The Project
I have build a Raspberry Pi based robot with a RPi Camera to help me learn about computer vision and obstacle avoidance. It is powered from a 3S LiPo Battery that sends its power to a DC-DC 5V LM2596 board to power the Pi and to a L298n motor driver to power the motors. This works great in initial testing with a remote keyboard but has become incredibly tedious to have to disassemble and disconnect the battery, then attach it to a bulky balance charger.
I want to make this better by incorporating balance charging into my robot through a USB charging port.
I have made a schematic of how I expect this to look but have hit a stumbling block trying to find suitable solutions for integrated balance charging, safe battery management and battery voltage levels for a 3S battery solution.
The battery I'm using is this 3S Lipo Link
Research
Some research has lead me down the path of the MCP73831 Integrated circuit datasheet however this only covers a 1S battery. Would I need to have 1 of these connected to each cell of the battery (3 in total) in order to safely charge the battery? as it would be a low amperage charge (~1A), could this safely be conducted through the balance leads of the battery?
This product I found looks ideal, if it could do 3S balance charging.... Pimoroni amigo pro but I would be interested in making my own dedicated charging PCB that could communicate to the raspberry pi to give voltage levels and battery temperature etc.
I would be interested in peoples thoughts or potential solutions to my problem.
Oh also, future me would like to incorporate wireless charging so I can be more lazy and have the robot crawl back to its charging base when the battery gets low but that's a pipe dream at the moment!
