Product Review: Elektor DIY LiPo Supercharger Kit (by GreatScott!)
SparkFun engineer Alex Wende reviews the DIY Supercharger Kit - from opening the kit, to building, testing and using it.
Last Friday, we released the Elektor DIY Supercharger Kit (by Great Scott!). This kit provides all the materials needed to build a DIY supercharger/booster. Once assembled, it can charge a single-cell LiPo battery; protect it against the effects of overvoltage, overload, and short-circuits; and and can boost battery voltage to 5 V or 12 V. SparkFun engineer Alex Wende spent some time with the kit before we released it and wrote a comprehensive review (as published in ElektorMag - please take a moment to download it and read it.
Watch the Overview Video
Great Scott! also put together a very helpful overview and build video.
Go to the Product Page
"As Published in Elektor..."
Alex's review of the DIY LiPo SuperCharger Kit first appeared in the March/April edition of Elektor, which was guest edited by SparkFun. Please check it out: we’re giving away free copies of the English language edition with orders using promo code: MAGAZINE21 (rules and info). In the magazine you’ll see a mix of projects, tutorials, interviews, explainers on some of our product lines, and more!
Does anyone have a source for the small USB-C breakout that comes with this board? At first glance it looks like it's adapting a USB-C jack to the same footprint as the popular through-hold USB-A jack. That would be handy to have a pile of those.
I'm just a tad bit surprised that the board doesn't include a JST connector for the battery, since so many batteries (at least on this side of the Pond) have those pre-installed.
I'm wondering if something like this might fit?
The holes a spaced for 0.1" headers so it might be better to use a JST wire harness instead. What I did was instead of soldering the battery, I used an 18650 cell and a battery holder.
I think the reasoning they might not have gone with a JST is because it has a charging circuit and a boost circuit, so most of the time it might be better to leave it fixed to the board. Plus it's no fun if you're in the middle of a project and want to use the board only to find out that you "borrowed" the battery to use in another project.