Picoo Z charger as stand alone LiPo charger?

[AleG]

With the spirit of "using all the buffalo"...

I´ve bought a cheap Picoo Z clone to get a replacement 6mm motor for a micro R/C plane, it was faster than placing an order and waiting for the thing to arrive... Anyway, now I have the motor and a few other parts from the helicopter, one thing I was wondering is if I could get the LiPo charger out of the transmitter and use it as a stand alone charger, so I don´t have to depend only on the one that´s integrated on the Plantraco transmitter.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[AndyOne]

I used the lead from a spare transmitter and just connected it to a Schulze charger set to Li-po mode, 1 cell at 100mA, works perfectly. The cores in the cable are even conveniently colour coded red and black.

This saves using up those expensive internal dry cells in the TX. This may be a better option if you have a Li-Po charger which will charge one cell at low current.

Andy.

[AleG]

I used the lead from a spare transmitter and just connected it to a Schulze charger set to Li-po mode, 1 cell at 100mA, works perfectly. The cores in the cable are even conveniently colour coded red and black.

This saves using up those expensive internal dry cells in the TX. This may be a better option if you have a Li-Po charger which will charge one cell at low current.

Andy.

Aha... so if I understand what you´re saying, you just took the charger off the transmitter (it´s a separate PCB? I haven´t opened mine yet) and use the Schulze charger as a power source, correct?

Myself I´d rather go with a cheaper power source, like rechargable AAs, I don´t mind! :)

[AndyOne]

The innards of the Picoo Z Tx are not pretty. If you don't want to use a commercially made charger then there are plenty of threads on building your own from scratch which would probably be easier than cannibalising the Tx circuit.

Andy.

[AleG]

The innards of the Picoo Z Tx are not pretty. If you don't want to use a commercially made charger then there are plenty of threads on building your own from scratch which would probably be easier than cannibalising the Tx circuit.

Andy.

Yes, I opened the transmitter and I have to admit it doesn´t look particularly pretty. I should check those threads with charger designs.

[tgg61]

Andy,
Could you link to the site that talks about these small chargers?
Thanks,
Tom

[rmteo]

The MCP73812 is a simple 1-cell charger. It is a 5-pin device that sells for about $1 and will charge Lithiums at 50-500mA.
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1335&dDocName=en527983

All you would need are 2 capacitors and 1 resistor (to set the charge current) and a DC input of 3.75-6.00 Volts.