I've featured the availability of free rechargeable lithium cells from disposable devices often found lying in the street, so I thought I'd show the use of a multiple of those cells to make a power pack that can be used to power lighting or other small loads. It can be charged from a USB charger or a small 5/6V solar panel.
The module is a TP4056 lithium charger with extra cell protection. It lets you plug a USB lead straight into the pack to charge it. Very common on eBay and cheap when bought in multiples of 5 or 10pcs. It is intended for standard rechargeable lithium cells often described as being 3.7V cells - which is the mid charge voltage. The full charge voltage is 4.2V and fully discharged is around 2.5 to 3V.
When lithium cells are connected in parallel they behave as a single cell. It's important to make sure the cell voltages are very close before connecting them as otherwise high current can flow between them as they attempt to match voltages. Even a 0.1V difference can cause quite high current to flow.
The safest way to work on lithium cells is when they are almost fully discharged to around 3V or less. That way, any accidental short circuits will have low energy. Keep in mind that these are energy storage devices, and that the disposable devices for fog inhalation have quite high current cells. They are very popular with model drone enthusiasts as a source of cheap expendable cells.
Always take extra care to avoid short circuiting the cells. Cap the wires with tape when needed.
It's always useful to have a metal dish on hand in case of little incidents.
Pouch cells lack the external armour of cased cells, and should be protected against damage or shorting.
In this video I used the module to power a string of LED lights with a suitable resistor in series with them (33 ohm) to limit the current. They will run for over a day on a charge, gradually reducing in brightness until the protection kicks in and they turn off. You could also use the pack to power a small work light or other 3-4V load.
The pack can be charged while it's running LEDs, so it can act as a decorative emergency light that stays on during a power blackout.
Another approach to this might be to use the original metal tubes to hold two paralleled cells with a suitable connector to the charging module, so one module could be used with multiple power packs.
This power pack is ready for solar charging from a 5V solar panel or a 6V one with diode in series. The cells will be charged with whatever current is available from the panel, capped to the maximum current set by the modules programming resistor. Too high a charge voltage will result in extra heat from the charge chip and it may self regulate the current lower.
Supporting the channel with a dollar or two on Patreon helps keep it independent of YouTube's quirks, avoids intrusive mid-video adverts, gives early access, bonus footage and regular quiet Patreon live streams.
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#ElectronicsCreators
The module is a TP4056 lithium charger with extra cell protection. It lets you plug a USB lead straight into the pack to charge it. Very common on eBay and cheap when bought in multiples of 5 or 10pcs. It is intended for standard rechargeable lithium cells often described as being 3.7V cells - which is the mid charge voltage. The full charge voltage is 4.2V and fully discharged is around 2.5 to 3V.
When lithium cells are connected in parallel they behave as a single cell. It's important to make sure the cell voltages are very close before connecting them as otherwise high current can flow between them as they attempt to match voltages. Even a 0.1V difference can cause quite high current to flow.
The safest way to work on lithium cells is when they are almost fully discharged to around 3V or less. That way, any accidental short circuits will have low energy. Keep in mind that these are energy storage devices, and that the disposable devices for fog inhalation have quite high current cells. They are very popular with model drone enthusiasts as a source of cheap expendable cells.
Always take extra care to avoid short circuiting the cells. Cap the wires with tape when needed.
It's always useful to have a metal dish on hand in case of little incidents.
Pouch cells lack the external armour of cased cells, and should be protected against damage or shorting.
In this video I used the module to power a string of LED lights with a suitable resistor in series with them (33 ohm) to limit the current. They will run for over a day on a charge, gradually reducing in brightness until the protection kicks in and they turn off. You could also use the pack to power a small work light or other 3-4V load.
The pack can be charged while it's running LEDs, so it can act as a decorative emergency light that stays on during a power blackout.
Another approach to this might be to use the original metal tubes to hold two paralleled cells with a suitable connector to the charging module, so one module could be used with multiple power packs.
