1 [[!meta title="LipoCharger"]]
4 This is a simple but effective, dual-rate, standalone charger for Lithium
5 Polymer batteries. It supports two different charge rates selectable with
6 a swtich, of approximately 100mA and 500mA. The 500mA rate is good for
7 batteries of 400 mAh and higher including the 900mAh cells sold with
8 [TeleMetrum](../TeleMetrum) starter kits, while the 100mA rate is more
9 appropriate for the 110mAh cells often used with [TeleMini](../TeleMini). A
10 standalone charger is essential for use with TeleMini since it does not
11 have on-board charging capability.
13 Production units are available from the
14 [Garbee and Garbee](https://shop.gag.com) web store.
16 These are photos of production version 1.1:
18 <a href="v1.1/lipocharger-v1.1-top.jpg"> <img src="v1.1/lipocharger-v1.1-top-thumb.j
20 <a href="v1.1/lipocharger-v1.1-bot.jpg"> <img src="v1.1/lipocharger-v1.1-bot-thumb
27 * Micro USB connector for power input
28 * 2mm JST-style connector for battery
31 * green when charge complete
32 * both on, or "yellow", when battery is disconnected or bad
33 * 1.0 x 0.4 inch board
35 ### Developer View ###
38 * [Microchip MCP73831](http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en024903) Li-ion battery charger chip
40 * [gEDA](http://www.gpleda.org/) for schematic capture and PCB layout
42 * The hardware is licensed under the [TAPR](http://www.tapr.org) [Open Hardware License](http://www.tapr.org/ohl.html)
46 The design files can be found on [git.gag.com](http://git.gag.com) in the
47 project [hw/lipocharger](http://git.gag.com/?p=hw/lipocharger;a=summary).
49 For those who don't have ready access to the gEDA suite, here are pdf snapshots
50 of the files for Production PCB version 2.0 in more easily readable form.
52 * [schematic](v1.1/lipocharger-sch.pdf)
53 * [pcb artwork](v1.1/lipocharger-pcb.pdf)
54 * [bill of materials](v1.1/partslist.csv)