Develop ultra capacitor power supply and LiFePO4 battery power supply

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iancanada

iancanada

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Joined 2009
twitter.com/iancanadaTT
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wealas said:
I think he meant that you can still use batteries with tabs without using the battery holders if you want. The board won't have the battery holders installed by default.
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That's correct, thanks wealas:)

misterdog said:
The new boards can have either batteries with tabs or battery holders soldered in place.

I assume that cutting the tabs short will allow batteries to still fit into battery holders, though I cannot confirm.
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Yes, they work for both batteries with tabs or battery holders soldered in place.

I did it. Cut the tabs short and install them into battery holder with perfect fit. I like those battery holders, durable and better quality than I thought.

Have a good weekend.
Ian
 
Supersurfer

Supersurfer

Member
Joined 2013
Hi Ian,

The hardware modification is working fine, the rpi is powered constantly now.
I have a second board that I will put to use soon, is it possible to update that board with the software update of mk2 to get the always on funcionality?

A quation regarding safety: in the manual it is written that the battery board will switch off when one of the 3.3v batterys is low. Will the other two rails not be monitored? I would guess they will run out of steam earlier when running an iv board with class A opamps.
 
Supersurfer

Supersurfer

Member
Joined 2013
Hi Ian,

I took off the lcd board from the battery supply and mounted the cable the wrong way and removed it without powering off (yes I am a big moron for being this stuped ).
Now the screen is dead and the control knob does not work any more.
As I had another battery board lying around I took that lcd board to test but nothing happened.

Does this mean that the controller is broken? Is it fixable?
 
C

ccliu

Banned
Joined 2007
iancanada said:
@yaboin

Sorry about the issue.

First, please check all of the fuse make sure they are good.

Please also check the polarity of each battery cell. If any was reversed, the protection resistors could be damaged.

Connect a load to J4 with around 50mA current, then measure the Voltage on J4.

Also make sure K1 and K2 is on shortly after the first click sound.

Please let me know if you have more update.

Regards,
Ian
Click to expand...

Hi Ian,

I assembled my board today. And found having the same problem as MikeyFresh: the J4 is 0V and the others are all good as expected.

1. the F3 and F4 fuses are good.
2. all battery cell in correct polarity.
3. I added a LED with 3.9K resistor in J4 and measured as 0V. But doing the same in J3 and measured as 14.68V.
4. I heard the click sound and the K1 and K2 should be on.

What else I can check? Thanks!
 
A

AudioKill

Member
Joined 2019
Hello, are you planning a digital interface for the RPi from the power Board? By which you can control the charging/discharging of batteries through RPi. Plug-in for Volumio can monitor the status of the batteries. Analysis of the mode of operation of the power supply will allow you to configure and increase the life of accumulators.
 
G

Greg Stewart

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Joined 2003
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@AudioKill,

Why would you want that and what would it add? The board already controls the charging and turn-off by time or cells reaching the preset lower voltage. Doing this interface would (AFAIK) require a redesign of the board and the firmware, provide nothing additional (there are no configuration options AFAIK that would increase battery life, that is based on the current draw of the attached equipment), would only be useful for those using the setup with an RPi and Volumio, AND require a SW development effort along with getting the modules into the RPi kernels AND maintaining them over time.

Seems like a lot of effort, both initially and over time, to duplicate what the board does already while adding utility to a VERY small number of users.

Just my 2 cents!

Greg in Mississippi

P.S. How's the board working for you?
 
R

Rrbs

Member
Joined 2015
I need some help please :

I assembled the LiFePO4 Battery power supply today and after I switched on , I realised high pitch radio freq noise output from the board . I checked all rails can output correct voltage . This radio noise only occurred when I switch ON the board with loading only . If I switch off (i.e. standby charging mode), the radio noise disappear . Just want to check anyone here have any idea what the problem is ?

Thanks for your help in advance .
 
A

AudioKill

Member
Joined 2019
Greg Stewart said:
@AudioKill,

Why would you want that and what would it add? The board already controls the charging and turn-off by time or cells reaching the preset lower voltage. Doing this interface would (AFAIK) require a redesign of the board and the firmware, provide nothing additional (there are no configuration options AFAIK that would increase battery life, that is based on the current draw of the attached equipment), would only be useful for those using the setup with an RPi and Volumio, AND require a SW development effort along with getting the modules into the RPi kernels AND maintaining them over time.

