Call 4 Inputs for our New Lipo Rider Plus Plus

Products & Technology New Product Ideas
#1

Hey Community,



This is Nicho, Product Manager at Seeed. You might notice that we’ve just released our new Lipo Rider Plus, a Lipo battery charger/a power supply/a booster yesterday. It supports up to 5V2A charging current, boost output integration, output up to 5V2.4A, and it also provided 3.3V 250mA OUTPUT.





https://www.seeedstudio.com/Lipo-Rider-Plus-p-4204.html



With the help of Lipo Rider Plus, you can input a 3.7V lipo battery, and output up to 5V/2.4A via the USB Type-A port. With the on-board switch, you can control the ON/OFF of USB port easily. Meanwhile, threre are also full function pin headers onboard, which can output 3.3V/250mA as well. Since there is only one JST2.0 port, it is almost half the size of LiPo Rider Pro and Lipo Rider v1.3, which makes it much easier to mount it to any project in various scenarios.



And now comes the more important thing. We’re currently working on a upgraded version of Lipo Rider Plus. We want to call it Lipo Rider Plus Plus (not finalized yet, the name might be changed), and we would love to have your inputs and expectations for the new version. It would be really appreciated if you could feedback in the forum on the following questions.



1) Any suggestion for the output?

2) Apart from the lipo battery, which other kinds of batteries that you would love to see that Lipo Rider Plus Plus will support?

3) Any other features that you would love to add to the Lipo Rider Plus Plus?

4) There’re many lipo chargers or riders in the market. Is there any scenarios/ functions/features that you’re still looking for?



Last but not least, you’re always welcome to let us know if you have other inputs for the Lipo Rider Plus Plus. For example, the pricing, and even the name for the product.

#2

Hi Seeed Product Team,

Thank you for your amazing work as always! I am very excited to hear about your new LiPo Rider Plus since I sometimes use LiPo batteries to drive my maker projects when I am outside and when there is no access to main power supply. I already own your other two LiPo Riders and currently using them. I think your LiPo Rider Plus will allow me to drive a Raspberry Pi because of it’s amazing 2.4A output and I am really excited about this! I can see that you have done some compromises to make the board smaller by getting rid of the JST connector for solar panel input and I think it can be advantageous for some people and not advantageuos for other people. But for me, I love the smaller size since it will come in handy to use.



As you mentioned, I am happy that you guys are working on another LiPo Rider,which eventually will be even better than this. I would like to suggest a name for it. Maybe…“LiPo Rider Extreme” and make it the true shining star!



Now, I would like to give my feedback on the questions asked.


  1. I think maybe increase the output current even more (5V/3A)? This will suit the above product name for sure :slight_smile:
  2. I would love to see support for Lithium-Ion batteries since they are much cheaper and has more charge density than LiPo batteries. But they both have their own advantages and disadvantages in the end.
  3. I would love this LiPo Rider to output my real time charge status of the connected battery so that I can always check how much battery is left.
  4. I would love this LiPo Rider Extreme to be a real competitor in the market with a competitive price so that I can also buy one for myself in the end :slight_smile:



    I hope my answers will help you dive into more insights while developing a newer version of the LiPo Rider!

    Thank you.
#3

I would say the upgraded version a “Lipo Rider Ultra”. I would like to see:

  1. 3V
  2. Protection circuit
  3. Reasonable price
  4. Headers to power breadboard or other microcontrollers
#4

Thank you very much for your suggestion~ It is true that this version is not good enough for the fit of the breadboard… This will help us improve this product! .



Currently this version supports 3.3V output. We have built a LDO(xc6206p332mr) to implement this function, but currently it can only supply 250ma current. For the next version, I think that we can continue to enhance this output capability for more scenes.



The USB output jack of this version is short-circuit protected. We have tried the reverse battery and there is no explosion :lol: , and everything works fine after recovery.

#5

We may add a stronger solution for larger power solar panels in the next version, and support multiple types of batteries, this consideration also comes from our actual outdoor scene project needs. I hope the next version can help you more in your project, thank you very much again for your suggestions~~

#6

I’d like 3.3V with enough current to support the E32 Wrover boards and a grove peripheral or two.

The 18650 lipo is a useful size. I’ve always wanted either a built in holder, or the ability to charge two of them in parallel at the same time.

If more lipo form factors were supported, like the little flat packs, that would be great too…



As we’re asking for the moon - the ability to charge these batteries from a solar input would be super useful for in-the-field mesh networks. Using the batteries for primary current drain and the solar to recharge. You can see why I want a couple in parallel for long term use.

#7

Need to see the schematic before I can make sugestions

#8

Hi there~



Here is the schematic. <LINK_TEXT text=“https://github.com/SeeedDocument/Lipo-R … %26PCB.zip”>https://github.com/SeeedDocument/Lipo-Rider-Plus/raw/master/res/Lipo%20Rider%20Plus_SCH%26PCB.zip</LINK_TEXT> thanks.

#9

Thanks for your input, Multi-cell lipo battery charging usually requires a dedicated balanced charging circuit, and we are trying to find a more versatile and efficient way to solve this. a new Lipo Rider with much powerful solar charging circuit is in the schedule，we look forward to your suggestions on power and functionality about the solar charging circuit~. :wink: :wink: :smiley:

#10

Hello,

and I’m sorry I’m so late to the party, but I’ve been looking around and couldn’t really find any LiPo charging module that would allow the following:

On the Rider Plus, is it possible to carry the D+/D- lines from the USB-C socket over to the USB-A socket? Maybe even as a one-off hack?

What I have in mind is an upgrade to my portable turntable, which I’m building using off-the-shelf parts. Basically I put a small LiPo battery into an existing MTT1 turntable. my battery output goes to a boost converter to generate the 9V I need for the motor / original circuitboard and to a headphone amplifier via a B0505S-1W 5V-5V Isolated Module (which does work when fed 4.2V instead of 5V).

As an upgrade, I would now like to use a Behringer U-Phono UFO202 USB soundcard as the phono preamp (I have tested this, the sound card works as a phono preamp when simply connected to a USB charger). So on the Rider Plus, I would connect it to the USB Type A socket.

However, if the Rider Plus could work as a USB data passthrough (at USB 2.0 speeds) as well as a LiPo charging board, I would then be able to connect my portable turntable to my Android mobile phone using an OTG cable and use the UFO 202 as a soundcard to record vinyls on the go. This is something I have tested separately using AudioRecorder (no ads) which works really well.

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Any advice welcome, thank you :slight_smile: