So if you’ve read the report from my first activation you’ll know that I’ve bought myself a 3S1P 5000mAh LiPo battery, and that I’ve converted it to powerpoles for the main power out. This isn’t really an issue for charging as it’s still charged via the balance port, but it did get me thinking, these things ARE dangerous if they’re charged incorrectly, and now that it has powerpoles on it, it’ll just plug straight in to the rest of my gear. I need some way to prevent the battery from an accidental connection with another power source. To clarify I don’t think that I’m going to plug it in, but we all know that late at night, tired in the shack things can get confusing, and prevention is the best cure for these kinds of things, but if (And I can’t stress that enough) it does happen, I want to know that I’m not going to blow the shack, or even myself up.
I’m considering putting a 6A “Rectifier” diode in the positive lead to protect against such situations, which will knock .7v off the output voltage of the battery, lowering the full charge voltage from 12.6v (Assuming 4.2v charged voltage) to 11.9V and the “flat” voltage from 9.9 (assuming no lower than 3.3v/cell) to 9.2 volts.
I could use a Schottky rectifier diode like a VS-50SQ which would provide up to 5 amps which should be enough for QRP work, only drop .5v and if connected in reverse, at 25 degrees will only allow .5mA through, but I can’t help but think, is there a better way?