I have a truck and will need a higher capacity jump starter, possibly something like this:
However, this one says that to use the cigarette port to charge it, you can only charge it for 6 hours maximum.
What I’d like to do is give it an initial charge, and then use the cigarette jack to keep it topped off at all times. Are there any jump starter that are smart enough with a charge controller to accomplish this, or are they all mostly charge and let sit?
Li-Ion cells are not like lead acid batteries that need to be kept “topped off”
I have these type of boosters stored in all of our vehicles and I merely check their state of charge every month or so.
I don’t think of the ones I have as jump starters, but rather as a portable 10A battery charger.
If your truck battery is getting weak, then buy a new one.
If you’re engine is getting old, worn, low compression, dud glow-plugs etc. then you seriously need a good big traditional battery to keep cranking it until it starts.
A jump starter is not a substitute for a decent battery. If it sits for months, then a little solar panel under the windscreen will keep it tip-top.
These sort of jump starters generally use bagged LiPos, not LiIon, stressed to the max. (and beyond, no limits usually). I would not want to keep one in my vehicle, or anywhere inside my property.
They do work, but they scare me.
I would trust something using super-capacitors to turn the engine over a few turns, and have even considered making one myself, with a motorbike battery to energise it.
Sorry if I have mis-understood.
You might have to build one and adapt the use a solar charge converter (or something similar). That way it can handle a wide range of DC input, and still provide the proper battery trickle charge. Just be sure that the minimum input voltage covers your alternator output voltage.
Thanks for the advice.
What does "bagged LiPos" mean? I have two of those chargers that I have used on and off in Winter and they were real life savers, but never knew they were that dangerous to store.
Bagged LiPos are an extreme way of making a lithium battery with minimal internal resistance. They dispense with the steel casing of traditional LiIon cells, maximise surface area of the important parts for maximum peak current, replace the casing with a bag, use chemistries which still suffer thermal runaway, and are the obvious choice for e.g. drones, where mass/energy density is paramount. And current is controlled by the system, and the cells are re-charged precisely using complex balance chargers.
They also make very powerful jump starters, crudely made, but things can go wrong very quickly with these. Swelling of the bag is usually the first sign.
I’ve had bagged LiPos swell, then short and run-away a few times, due to abuse (of which a jump-starter is a classic example). Not nice, fortunately outdoors, no flames but ruination of the cells.
They can also go off on their own, if subjected to high temperatures, such as in a car in strong sunlight. My cellphone (using LiPo, as they all do), shuts down when it detects battery temp. approaching 50 C. Any hotter and who knows what would happen.
As I said, these jump-starters usually have nothing by way of protection. If the engine doesn’t start after a turn or two, and you keep cranking at several 100 Amps until the cells are empty, don’t be surprised if there are consequences.
If you have to rely on a jump-starter, consider replacing the main vehicle battery ASAP, and if necessary keep it topped off with a small solar panel instead.
Edit: this is why things like DJI Battery Safe Bag are made.
Or just google “bagged lipo”
I think you are trying to give this battery a worse reputation than it deserves. Especially because in your own example your cell phone uses it and we keep them in our pocket right next to the important bits.
You do make some good points about the devices they are used in (like these jumpstarters) but really I think more of the fault lies with all of the cheap components used together and not just with the battery itself. These batteries are tested to 60C/140F working conditions and while they do suffer from cycle life and capacity degradation they aren’t spontaneously combusting all over the place every summer…
I had a LiPo battery bank, 10.000 mAh (not much) with built in solar panel to charge.
Worked very well, until left outside on a hot summer day to charge. Major fail.
LiPos are a great technology, used strictly within their limitations.
Samsung, and Apple, and others, learned their lesson a few years ago (but those were mostly LiIon).
Bottom line is that any of these cells, with great energy density, must be respected.
It’s the cheap jump-starters that scare me, not the well designed products that treat them nicely.