Lipo Rider V1.1
Power your favourite electronic kit with green energy! The Lipo Rider board allows you ride the solar wave to run your favourite 5V device. The Lipo Rider board is the ideal green power solution for your outdoor sensor design. Attach the Lipo Rider board to your sensor board and it can run on solar power forever!
The LipoRider is extremely affordable and easy to use. No programming is required. Plug it in and it works. The internal charger IC handles all the power flow between the various components.
In case solar power is not sufficient, the microUSB port allows you to charge your lithium battery through USB. It can also be used to program your kit without detaching the Lipo Rider board.
The Lipo Rider can be purchased as a separate board or as a kit (Lipo Rider + Lithium Battery + Solar Panel) from Seeed Studio.
Model:POW115D2P
Features
Jst 2.0 connector
Stable 5V USB power supply regardless of source
Charge/Recharge algorithms built into chip
Charge Lithium Polymer Battery through solar power or USB
Stable supply voltage through either lithium battery or USB
2 x USB ports let you program your kit while charging your Lithium battery
LED indications for battery full or charging states
Simple design means extremely affordable
Scalable to multiple lithium batteries and large/multiple solar panels through simple end-user modifications
Application Ideas
Green Power and backup supply for distributed outdoor sensor network
Charger for Lithium batteries
Cautions
Live exposed electronic components
The board may get hot when supplying large loads
Potential short circuit or electric shock, especially if device gets wet when placed outdoors for solar power collection
Not recommended for charging mobile phones as module may overheat
Schematic
Block Diagram
Specification
Small Footprint – Dimensions = L47 × H37.5 × D6.6
600mA maximum charging current for Lithium battery
350mA maximum supply current from Lithium battery
Power diodes to prevent back feed from USB device into Lipo battery
Key Specification
Items | Min | Norm | Max |
---|---|---|---|
Iin Solar | 4.8V | 5.0V | 6.5V |
Icharge (RIset=3.9kΩ) | 400mA | 500mA | 600mA |
Isupply 0mA | 350mA | ||
Vbatt(Rx=0Ω) | 4.2V | ||
Vsource USB 5.0V | Vdestination USB 5.0V |
Pin definition and Rating
Pin Instruction and LED Statement
CH pin level(Red LED state) | OK pin level(Green LED state) | Statements |
---|---|---|
low level(on) | high level(off) | Charging |
high level(off) | low level(last on) | Complete |
pulse signal(flash) | pulse signal(on) | The battery isn't exist |
high level(off) | high level(off) | Two situations :- Input voltage lower than gate voltage - The input voltage lower than battery voltage |
Usage
The Lipo Rider works as a power module to supply a stable 5VDC power for MCU projects. Here is an example to drive 300mA output wave for a power supply:
Hardware Setup
Hardware Components
Solar Panel
The solar panel is connectedto the board via the lower JST connector. Please note that the Solar Charger IC only accepts input voltage inside the 4.8-6.5V range. If the charging LED is not on, it is possibly due to:
1.Lithium Battery Full
2.Solar Panel voltage outside of range (most likely due to insufficient solar power).
In the second case, re-position your solar panel to accept more sunlight if possible. None of the above conditions will prevent the Lipo Rider from providing a steady 5V supply to the USB, unless the battery is flat.
Solar Panel Equations
Solar Panel Output Power = Output current × Supply Voltage
e.g. 1W = Iout× 5V
Iout = 200mA
Therefore, charging for 1 hour will give 200mAh, ignoring losses. For a 1000mAH battery, charging from empty to full will take approximately 5 hours under ideal conditions.
Lithium Battery
The name Lipo Rider suggest that a Lithium Polymer to be used. However, the chemistry of a lithium polymer and a lithium ion battery is sufficient similar for the two battery types to be interchangeably used. In case more than one battery is to be used, connect them in parallel instead of in series, as the charger IC supplies 4.2V.
Slide switch
The slide switch controls the source of the USB 5V power. ON – Charge enabled from lithium battery and/or solar OFF – Charge disabled from lithium battery and/or solar
Source USB Port
The source USB port is a mini USB port which is used as a normal USB port. The source USB port can be used to charge the lithium battery or connected to destination device via the destination USB port.
Destination USB port
The destination USB port is where the destination device is to be connected. Power to the destination device will be supplied by the Lipo Rider board. The supply will be either from solar panel, lithium battery or source USB port.
Power Flow Dierctions under Different connection scenarios
Due to the huge number of combinations, I have only included only the main scenarios:
Standalone Mode
Solar Power charges lithium battery
USB Mode
Solar Power charges lithium battery. Lithium battery supplies destination USB device
Program Mode
Source USB will charge lithium battery and power destination USB device. Data connection will be enabled between source and destination USB devices
Example
Outdoor Sensor Device Power Supply
One important application of the Lipo Rider board is as an affordable power supply for outdoor sensors. The outdoor sensor device will be powered by the lithium battery supplemented by the solar panel. Please note that it is not recommended to run the outdoor sensor ONLY on solar power, as this may vary during the day and may cause the sensor to reset / power down unexpectedly. In this case, the device is running in “USB Mode”.
If a firmware reprogram for the outdoor sensor device is required, simple connect the mini USB port to your PC which will put the device under “Program Mode” as explained above.
Larger/multiple batteries and/or solar panels can be used, but only with end-user modifications.
Lipo Rider powering an Arduino Duemilanove (not strict an outdoor sensor in this case as I have not connected any sensor and it is not outdoor, but you get the point )
Support
If you have questions or other better design ideas, you can go to our forum or wish to discuss.
Version Tracker
Revision | Descriptions | Date | Editor |
---|---|---|---|
Lipo Rider V0.9b | Initial public release | Nov 2, 2010 | Lafier |
Lipo Rider V1.0 | Revise release | Jan 11, 2011 | Silas Wan |
Lipo Rider V1.1 | Change the Jst connector from 2.54 to 2.0 | Nov 2, 2011 | Mike |
Schematic Online Viewer
Resources
How to buy
Click here to buy Lipo Rider ,or other products you like.
See Also
Licensing
This documentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0 Source code and libraries are licensed under GPL/LGPL, see source code files for details.
Tech Support & Product Discussion
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