Bigger Li-ion battery for bGeigie Nano

[Yongjin Lee]

I'm enjoying to build bGeigie Nano when I can.
I want to build bGeigie Nano can be run for a long period with single charging.

So, I ordered the following extra battery (2500mAh) from AliExpress.
  - https://ko.aliexpress.com/item/3-7V-2500mAh-645455-polymer-lithium-ion-Li-ion-battery-for-mp3-mp4-tablet-pc-DVD/32797293075.html

The size is good to fit (worrying a little bit because of thickness, but would be fine)

But, there was no connector included.
I decided to order only connector.

Please advice which connector should I buy?
 - ZH : 1.5mm pitch
 - XH : 2.54mm ptich

And, why did you change from 2000mAh to 1200mAh?

[Sean Bonner, Safecast]

Hi-

Glad you are enjoying the kit! So, as you might find we switched to the smaller battery because the larger one was too thick, and kept getting punctured by the solder spots on the back of the PCB when the device would get bumped, causing it to short out. If you use the bigger battery, please add in a thick protective layer (like a sheet of plastic) to protect the battery, but be warned that if it puncture you might fry your whole device. Also note that the battery we use can still run for a very long time, we found that the larger one was quite overkill and the smaller one did the job just fine.

As for the pitch of the connector, best bet would be to get both and see which fits better.

Hope that helps!

-s

Sean Bonner

Co-Founder, Director of Global Operations

Safecast.org | pgp key

[Jan Helebrant]

Hi,

we are using  Samsung EB-L1G6LLU batteries in our bGeigies without problems.

It is probably this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-EB-L1G6LLU-Battery-None-Retail-Packaging-Black/dp/B00B0OW22E

but we get ours from local reseller.

Model No     EB-L1G6LLU
Voltage     3.7
Length(mm)     63
Width(mm)     50.4
Height(mm)     5.2
Weight(grams)     37
Capacity(mAh)     2100 

While the original bGeigie battery should be:

Li-Ion 3,7V, 2000 mAh
Dimensions: 5.8 x 54 x 60mm 

In our case the reason was the limit of the batteries per package which made it impossible to order more full kits so after already having two full kits we ordered next ones without batteries.

The Samsung battery fits great in the bGeigie but needs some extra work with soldering - so this is definitely nothing for beginners - rather for advanced technicians only. But the capacity is almost the same. However we only exceptionally reach the battery capacity limit. One of the rare cases was our colleague traveling in the Himalayas where he had only few opportunities to charge the device.

regards

Jan

[Yongjin Lee]

Hi Sean,

I discovered that power connector is JST 2.0mm = PH 2-pin connector !
Some of main parts of bGeigie Nano come from SparkFun, so I searched SparkFun website and found this page.

 - https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/connector-basics/power-connectors

I bought this JST 2.0 mm = PH 2-pin power connector from AliExpress,
and succeeded to 2500mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery !

So, my bGeigie Nano can be lasting for 2 days fully.

I summarized this journey to my blog. (Korean)

 - http://chocoball.tistory.com/entry/Hardware-bGeigie-Nano-battery-upgrade

I hope this information would be helpful to others.

Best,
Yongjin

[Kalin KOZHUHAROV (Safecast)]

Great that it worked, thanks for sharing!

On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 1:42 PM, Yongjin Lee <bang...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So, my bGeigie Nano can be lasting for 2 days fully.
>

Did you have a specific requirement for "2 days", or it just happend?

I have observed that devices that last long tend to run out of battery
when I don't expect them (in general) more.
Also they are heavier and of course more dangerous and more expensive.
So, if I know that something runs for sure for slightly more than a
(long) day, I just make sure it is charged every time.

> I hope this information would be helpful to others.
>

You mentioned the thickness problem, hopefully it turened out well.
Just make sure you don't have "Galaxy 7" syndrom of fitting the
battery too tight.

Cheers,
Kalin.

[Rob Oudendijk]

Yongjin,

With some modifications you can get a 300MA LiPo in the bGeigieNano and then with BLE it can last 40 hours.

Let me know if you need more details.

regards

rob

[Planetary Paul]

On Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at 5:05:19 AM UTC+2, sean wrote:

we switched to the smaller battery because the larger one was too thick, and kept getting punctured by the solder spots on the back of the PCB when the device would get bumped, causing it to short out.

I got the bigger battery with my kit and it didn't fit well. When I took it apart again it turned out that the isolation sheet had already been punctured and I saw dents in the battery. So I filed down flat all solder joints where the battery rests with a needle file. If you do this you have to be very careful not to damage the PCB and not to leave any filings as they can cause shorts. But it is a sure way to fit the larger battery.

[Yongjin Lee]

Hi Kalin,

 

Did you have a specific requirement for "2 days", or it just happend?

I just want to recharge as less as possible. That's all :-)

 

You mentioned the thickness problem, hopefully it turened out well.
Just make sure you don't have "Galaxy 7" syndrom of fitting the
battery too tight.

Yes, the battery should be maintained without any bending or punctuation.

I've covered with thick a plastic board which is for holding cushions and was included in the kit.

Best,

Yongjin

[Yongjin Lee]

Hi Rob,

With some modifications you can get a 300MA LiPo in the bGeigieNano and then with BLE it can last 40 hours.

Let me know if you need more details.

Is there 3000mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery which is fitted to bGeigie Nano?

But, My bGeigie Nano can run around 48 hours already with 2500mAh battery.

