Hi fellow engineers,
First of all, sorry about not being to provide a part number (I am not completely sure which one would be better for my application and I felt that some of you could answer that question).
Here is what I am trying to accomplish: I am planning to build a product that requires four rechargeable coin cell batteries (they are not located close to each other). I believe that each battery should have a gas gauge associated to it (therefore, have four fuel gauge)
The interesting challenge is how I am planning to charge the four coin cell batteries. I would like to have the following two solutions:
- Charge the four coin cell batteries by using a large capacity rechargeable battery
- If the large capacity battery cannot provide the power, I would like an external charger to charge both the coin cell batteries and large capacity battery, giving priority to the coin cell batteries.
Is TI selling a charger that could fit my needs? Would I need another charger IC for the large rechargeable battery? Is there a charger IC that would talk to the fuel gauges that will be on the wearable to optimize the charging?
I also have a dilemma: should I use four charger ICs or one that would charge the four coin cell batteries? (I would prefer the latter solution, and hopefully have it on a different board which would be used only when recharging the coin cell batteries).
Note that I am trying to find a solution that is very low cost and hopefully simple. I would like to avoid using chips such as the BQ40Z60 unless that is the only solution.
If you have better ideas/suggestions, feel free to share! There are a lot of options in the TI catalog and I would really like to find the best option for my application.