LiPo battery charger - Scope and performance.

[scg94]

Hello, good day to everyone.
I am Santiago, from Colombia.

I have a question, I do not know if it's a bit basic, but I hope I can help.
Inside the documentation of the LoPy Expansion Card, it says that it has a LiPo Battery Charger (BQ24040), with options for two charge currents (100mA and 450mA).

The question is ¿What do it mean?, ¿Do it have a built-in battery charger?, ¿Can I connect a solar panel by microUSB and a battery to the connector, and the battery would be charged?, What is the functionality and scope of this connector?. I hope you understand what I mean.

Thank you for your attention,
Regards.

[robert-hh]

@scg94 Even if a solar cell is mostly a current source, I would limit the voltage to about 5V, to be compliant with the regulators and the interface you are using. About the charge current look at the documentation here : https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/_downloads/exp_v03_pinout_v13.pdf
It's 450 mA (with jumper) or 100 mA (without jumper).

[scg94]

@bucknall Thank you very much for your answer.

Yes, I still have a couple of questions. Between the Solar Panel and the LoPy should I include a voltage regulator? Or also has a regulator included.

When you talk about current, what is the maximum input value? And ¿What amperage range varies when removing the BAT jumper?

Regards.

[bucknall]

Hi @scg94,

Yes - you can plug in a solar panel via microUSB + battery into the connector and it will charge the battery.

You can change the current delivered to the battery by removing the jumper on the expansion board labelled 'BAT'. The connector allows you to both charge and power from lipo batteries.

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Thanks,

Alex