This power pack is ready for solar charging from a 5V solar panel or a 6V one with diode in series. The cells will be charged with whatever current is available from the panel, capped to the maximum current set by the modules programming resistor. Too high a charge voltage will result in extra heat from the charge chip and it may self regulate the current lower.
Supporting the channel with a dollar or two on Patreon helps keep it independent of YouTube's quirks, avoids intrusive mid-video adverts, gives early access, bonus footage and regular quiet Patreon live streams.
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
What short circuit current do you reckon these cells can output?
Can it charge at 2A when using an 600Ohm resistor? I had a look at the datashett, but it doesn't even show the 1.2kOhm for 1A there.. just 2.3kOhm for 500mA max.
I love your soothing, clear voice. I guess your Scottish ? Do you live in the US now ?
Thanks for the video! First project that I have all the parts for at 🏡 👍
Does anyone have an idea on how to modify discharge cut-off from 2.5V to 3V?
I find all my lights discharge the batteries to depletion overnight and usually won't fully charge during the day, so to keep the cells from damage of discharging to 2.5V every day it would
B good to have a higher cut-off.
On the spikey solder point (pun unintended!), I recently bought an old-but-as-new "sat in the shed for years" Lab-craft 24v fluorescent light (now gutted and LED tape-converted) a couple months back, and it was DOA, seller forgot why it was left there for that long, after I'd tested it and got nothing from it, I took it to bits & I found that a spiked solder joint on the fluoro driver had gone right through the double-sided foam mounting pad shorting 24v+ to the metal base, and had blown a track to vapour, in the factory it was probably missed as the metalwork was probably not connected to 0v-, but in use when they'd bought it, the light was probably grounded through the metalwork by way of mounting to a grounded chassis and bang, dead, and boxed back up and sat on a shelf for 30 years… 😛
I do something similar with the device batteries that I find. Except I use them to run a DIY solar sensor light.
There are loads of vaping reviews/vids on YT, some with millions of views – why the reluctance to say the word?
I rip apart 'fog' devices all the time.
🙂
I bought a slew of TP4650s some time ago.
I'm having all kinds of fun with them.
Modifying AA and AAA flashlights, and converting them.
Battery charging banks, replacing NiCd powered tools with Li-ion and adding the TP4650s (If low enough voltage).
🙂
Clive…
Get one of those little PAM8406 modules, a TP4605, and a 'fog' battery, and some small speakers, hook'em up for your viewers! They'll love it!
It makes you mad, and sad.
On just how Disposable society has gotten. Just the amount of actual reusable stuff we toss is sickening. We're gonna regret it someday 😥
… or was that yesterday
I still pick up stuff off the ground 🤗 👍
Lung mister
Greetings. How does it activate a high current heater via a slight inhale? What is the vacuum detector and drive crkt? Thanks, alan
Subject to two provisos, you can directly connect a solar panel to a Lithium-Ion cell. The two provisos are:
1. The cell must be protected.
2. The solar panel must not be able to supply more than one-tenth of the C value of the cell it's charging, at a maximum of 6V.
The protection circuit makes sure that the cell voltage is clamped to a safe limit while having a low current available from the solar panel ensures that the solar panel's actual output voltage is "dragged down" by the cell until the cell reaches close to full charge, at which point the protection circuit stops the charging process.
I've had an old mobile phone battery charging from a 6V panel by day and supplying around a dozen LEDs at night for over a year. I've never seen it run out of power, although to be fair, I've never stayed up late (or early) enough to see if it's still on as the sun comes up and turns the lights off (it has an auto-switching circuit).
I hate seeing them just dumped on the floor. It's ewaste!
Dear YouTube Censors: Get over yourselves! Vaping is not a crime! Talking about vaping is also not a crime.
You will be lucky to find anything like that on the ground in South Australia. Our anti-littering laws are such that if you are caught littering, it's a $210 AUD fine. Yes, our AUD is play money, but no one wants an expensive expiation notice for littering.