Starting into battery-powered and have questions

[KF0AWL]

I picked up a LIPO battery few weeks ago at a tailgate then picked up a hammo can. The can comes with a charger that plugs into the Anderson outlet n im wondering can I use the same charger for the LIPO also?
The charger is for a 12 volt gel battery so it should work correct?

 

[prcguy]

Does the LIPO have an internal charging/balancing board? If not you probably need a specific charger for it. Even with a charger/balancer board you would need to feed a certain minimum voltage for it to charge properly.

I picked up a LIPO battery few weeks ago at a tailgate then picked up a hammo can. The can comes with a charger that plugs into the Anderson outlet n im wondering can I use the same charger for the LIPO also?
The charger is for a 12 volt gel battery so it should work correct?

 

[KF0AWL]

No the lipo is just the battery with Andersons and like a larger size headphone looking plug coming out of it. Had plans to get a solar charger in the near future then got the can n thought hmmm wonder if it will charge through 5h3 power poles like the can does 🤔

 

[kayn1n32008]

LiPo batteries NEED a charge controller. They need to be charged very differently than lead acid batteries. If it doesn't have a charge controller/balancing unit, you will need to get one to the SPECIFIC battery chemistry that you have. If you don't, you can very easily destroy the battery

 

[iMONITOR]

LiPo batteries NEED a charge controller. They need to be charged very differently than lead acid batteries. If it doesn't have a charge controller/balancing unit, you will need to get one to the SPECIFIC battery chemistry that you have. If you don't, you can very easily destroy the battery

Or burn down your house!

 

[KF0AWL]

Or burn down your house!

Ya not looking to do that.
Going to keep putting pennies away to get a solar charger.
Whats a inexpensive but decent setup to run a ft-891 and a yaesu ft-5200 while charging a battery?

 

[vagrant]

$40 PWM 30 Ah solar controller
$600 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery
$140 ea. 100 W solar panels x4

It is best to charge/discharge a LiFePO4 at a 0.2 C rate to get maximum lifespan from that kind of battery. A 100 Ah battery at that .2C rate will give you 20 A which is about what your 891 will draw at 100W, plus the mobile in RX at the same time. Running your 891 at 20/40/80 watts, stepping up as needed, will pull less amps. Running 100W pulls more amps and the dB gain is not worth it.

One 100W panel would replace the RX draw of those two radios. A second would start to charge the battery. If you TX often for a contest, or just chat, three or four panels would be good. The 30 Ah solar controller could handle four panels and your charge rate into the LiFePO4 battery would be about 20A. Again this keeps the rate at 0.2C.

Yes, one can typically charge/discharge a LiFePO4 at a higher rate than 0.2C, but at the cost of the overall battery lifespan. Instead of reducing the lifespan with a heavy draw/charge, purchase a 200 Ah battery that will handle a 40A charge/discharge.

 

[tweiss3]

FT-891 can pull 23A (2A RX)
FT-5200 can pull 11.5A (0.6A RX)

For that kind of load, you will need a pretty large battery that can handle a minimum of 25A continuous load (looking at 30Ah LIFEPO), but if you want simultaneous transmission, you need to have a battery that can handle 40A continuous discharge (like this 40Ah LiFePo).

Charging of the above LiFePo requires 6A at 14.6v

See the above suggestion for the costs. That panel array will be quite large in size (21" x 48" each).

 

[KF0AWL]

The 5200 is usually going to be off in the field unless im inputting setting to catch birds or talking to them.
The 891 would be my primary communication.