In an earlier post, I described a rather inexpensive 16 AH LiFePO4 battery. I’ve used that for my last three activations, and so far it works as expected. A few folks have asked me “What charger do I use?”. I decided to go with a 4 Amp LiFePO4 charger like this one from HamRadio.com (the charger used for BioEnno batteries): https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-014845
Similar chargers are also available on eBay
LiFePO4 batteries are VERY efficient, like 98-99% efficient. In other words, if you take 10 AH of capacity away from it, you are going to put almost exactly the same amount of power back into it. In other words, a 16 AH battery, fully discharged, will take 4 hours to fully recharge using a 4 Amp charger.
Please note that the Battery Management System (BMS) installed in a multi-cell packs has cell balancing circuitry built-in. It tries to make sure that the series connected batteries never get into a condition where the voltage on one cell differs from the voltage on another cell. Because of the BMS, it is often necessary to keep the battery connected for a few hours after the charger indicates full charge.
Hi Bob, I’m enjoying your posts, especially regarding POTA, and I hope to be activating more RI parks this spring. I use a similar LiFePo4 setup but I went with the Bioenno 1503CAR unit, with the 12V accessory plug. I use it to keep my cells topped up as I travel, including mobile operation. At home I connect it to a light duty PS with a 12v accy output. This has been my setup for POTA and portable/rover VHF work for the past year or so with either a Bioenno 20Ah unit or a homebrew 8ah 4S pack of 38120 cells. There are other ways to top up a battery while working away from mains, but this one has been the easiest for me. 73, N1QDQ in Westerly
Hi Pete!
Thanks for bringing that BioEnno charger to my attention — That would be pretty handy for sure. If I am out for a long time, I have some small folding solar panels (30 watt) that puts out 2+ amps via a MPPT charger, but that’s only good if I’m not deep in the woods in some park, and only if I am hanging around.
Now that you mentioned Westerly, I think we chatted during a POTA back in February. Small world.
Just a tip — do all the beaches as soon as you can, because soon they will charge for parking and will be mobbed with people!
73, Bob, WB4SON