mBot 3.7v LiPo Batteries

#1

I’ve read many posts on here about batteries for the mBot robots.

I’m looking for a 3.7v LiPo that I can buy in semi-bulk. Batteries are tricky due to regulations in shipping within the US.

I have a few questions…

  1. Do you think a 700 mAh battery is enough capacity? How long do you think it’ll last?

  2. We are considering this pack from Amazon that appears to fit the dimensions of the holder. Tenergy is a name brand that we can have drop shipped from our educational supplier if/when we need to start buying these in even larger quantities. (I’m trying to find a long term and scalable solution.)

(On the manufacturers website, in one place it says the battery dimensions are 43 x 25 x 7 mm and in another says 50 x 35 x 13 mm. So I need to verify that they’ll fit in the battery holder.)

Do you see any concerns about this pack?
We like having the separate charger as well.

Any other suggestions / ideas?

Thanks!

#2

@chuckmcknight - you’ve been very helpful in the past, so I thought I’d tag you in this post to see if you had any ideas.

#3

Hi @rosemarybianchi,

To be honest, I use velcro strips to hold my LiPo batteries in place. That seems to work well for my mBot .0 and would work for the mBot 1.1 as well. I haven’t seen a need for the battery case when using the LiPos, and it gives me the ability to charge multiple mBots by using their cables and a multi-charger like this one:

With regard to how long a 700maH battery would last, that really depends on what the robot is doing. Motors will run the battery down faster than sensors will which I why I settled on the 2500 maH batteries from Adafruit. Those were able to easily last for an entire session (~1 hour) and in bulk (>10) are about $13.46/ea from Adafruit.

#4

Thanks for the answer!

Problem is, you can’t purchase more than two batteries from Adafruit at a time due to shipping regulations. No bulk battery buying from them.

Hmm…going to have to continue to research a solution to this problem.

#5

What if you ordered them through Amazon?

I just tried adding 25 to my cart and Amazon didn’t seem to have an issue… :slight_smile:

#6

We will try. One of the distributers for Adafruit that I have a relationship with said they have tried ordered LiPos in bulk off Amazon and Amazon cancels the order. It’s happened to them multiple times.

Shipping regulations don’t allow batteries to be shipped independent from a device that uses them.

Getting them drop-shipped was going to be our best bet and this vendor has an agreement with Tenergy, so I was trying to find a Tenergy product that will meet our needs.

#7

Well, best of luck to you! I’ve ordered multi-packs in the past (5-10) with no issues but I order them through my company so that may or may not be the difference. :frowning:

#8

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