A 35V/3.2A Multi-Cell Lithium-Ion, Lead Acid Step-Down Battery Charger with PowerPath and I2C Telemetry. If you are looking for a Solar Energy harvester, Battery Charger, and Power Path Manager, this is one of the ICs I see very efficient and comes handy, but surely comes at a pretty good cost.
This blog I am writing to share it out, and I am able to share the content which worked for me, and rest of the schematic in native format and firmware you may have to do it from scratch or with some help of evaluation board’s material so hosted in Manufacturer’s website.
The image as shown for the “Block Diagram”, this arrangement I have done for my application. In LTC4162-L’s datasheet, you may find more setup-arrangements that may suit your requirements.
Key Points while doing Schematic:
- Connect wires properly for Correct Cell Count.
- Go with recommended values and rating for the parts which is required by this IC to function properly.
- If in the evaluation board’s schematic any parts marked as “Optional”, then do leave the pads in design but do not populate them on PCB. This did give me a nightmare and hence, I compared my PCB with the Evaluation board’s PCB visually, or, maybe I was too dumb to understand why those “Optional” marked parts are optional.
Few tips:
- For MPPT based member of LTC4162 family member IC, it works better with higher rating Solar Panel, like 50W. But I have tested with 10W solar panel, it works well and does charge the battery of 2600mAh in the designated time frame.
- Remember, the LTC4162 – L series takes Stack of battery. ‘S’ series if for Lead-acid battery chemistry. For more chemistry do check the portfolio on the manufacturer’s website.
Thanks to Analog Device Engineer Zone community for helping me out and nudging me to correct direction. Link Below:
With this blog, I attach my presentation and a mini-sheet of the same.
