About Charging mintyboost v3.

Ideas and questions about MintyBoost kits

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
sabareeshb
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:28 am

About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by sabareeshb »

Is it possible to charge the mintyboost v3 using a male to male USB cable from a cell phone charger? or it is required to remove the batteries from mintyboost and recharge it outside when the batteries are fully drained?


Is there any way to charge mintyboost without removing batteries?

Thanks for reply.

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Is it possible to charge the mintyboost v3 using a male to male USB cable from a cell phone charger?
No. This will damage the Mintyboost.
Is there any way to charge mintyboost without removing batteries?
If you are powering it with a LiPo cell, you can use one of our LiPo chargers between the LiPo and the MintyBoost. This charger is the best one to use since it has a load-balancing circuit.http://www.adafruit.com/products/390
(A solar panel is not required. It will work from USB or DC also.)

sabareeshb
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:28 am

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by sabareeshb »

Ok what is different between the 2 Lipoly chargers.

1. USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger - v2 (http://www.adafruit.com/products/390)


2. USB/DC Lithium Polymer battery charger 5-12V - 3.7/4.2v cells ( http://www.adafruit.com/products/280)


Which one has better efficiency?

Is it possible to power the USB/DC Lithium Polymer battery charger 5-12V - 3.7/4.2v cells using Solar power via Dc Jack ?

Looking forward for ur reply.

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

For use with solar panels, the USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger is the best choice for two reasons:
1 - It has Voltage Proportional Charge Control for efficient charging from solar panels.
2 - It has a load balancing circuit that allows powering the MintyBoost at the same time that the LiPo is charging.

The USB/DC Lithium Polymer battery charger 5-12V will not perform well with solar panel input. (I can confirm this from experience)
See this page for an explanation of why: http://learn.adafruit.com/usb-dc-and-so ... sign-notes

User avatar
morwic
 
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:37 pm

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by morwic »

adafruit_support_bill wrote:For use with solar panels, the USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger is the best choice for two reasons:
1 - It has Voltage Proportional Charge Control for efficient charging from solar panels.
2 - It has a load balancing circuit that allows powering the MintyBoost at the same time that the LiPo is charging.

The USB/DC Lithium Polymer battery charger 5-12V will not perform well with solar panel input. (I can confirm this from experience)
See this page for an explanation of why: http://learn.adafruit.com/usb-dc-and-so ... sign-notes
Please list the LED lights colors and what they mean. I have a 2500mha 3.7 battery with a Huge 6V 5.6W Solar panel -and it's been just the blinking red light and a blinking yellow light for 2 days mow ? Is this right ? well it ever charge ?
Thank You
iWiFi

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Where is the solar panel located and how is it oriented.
What voltage do you measure at the input terminals?
What voltage do you measure at the battery terminals?
Have you changed the charge-rate programming resistor?

User avatar
morwic
 
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:37 pm

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by morwic »

Well it's a 4.3 volts here is some pixy. it's been blinking like crazy today :D
Attachments
photo 3.JPG
photo 3.JPG (57.08 KiB) Viewed 965 times
photo 2.JPG
photo 2.JPG (80.28 KiB) Viewed 965 times
photo 1.JPG
photo 1.JPG (84.56 KiB) Viewed 965 times

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Well it's a 4.3 volts
What is 4.3v? The DC input or the battery terminals? You photos only show the meter display. I can't see what it is connected to.
What about the rest of the questions?
Where is the solar panel located and how is it oriented.
What voltage do you measure at the input terminals?
What voltage do you measure at the battery terminals?
Have you changed the charge-rate programming resistor?

User avatar
morwic
 
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:37 pm

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by morwic »

Well I'm new to all this my boss told me a need a hobby so I checked out ada on youtube, when I put the com on the cap that is where I get 4.3 V - I do not know how to check the other stuff :(- Sorry ... I have the panel laying down in my windows sideways, and I was thinking it was working when I saw the blinkie lights :) Oh So So So Happy. but then it did not work... So do I need a other unit for this project that was not included with the project parts ? thanks for you reply :D

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

If the input voltage is 4.3v, then the blinking is to be expected. That means the input voltage is marginal and the charger is operating intermittently.

To get full output from the panel, it needs to be outside and in full sunlight. Indirect light, filtered through a window will substantially reduce the output of the panel.

User avatar
morwic
 
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:37 pm

Re: About Charging mintyboost v3.

Post by morwic »

Thank you so much for the heads up. I will try that now :)

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “MintyBoost”