The 18650 Lithium Ion Battery is becoming the go to battery for rechargeable projects, from microcontrollers to skateboards and ebikes.
We have been powering our Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and Ham Radio projects with them.
Although soldering the tabs on these batteries have been difficult (and damaging) in the past, there are now solderless interlocking kits that make them very easy to use.
It’s extremely important to make sure these batteries are charged properly! Henry’s Bench comes to the rescue with a Arduino controlled charger for these batteries. Just add a LCD screen to see voltage, amps, and cell temperatures.
Explanation of Lithium Ion charging profiles and dangers – http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
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To learn more about building battery packs with the 18650, the master tome of all info is DIY Lithium Batteries (How to build your own battery packs), by Micah Toll (subscribe to his YouTube channel).