Anyone mess with LiPo Cells yet?

[K9EZ]

Has anyone worked with Lithium Polymer power cells yet? They sure seem light, and pack some power, but there are also dangers.

[pdeal]

My 15 year old son sure seems to know a lot about their use. He is into r/c model airplanes and the r/c modellers are using them in air planes quite a bit.

[PID_Stop]

Just the thing for a portable vacuum cleaner: LiPo Suction.

-- Jeff

[NECRAT]

Just the thing for a portable vacuum cleaner: LiPo Suction.

-- Jeff

[Deep Thought]

They are in just about anything that doesn't use a "normal" form factor battery. Since they can be formed into custom shapes they end up embedded in a lot of things like my Samsung MP3 player and even my old Toshiba laptop used one in the secondary battery which plugged into the DVD drive slot. You have to make sure you never store one in a discharged state unlike normal Lithium Ion batteries which prefer being stored half charged.

[K9EZ]

They are in just about anything that doesn't use a "normal" form factor battery. Since they can be formed into custom shapes they end up embedded in a lot of things like my Samsung MP3 player and even my old Toshiba laptop used one in the secondary battery which plugged into the DVD drive slot. You have to make sure you never store one in a discharged state unlike normal Lithium Ion batteries which prefer being stored half charged.

I didnt realize they are already that ubiquitous. Some web sites were talking about setting up fireproof areas to charge them and the like. I was thinking of trying some for a portable Ham Radio operation (about 20w RF).

[Deep Thought]

Yeah, they've been around for awhile--over 10 years actually. They also do not like going through full discharge cycles (full to complete discharge to full charge) and trickle charging can destroy the battery which is the exact opposite of what most people think is a good maintenance plan for rechargables. You really need some smart battery management built into the equipment they are used in to avoid seriously shortening their service life. For your application you'd probably be better off using standard lithium ion cells.