The LiPo Rider Plus - USB Type-C 5V 2.4A Charger/Booster

Lithium Polymer Batteries are certainly awesome tools for anyone who loves Electronics, as they allow us to take our projects out into the world and show them off to the world. However, because most Lithium Batteries are typically rated up to 4.2V on a full charge, which of course goes down as the charge diminishes, they aren’t always the most useful tools when used alone. This is why we simply love awesome battery-based modules like The LiPo Rider Plus, which is a 5V 2A Charger/Booster module that can be used to both charge lithium batteries, but also utilise batteries in boost mode to provide a stable 5V 2.4A Output via the USB-A port.

This tiny but powerful Charger Module incorporates the ETA9740 Switching Charger IC, and uses a proprietary system for highly efficient single-inductor bidirectional charge/boost at up to 2A charging and up to 2.4A boost output. Additionally, it also integrates a good range of great protection features, which include no-battery detection, an internal sense resistor, automatic mode switching and even a battery capacity gauge (or a fuel gauge as it’s often called) and a status LED too – all while offering a very impressive efficiency of up to 96%.

The LiPo Rider Plus is designed to accommodate typical LiPo Batteries, but has been specially made with fast-charging in mind, offering up to 5V 2A (10 Watt) charging power via USB Type-C for extremely fast charging of LiPo batteries. However, it’s important to remember that rapid charging of small capacity batteries can lead to diminished capacity and power delivery, although for some larger batteries, a 2A charge current is precisely what they need to charge at good speeds. Additionally, as an extra feature to complement this already great product, the broken-out pins along the edge of the board also offer an Always-On 3.3V 250mA supply, regardless of whether the 5V is turned on of off. This means that you can utilise the smaller 3.3V supply for an Arduino UNO Plus, Arduino LilyPad, or similar 3.3V powered microcontroller, and then conveniently control the 5V On/Off functionality digitally so as to build your own form of LiPo Battery UPS for projects that need to operate 24/7.