Seems like a lot of effort, both initially and over time, to duplicate what the board does already while adding utility to a VERY small number of users.

Just my 2 cents!

Greg in Mississippi

P.S. How's the board working for you?
Click to expand...

Greg, I respect you, you've been in the diyAudio community for 15 years. But I don't understand why in audio we are going the same way from scratch as in the computer industry (uninterruptible power supplies) have been for a long time:
there, too, in the beginning were Autonomous power supplies, then they added a com port, and even ethernet for management. What gives? Configuration, installation(especially for beginners), operation modes control, firmware update, all settings are now done autonomously on the Board through the display and menu, i.e. if I use the case, it is necessary to display and buttons on the case.
I'm not saying it's an emergency. But sooner or later we will come to this, as the manufacturers of uninterruptible power supplies for computers have come to this.
Another question: the noise from this power supply on the batteries in the charging mode and in the rest mode is different? And the noise of switching charging from one battery to another ? If these switching to do during pauses between tracks?
The second question: the configuration of the load, which is connected at all different, this configuration is much easier to do through the external interface. The external interface can be constantly updated, adding new equipment, with different consumption. It is already offline makes the MCU power supply.
And the third question about the connection of the second power supply - to manage the two blocks would be easier and clearer (especially for beginners). Finally, the fourth question about the batteries: Ian, you yourself used new batteries, and here on the forum many questions were about the use of analogues, rather than the original new battery (A123 ANR26650M1A ANR26650M1B). How then to track those batteries that have stopped working? To constantly open the case and measure them? I asked Jan this question, and I would like to hear his vision as the Creator of the device. Maybe I'm wrong, and without an external connection, the power supply is more versatile....but the first cell phones worked on one charge for a week, and modern smartphones have to be charged every day - and yet smartphones are much more, are all people so stupid?
 
J

jacklee

Member
Joined 2009
Rrbs said:
I need some help please :

I assembled the LiFePO4 Battery power supply today and after I switched on , I realised high pitch radio freq noise output from the board . I checked all rails can output correct voltage . This radio noise only occurred when I switch ON the board with loading only . If I switch off (i.e. standby charging mode), the radio noise disappear . Just want to check anyone here have any idea what the problem is ?

Thanks for your help in advance .
Click to expand...

Perhaps connect the load one by one to isolate the offending one first?
 
M

Maui

Member
Joined 2016
Hello Ian,

Are you still working on a software solution for the permanent 5v supply to the Pi on the version 1 LifePO4 boards? Or should i try the previous named hardware solution?

I've had two Volumio installs going corrupt, hope to solve this by no longer powering off the Pi.
 
R

Rrbs

Member
Joined 2015
batkalo said:
I have the same problem. The noise is coming when 5V (RPI) power supply is turned on. I'm going to go further this weekend and to try to locate noisy component.
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I look further into the source of the noise and found out that if I connect non-isolated 5V from battery power board to J3 of FifoPiUltimate , then the noise happened . If I connect non-isolated 5V from battery power board to non-isolated GPID 5V pin and GND pin of FifoPiUltimate , then the noise will not happen . Very strange ....
 
G

Greg Stewart

Member
Joined 2003
Paid Member
@Supersurfer,

Back on 4/28/19, you asked about the turnoff triggering for the isolated battery rails. My understanding is that each individual cell is monitored for the low cutoff voltage and when the first one reaches that voltage, the unit is turned off (disconnected from the load via the relays) and charging starts. Of course, the unit is all or nothing on whether it is on or off... all isolated battery rails connect and disconnect together, none can connect separately.

@Maui,

In the short term, do you have another appropriate 5V power supply you can use to power your RPi? AND the HW solution of course is still available.

@Rrbs & @batkalo,

I wonder if that could be a current-draw related issue. Are you powering anything beside the input side of the FiFoPi and the RPi with the non-isolated 5V supply, such as a USB-connected and powered external harddrive? THOUGH I must admit @Rrbs I would expect the behavior to be the same whether connected to J3 or the GPIO 5V/Gnd pins

Greg in Mississippi
 
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