Advise with battery levels

General
1

Hello.

Thanks to the help of the community I have the second version of my application successfully working. My system uses the LiPo battery as main power source, with a bigger 12V battery charged with a big solar pannel as backup. So my program gets the power from the 12V battery when the LiPo is below certain charge level, and disconnects from the 12V source when the LiPo reaches a certain higher level. By 12V I mean 5V from a 12 V to USB power. I get the LiPo charging level calling FuelGauge’s method getSoC();

My concerns are about the low and hig LiPo levels, that currently are 40% and 99%, and if it will be convenient to let the battery charging some time after reaching the high level, to ensure full charge. All of this is related with battery life and the ways not to shorten it by misuse.

Thank you very much for your advise.

Regards,
Germán.

2

Can you remind us what hardware you’re using?

I’m surprised you actually get a SoC of 99% and a low of 40% is also surprising.
When I use the Electron’s SoC reading I see 0% up to 90%~93%.

Usually you’d rather want some safety margin when charging a battery to allow for change in ambient conditions - e.g. temperature is critical!

1 Like
3

Thank you for your answer.

I am using an electron. I do not show the read level, I just use it to compare against the thresholds that are fixed in the code, to put on or off the charging power source consequently.

I will follow your numbers and lower both and just allow for some additional charging time after the high threshold is reached.

Thank you again.

Regards,
Germán.