Hi People,
I have a 3S 11.1V 2200 mAh LiPo battery with a 30C discharge rating. I would like to know whether I could use this with my Arduino Uno or will it blow it. I've been told Ardunio's can only handle 2Ah. Can someone with experience in using LiPo's with Arduino's shed some light. FYI I will also be using a sensor shield with the Uno.
-
capacity is simply the total charge held in the battery, not the same thing as current at all. A 2000Ah battery
provides the same current into a load as a 0.2Ah battery of the same voltage (if not overloaded). -
The max current a LiPo battery can provide if there is an accidental short circuit is huge. You should
use a fuse to protect your wiring and battery from damage. When working with power sources capable of
high currents its wise to wear eye protection in case of shorts (big fat spark spraying molten copper about),
and be sure the finished circuit is robust against shorting (insulate all the supply leads and connectors
properly). -
Fuses protect against the risk of fire and wires melting - they won't save delicate electronics, for
that devices like MOVs and TVSs are needed that act fast.
If you don't short the battery its just providing 11V or so, something safe with 12V is safe with 11V.
ie you can connect it to Vin or the power jack. Accidentally touch the 5V pin with that battery supply and
you will fry and may explode the chips on the board!
Thanks for your Reply,
So in layman terms, as long as use power jack or Vin, I should be all good?
use power jack or Vin, I should be all good?
Not necessarily. An 11 V LiPo can have over 12 V when freshly charged, and if you try to draw too much current from the Arduino (i.e. too many LEDs on port pins, etc.), the regulator will overheat and shut down.
Which is hopefully an undramatic failure mode. Indeed, lower voltages will be kinder on
the on-board regulator, since it is a linear regulator and has to dissipate the voltage drop
to 5V. You could feed the LiPo into a DC-DC converter to give 5V more efficiently.
easy-8:
Hi People,
I have a 3S 11.1V 2200 mAh LiPo battery with a 30C discharge rating. I would like to know whether I could use this with my Arduino Uno or will it blow it. I've been told Arduno's can only handle 2Ah. Can someone with experience in using LiPo's with Arduino's shed some light. FYI I will also be using a sensor shield with the Uno.
It can be used to power the UNO.
The 'arduino' site reckons recommended voltage of around 7 to 12 V.
So the 11.1 V battery is going to be around that ballpark recommended range. Absolute max supply voltage is said to be +20 V....... so around 11.1 to 12 V is way under this max value.
They do reckon that there will be more heating and wasted voltage drop when the supply voltage is higher (like 12 V as compared with lower voltage of say 9 V). But operating at 12 V is certainly ok.
The only thing is..... with Lipo batteries, I use a bunker charging box not just for charging...but also during normal usage of my batteries.....to avoid getting caught out by Lipo fire.