Hi guys, my name is Jorge here at SIRS-electronics and today I want to talk to you guys about
How to choose the right battery for your LED applications.
Ok, so basically, first of all, what is a LiPo battery? LiPo batteries are short for
Lithium-Polymer batteries. They're a Lithium-ion cell covered in a polymer, plastic casing.
OK, and they are more lightweight than other batteries but at the same time they
are a little bit more delicate. So why are they better than the other types of batteries
that are out there? Well first of all NiMH, NiCd, Lead-Acid, Alkaline; all those batteries
are not as high efficiency as a Lithium-Polymer battery. A Lithium-Polymer battery will give
you a more efficient ratio for the weight that it carries. Another thing you want
to consider about is, Lithium-Polymer batteries only come in increments of 3.7V, they usually
come in 3.7V and then they go up to, let's say 7.4, 11.1, and 14.8V depending on how
many cells you have. Ok, so secondly I would like to show you how does those lithium-ion
cells look like. You have your lithium-ion cell, is very thin and it has two terminals,
the positive and your negative. And they're pretty standard forward but they are also
very lightweight and very delicate to use. Secondly, I would like to talk about,
the differences between the 5V and 12V batteries. Here, I have a 5V battery,
basically, you have your battery, you have a Fuel Gauge that will let you know how much
battery you have, and you have your connector. This is a 5000mAh battery, and this one
you can connect it to this. This is a 5V digital protocol LED strip, this LED strip will have,
basically, each segment, it will have one LED and one chip. And, you can just connect
your battery to it and this battery will have two cells, consisting of a total of 7.4V;
then regulated through a 5V regulator. Our 12V battery, like this one, has three cells
giving you a total of 11.1V. This battery, you can, power up this LED strip.
This is a 12V LED strip, and the difference between them is that this one has three LEDs
and three limiting resistors per segment. The difference between the batteries is a
12V battery will give you about 12.6V in Full-Charge, and about 11.1V in Nominal voltage. A 5V battery
will give you more or less about 8.4V at Full-Charge, and about 7.4V at Nominal voltage.
Ok, so what are Nominal Voltage? What are Full-Charge voltage? and all that. Well basically,
nominal voltage is the average voltage at which the battery has the more efficiency.
And that's the voltage that pretty much you want to run your battery at. Ok, you also
have to take care into consideration about discharging rates. Discharge rate is basically the rate
at which your battery discharges or looses it's voltage. And when you're
trying to choose the right battery for your application, the most important thing that
you want to consider is your capacity. So your capacity, you can always find it on your
specifications labels. This is a 5000mAh battery, that means that is going to run,
it's going to last you about 5A for about one hour. So if you'd like to know how to
find your battery capacity, all you got to know is either 2 out of 3 things. You have
to know either your battery life, your maximum load current or your battery's capacity. So
you can find for example, here: if you want your battery life, you can find that by dividing
your maximum capacity by your maximum load current and that gives your battery life.
OK, well, thank you very much guys. I hope you liked the video, if you have any questions,
comment down below and just like us and subscribe. And thank you for watching.