A range of compact, convenient USB-C LiPo/LiIon battery chargers, perfect for feeding hungry batteries.

Pimoroni spent quite a lot of time at Pirate HQ  figuring out ways to charge up batteries for their Badger 2040s, and have come up with all sorts of horrible solutions. Good news though - they won't have to make do with dubious bits of left over prototype, because they made some straightforward, small LiPo battery chargers that are just the job.

LiPo Amigo is a stamp sized board with a USB-C connector on one end and a JST-PH connector at the other so you can plug in a LiPo or LiIon battery. Betwixt the two, you can find a perky red LED that will light up to tell you when battery charging is happening. Simples!

LiPo Amigo Pro is a bit larger and has some additional tricks up its sleeves. It's got two JST-PH connectors so you can charge your battery and power your device at the same time (and switch seamlessly between USB and battery power). It also has a power on/off button and extra built in battery protection.

Both are compatible with  LiPo, LiIon or high capacity LiIon batteries. (batteries are sold separately).

Features

• MCP73831 charger with 200mA* charging current (datasheet)
• USB-C connector for power
• 2 pin JST-PH connector for plugging in a LiPo/LiIon battery
• Charge LED
• XB6096I2S battery protector (datasheet) (Pro only)
• Additional 2 pin JST-PH connector for powering an up to 4.2V tolerant device** (Pro only)
• Power on/off button and associated LED (Pro only)
• Comes fully assembled.
• LiPo Amigo schematic
• LiPo Amigo Pro schematic
• LiPo Amigo dimensional drawing
• LiPo Amigo Pro dimensional drawing

Obligatory LiPo warning

LiPo and LiIon batteries can be dangerous if not treated with respect! You should only use LiPo Amigo boards to charge 3.7V LiPo or LiIon batteries, and you should make sure that any project involving LiPos is sufficiently protected from being dented, bent, punctured or crushed.

We recommend only using LiPo batteries that have own internal protection against overcharge, over discharge and short circuits (all the ones we sell do).

If you're using a battery bought from elsewhere, make sure the polarity of the wires matches the markings on our board before you plug it in!

Notes

• Measurements: LiPo Amigo - 26 x 21 x 7 mm, LiPo Amigo Pro- 36 x 23 x 7 mm (LxWxH, including connectors)
• * The pads on the back labelled FAST CHARGE can be bridged with solder to allow charging at up to 500mA (instead of the default 200mA). Don't do this if you're using an unprotected battery.
• The pads marked NO PROTECT can be bridged to disable the battery protection IC on LiPo Amigo Pro (no protec, only attac).
• ** You should only use the DEVICE connector on LiPo Amigo Pro for powering devices that can handle up to 4.2V - that's the potential voltage that can be supplied by a fully charged LiPo. Don't plug in things like micro:bits that can't deal with LiPo voltages!
• For connecting your device to LiPo Amigo Pro, we'd suggest using this JST-PH wire assembly (requires soldering).
• Because we hate leaving unused space on our PCBs, we've broken out a bunch of other headers that you might find it useful to solder things up to. The ones marked with an LED can be used to connect up an external LED to show charging or on/off status - useful if you're building your battery charger into an enclosure. The headers marked SW can be used to add an external on/off switch to LiPo Amigo Pro.