bought one a long while back. Tested it, but didn't necessarily finish the project that used it. So it's kinda been sitting around for a bit (months). I didn't really charge it or anything. I'm gonna test it again when I find out where I put it.

Lipo's have quite good shelf life. It's best stored at about nominal voltage ie 3.7V, but yes, as long as it is not underdisscherged (which it shouldn't be since you haven't used it and it has built in protection pcb) you should be good to go after a proper charge. I belive I have one laying arround for a year now and it doesn't show any signs of failing.

demodummy wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 27, 2018 7:09 pm

This may be a random question, but how long can I have this battery sit? I actually bought one a long while back. Tested it, but didn't necessarily finish the project that used it. So it's kinda been sitting around for a bit (months). I didn't really charge it or anything. I'm gonna test it again when I find out where I put it.

LiPo batteries are safe to store for a long time. Normally, they should be charged at 3.7V (nominal voltage) to be be stored properly and you normally have to do a discharge/charge to storage rate once every 6 months but you won't have much issues if you don't.
I'm an RC driver, and the huge batteries we are using are much prone to storage errors because we draw around 150/200A from those batteries, so we want them to be very healthy.

For small current draws like GBz projects, it's not that important.

Last word, depending on the battery quality, it may still get permanently damaged by the tiny self discharge if it drops under the minimum voltage rate.

Could someone who still has my solar light in a box take pictures of front and back of it and email them to me? I need to check some things. PM me for email address. Thank you

Someone still got cardboard box from solar light? Seems every one throws it away.

Got them

I know I see adafruit powerboost works with this, but how do i know which one to go with?

ericker wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:21 am

I know I see adafruit powerboost works with this, but how do i know which one to go with?

Any charge module will work, tp4056, powerboost100/c, etc

What reason would i get this over the Megabat 4.5?