I bought a single cell Li-Po battery and two different charger modules (one without protective circuit and one with protective circuit) from AliExpress.
The Li-Po battery has a protection circuit board.
Both charger modules have the TP4056 chip. I found a datasheet for the TP4056 chip, in which the chip is described as "1A Standalone Linear Li-lon Battery Charger with Thermal Regulation in SOP-8". The datasheet only mentions Li-Ion batteries, but not Li-Po batteries.
The product description of the charger module without protective circuit says that the module is for Li-Po batteries: "This linear charger board allows you to charge lipo battery using either a Mini USB connector or a 4.5V – 5.5V input." However I'm not sure how accurate this description is.
The product description of the charger module with protective circuit says that the module is for 18650 batteries, which if I understand correctly are Li-Ion batteries: "5 V Micro USB 1A 18650 Lithium-Batterie Ladebordlader Module Neue Heiße Weltweit".
My questions are:
- Can I safely use these charger modules with the TP4056 chip (or at least one of them) to charge the single cell Li-Po battery?
- If both modules are ok, which one is preferable (Li-Po battery has it's own protection circuit board)?
- If none of the modules are ok, which module can I use instead?
Best Answer
Take a look at Microchip parts: MCP73841/2/3/4. I've been using a MCP73844 in comercial products for more than 3 years and they work great! Unfortunately they do not have protection circuit for cut-off, but you can implement one with some resistors, an op-amp, a shunt and a MOSFET.