I notice the LiPo charger mentions it’s in limited availability and will ship as soon as possible. So my question is: are they constantly trickling (haha! pun!) in on a steady basis, or is there an expected shipment date, or?..
Also, am I safe running two of the LiPo packs in series and/or parallel? I seem to remember that this is kosher with LiPos?
Thanks!
-marc
Hi,
We should have more chargers in 10 days.
Not sure about the parallel charging but I can give you my experience. I don’t mean to scare anyone: I had two 1200mAh batts (samples from the supplier) wire in parallel to run the port-o-rotary. Charged em up, had a night out on the town (good time showing it off to waitresses). Came home, hooked up the batts to the charger (single plug connection), and went to bed.
Next morning I noticed the charger had the red fault light lit and the charging light was off. Batt 2 was also bubbled up - the silver covering was blown up like a ballon. Not too extreme, but obviously the cell gave off a gas. Needless to say, I don’t use that cell anymore but may use the other.
Pete-o commented that unless the packs are matched, one cell will have a larger charge current untill they match. This over current could have cause the gas exhaust.
I’m pretty happy with the charger though. Performed well.
-Nathan
ever thought of carrying the smaller nicad battery packs / a smart charger?
On my PDA i have notes for a smart charger usign a PIC + some digital pots + 2x LM317’s 
If i get it working on vero i will get a PCB made, somming u may be interested in?
Most definitely!
We’ve already got a -dV/dt NiMH based on a single LM317. It’s also covered in this months issue of Servo based on a thermistor (I think the go into -dV/dt charging).
-Nathan
well with 2 u can get constant current and voltage. stick a pic in and a 2.5V reference chip and u have a smart charger, add some LEDs + some knobs for voltage select and vola, well kinda!
What i was thinking was a 1, 2, 3, 4 → 9V selected through a led matrix / LCD (mini one or somming) with .2, .4, .6, .8 sub divisions + a 8mA - 400mA charge rate…
Possibly even put in a choice for trickle charge using a mode select button…
I dunno, i will look into circuits in a bit!