Electronic – How to charge a 3cell 11.1V battery pack made out of 3 Nokia BL-5C

batterieschargercharginglithium ionseries

I connected three Nokia BL-5C 3.7v 800mAh Li-Ion batteries in series for a robot project resulting in 11.1v @ 800mAh capacity. How do i charge the pack?
Should i get a 12v 5A adapter and limit the current or get a dedicated Li-Ion battery charger and just connect the leads?
If i want to make my own, how to do it?

Best Answer

You cant simply use your cells when they are in series across the terminals of the outer cells. If one of your cells has(and they are all different) a significantly lower capacity it's voltage could drop below 2,5V and damage the cell before the voltage overall gets too low to shut down. You'll have to use a Lithium Balancer for this to work. It tries to keep the cells at the same voltage while protecting them.

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

This will evenly charge your cells. I also recommend a protection against over-discharge, overcurrent and backfeed. The Balancer/Charger and Protection can also be combined as one unit.

A board like this has several protections build in: 4A 3S Lithium Battery Protection Chip Board

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