You can plug in either the battery first or the USB port first. We provide a JST jack since the large number of batteries we carry come with a JST PH connector or cable
If you are soldering on a JST cable or using a non-Adafruit battery check the polarity of the wires going into the battery port. A backwards battery can destroy the charger!
USB Port
USB ports are very handy around the house, you can use any USB port that is on a motherboard. If you are using 500mA charge rate, try to avoid using extension cords! Even for 100mA charge rates, we suggest not plugging into unpowered hubs (most hubs are un-powered), keyboard ports, monitor ports, etc.You can use USB wall adapters such as those for tablets, phones, GPS, MP3 players, too!
Charge Indictator LEDs
There are two LEDs on each MicroLipo charger.- Red - this means the chip has detected a cell and is charging it
- Green - this means the chip has completed the charge cycle and the battery is ready to go
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Both - this means the battery is damaged or isn't plugged in.
Charging other batteries
We strongly encourage using Adafruit batteries for your projects since they are new, come with protection circuitry and have the right polarity JST cables.There may be situations where you need to charge a random battery and you can't solder a JST cable to it! In this case, you can usually hack something together.
For example, here's a GoPro battery that discharged all the way and couldn't be 'revived' by the camera.
You can see its a 3.7V 1000mAh battery. That means we can charge it at 500mA max rate if we wish.
On the back, though, there are these clippy connectors!
On the back, though, there are these clippy connectors!
By soldering two pins of male header onto the JST cable, we can set up a delicate-but-workable charging cable!