Anyway, please share that product. I'd like to try if I can.

Best,

Yongjin

[Yongjin Lee]

Hi Paul,

I got the bigger battery with my kit and it didn't fit well. When I took it apart again it turned out that the isolation sheet had already been punctured and I saw dents in the battery. So I filed down flat all solder joints where the battery rests with a needle file. If you do this you have to be very careful not to damage the PCB and not to leave any filings as they can cause shorts. But it is a sure way to fit the larger battery.

Thanks for the advice.

I think the isolation plastic board is enough thick to prevent punctuation,

but the solder joints look enough to make damages to battery.

I'll disassemble again and work to be flat more after getting home today.

Thanks for the great advice!

Best,

Yongjin

[Rob Oudendijk]

Yongjin, that is probably without a BLEbee.

regards

rob

[Rob Oudendijk]

Yongping,

I would not put the battery under the PCB board. I made different setup to have battery not touch the PCB at all. We had some issues before of smoking batteries that were punctured even with the isolation sheet installed.

.

[Yongjin Lee]

Hi Rob,

Yongjin, that is probably without a BLEbee.

Your comment makes sense.

I'll have another running test again without BLEbee.

When I've done, let you know.

Best,

Yongjin

[Yongjin Lee]

I would not put the battery under the PCB board. I made different setup to have battery not touch the PCB at all. We had some issues before of smoking batteries that were punctured even with the isolation sheet installed.

I cut all pins of leads by soldering, and made sure all flat.

Installed isolation sheet again and finally I'm peaceful now :-)

I also considered 3000mAh what AliExpress sells, but dimension is not fit with bGeigie Nano,

so I chose 2500mAh.

The seller told me that they can make customized size and capacity.

So, maybe I'll try with bigger one in far future.

Best,

Yongjin

[Jan Helebrant]

Hi,

some of you were curious about bGeigie battery life with the Samsung EB-L1G6LLU 2100 mAh battery so I did a benchmark. I switched off the fully charged bGeigie, put it near window (to have GPS signal) and let it measure until it died.

First measurement according the LOG file was:

$BNRDD,2408,2017-12-23T10:55:06Z,42,1,42,V,4955.9594,N,01430.9510,E,357.50,A,4,216*5E

and last one:

$BNRDD,2408,2017-12-24T23:22:57Z,49,5,104746,A,4955.9626,N,01430.9622,E,357.70,A,5,169*43

so for this time it was only 1 day, 12 hours, 27 minutes and 51 seconds. I expected more than 2 days. The temperature in the room was about +15 degrees Celsius. I am not sure how old is the battery in this particular bGeigie but we bought first batch of batteries in August 2015. In this case bGeigie usually stops charging after reaching about 90% battery but this can just be error in the status indicator.

I am now recharging the bGeigie and will try one more test later. 

Jan

[Jam]

For anyone interested, the design criteria for choosing the battery in the bGeigie Nano was that the unit should run for at least twelve hours from a full charge, even after 100 charge cycles. (Used about twice a week for a year.)

I did only rough calculations once it was clear that the spec was very easily met. Later we chose smaller cells (that still met the above criteria) to make assembly easier and more reliable.

- jam

[Maciej Szeliga]

Hi Jan

How do You charge it ?

My original battery is dead and I am looking for an alternative...

Regards

Maciej

[Jan Helebrant]

Dear Maciej,

our technician carefully soldered the Samsung battery instead the original one so I am charging the bGeigie like those with original battery. We were also thinking about getting the Samsung battery connector and have a socket so you would have a removable battery but finally he decided to use "quick and dirty" solution.

regards

Jan

Dne pátek 3. srpna 2018 11:23:00 UTC+2 Maciej Szeliga napsal(a):

[Alberto Villa]

Hello Jan,

how long does it take to fully charge a depleted 3000 mAh Samsung cell?

Thanks,

Alberto

[Wood]

Removing the Bluetooth chip adds about three hours runtime to my meter.

But the chip socket is fragile and will not take abuse.

[Jan Helebrant]

Dear Alberto,

I never fully discharged the battery so I have no idea :-)  BTW the Samsung EB-L1G6LLU is 2100 mAh, not 3 Ah. 

So I just copy information from our technician and maybe someone from Safecast will add some details.

According to Arduino FIO documentation the charging is maintained using MAX1555 chip which is set to limit the charging current to 280mA. So "stronger" charger does not help (so we often use cheap 0.5A usb chargers) and you can also estimate the charging time:

capacity divided by charging current + add 30-40% (losses during voltage conversion). 

for our battery it is

2100 mAh / 280 mA = 7,5 + losses = approx 11 hours

But with our workflow it is not problem - even within a measuring "campaign" :-) we usually put the bGeigies on a charger during night. But we are thinking about hardware mod enabling charging with 0.5 A - so still very safe and "battery-friendly" but quicker.

Jan

Dne čtvrtek 16. srpna 2018 13:15:16 UTC+2 Alberto Villa napsal(a):

[Alberto Villa]

Thank you very much, Jan! And sorry for this late reply.

When I tested my bGeigie more than one year ago I made a mistake and destroyed the charger chip MCP73831T-2ACI-OT, that I had to substitute. This gave me the opportunity to see that the PCB pads of the Arduin FIO are too small compared to the recommended ones, allowing much less power dissipation. Maybe this is one of the reasons why the charging current has been kept to the low value of 250 mA when the specified maximum is 500 mA. See attached pdf.

Alberto