battery News - Page 9 of 12 - CNX Software

August 7, 2018August 7, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

LiFePO4wered/Pi+ is a Safer and Longer Lasting UPS for Raspberry Pi (Crowdfunding)

We’ve already covered several UPS solution for Raspberry Pi boards, but LiFePO4wered/Pi+ is a little different because instead of relying on LiPo (Lithium Ion Polymer) batteries, it comes with LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery which are said to be safer and longer-lasting albeit at the cost of lower capacity. LiFePO4wered/Pi+ specifications: Two battery size options: 18650 size – 1,500 mAh 3.2 V LiFePO4 cell with up to 2A max continuous load current 14500 size – 600 mAh, 3.2 V LiFePO4 cell with up to 0.75 A max continuous load current Smart charge controller – Over-charge protection, auto-adjusting charge current, customizable maximum power point (MPP) voltage Smart power manager: I2C communication Power manager and daemon – work together to ensure clean shutdowns and provide over-discharge protection Continuous monitoring – input voltage, battery voltage, output voltage, and load current On/off button Green PWR LED & Red CHRG LED Wake timer – Wakes […]

July 21, 2018July 21, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Pi-Zero-UpTime is an UPS for Raspberry Pi Boards and Clones

Since for a headless Raspberry Pi it makes no sense to use a large UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to keep it running in case of power failure, I bought and tested a Raspberry Pi battery kit a couple of years ago. The kit included an acrylic case, a battery charging board, and LiPo battery and it worked most of the time as a UPS. “Most of the time” means the switch from mains to battery would not occur fast enough maybe 10% of the time (it depends on the load), so the Raspberry Pi board would reboot. The kit also did not include a GPIO / I2C interface to report the charge level of the battery, so you would not be able to safely power the board when the battery is almost fully depleted. In recent years, it’s become more and more difficult to get batteries shipped from overseas, so […]

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Tri-Panel Waterproof Solar Power Bank Sells for $25

A few years ago, I purchased a power bank with a solar panel, but it only came with a 1.5W panel, and I found it took around 10 to 20 days to charge the 8,000 / 10,000 mAh battery in sunny Thailand, allowing me to charge the phone 4 times. So the rate of charge was not quite enough for self-sufficiency, and while I placed the power bank on a roof outdoors, it was not ideal since it was not waterproof, and I forgot to remove it sometimes when it rained, but it still survived for over two years… Solar power bank are mostly useful if you go outdoors in places without electricity for a few days, or if you have a project that would benefit from being powered that way. Depending on your requirements, a faster rate of charge and waterproofness may be useful features to have and that’s […]

May 1, 2018May 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Energizer POWERMAX P550S Smartphone Offers up to 20 Days Battery Life with a 5,000 mAh Battery

Energizer, the battery company, has now entered in the phone & smartphone business with devices boasting large capacity batteries such as their POWERMAX P550S Android smartphone powered by a Mediatek processor, and equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery promising over 20 days of standby time. Energizer POWERMAX P550S specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6737 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz with Mali-T720MP GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot up to 64GB Display – 5.5″ capacitive touch IPS display with 1280×720 resolution Cellular Connectivity 2G – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 3G – 900/2100 MHz 4G / LTE – B3/B7/B20 Data / Voice – VoLTE, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA up to 21 Mbps, HSUPA up to 5.76 Mbps, and LTE up to 150 Mbps downlink / up to 50 Mbps uplink Dual nano SIM card slot Wireless Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS […]

April 30, 2018April 30, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Easily Make DIY Battery Packs with this Building Kit for 18650 Batteries (Crowdfunding)

If you have a project that requires some serious battery power, and can’t find a battery pack that matches your requirements, making your own is possible, but usually expensive as the commonly used spot welding method requires expensive tools. Vruzend has created a modular lithium-ion battery building kit that greatly ease the making of DIY battery pack using 18650 battery cells using caps, nuts and bolts. There are two versions of the kit: V1.5 kit which supports up to 3.5A continuous and 7A peak per cell, and for higher power levels, the new V2.0 kit can handle up to 20A continuous (25A peak) per cell thanks to nickel plated copper-based conductors. It makes it suitable for EV racing, high power battery banks, and other power-hungry projects. The short video below explains how the kit works. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1354698863/diy-li-ion-battery-building-kit-make-your-own-1865?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=diy%20battery Vruzend battery build kit is now offered on Kickstarter, and the projects has been […]

December 19, 2017December 19, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

TDK CeraCharge Solid State Battery-in-a-Chip is Designed for IoT & Wearables

We’ve recently seen solid state batteries are prone to dislodge current Lithium Ion battery technology as they are safer, support higher energy density, and faster charging. Such batteries are expected to be seen in car in the first part of the next decade, in smartphones starting possibly in 2019, but TDK has just announced their own CeraCharge rechargeable solid state SMD battery with mass production scheduled to start in April 2018. TDK CeraCharge battery-in-a-chip will come in compact EIA 1812 package (4.5 x 3.2 x 1.1 mm), offer a capacity of 100 µAh at a rated voltage of 1.4 V, and can be recharged up to 1000 times. Potential applications include IoT devices, real-time clocks, Bluetooth beacons, and systems for energy harvesting. The battery – which will look very similar to an SMD capacitor – does not include liquid electrolyte, and instead uses a solid ceramic element as electrolyte which rules out any risk of fire, explosion, […]

November 23, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Prologium Lithium Ceramic Solid State Batteries Don’t Catch Fire, Nor Explode

You must have read articles or watch videos showing laptop or smartphone battery explode, and Lithium-ion batteries are considered hazardous enough that they are banned from airplane without the proper paper work. Such batteries can catch fire or even exploded when overcharged, or physically damaged. We have protection circuits for the former, and physical damage seldom happens, so in most cases the batteries are safe, and that’s why they are still used in laptops and phones. However, if you need maximum safety, Lithium ceramic battery (LCB) may be the way to go. Those are still Lithium-ion battery cells, but they replace the liquid polymer separator found in Li polymer battery (LPB) by a solid-state ceramic electrolyte, and you can mistreat them almost as much as you like with overcharge, cut them, bend them, and they won’t catch fire, nor explode. One company that makes such batteries is Taiwan based Prologium […]

November 15, 2017November 17, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Xiaomi Mi A1 Smartphone Review – Part 2: Android 7.1.2 Firmware

Google recently announced several Android One smartphones, which are supposed to get 2 years of firmware updates, including to the latest version of Android, such as HTC U11 Life and Android One Moto X4. Many of those phones are limited to some specific countries, but Xiaomi Mi A1 will be launched in over 40 countries, and thanks to Chinese online shops is really available worldwide. GearBest sent me the latter last month, and in the first part of Xiaomi Mi A1 review I simply went through unboxing, booted the phone, perform an OTA update, and ran Antutu 6.x on the phone for a quick estimate of performance. Since then, I’ve had around four weeks to play with the smartphone running Android 7.1.2 (still), so I’m ready to report my experience in the second part of the review. General Impressions In the past year, I used Vernee Apollo Lite smartphone powered […]