Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Battery question

  1. #1

    Default Battery question

    I have the following setup for testing. If looking at a typical 2.1mm recharge port, the legs are oriented so that I see three legs, one on the right, one on the bottom, and one on the left (much like what we typically see in wiring examples). I have 2 red wires from the right leg: (+) to battery and (+) to board. One black wire from the bottom leg: (-) to battery. One brown wire from the left leg: (-) to the board. I have speakers wired to my board, and a micro-sD card inserted. I am trying to test two different batteries (both are 18650 from TCSS).

    When battery A is soldered to one of the red wires and one to the black wire (obviously color matching the battery), I get a boot sound. I can activate the board, initiate blaster effects, FoC, etc. Inserting the kill key works appropriately. Inserting the charger, I get ... nothing. The charger doesn't turn on to show it is charging. I tried a different charger (same model), same effect.

    Switch to battery B. Same setup (same board, same speakers, same wires; simply de-soldering one battery and re-soldering onto another, with kill key inserted while working on the wires). This time, no boot sound, no activation of board. When I insert the charger, it blinks red. Same thing when I try the other charger.

    For control purposes, I have a working saber with the same type of battery, where I also used the same wiring scheme. When I try either charger on this saber, it performs as expected: the charger light turns red and is constant until full charge occurs.

    I am at a loss. A known working battery exhibits proper behavior with two different chargers. When using those same chargers, battery A powers the board appropriately, but does not seem to be recharging the battery. Battery B doesn't power the board, and exhibits a malfunctioning charging behavior. What am I missing? What can I do to further test, or isolate the problem? I have re-soldered all the wires a couple of times on my test circuit just to make sure. And, this is not my first time completing successful saber builds, but I must admit I have not run across this problem before.

    Thank you for taking the time to read this. If there are helpful suggestions, I am all digital ears. These are meant to be builds for Christmas presents, so trying not to dally too long on this. Thank you for the community support. Best ...

    Chris

  2. #2

    Default

    It's possible you have a defective recharge port. Break out your multimeter (if you don't have one, you should get one) and check the continuity for your positive and negative wiring connections. If you have a spare recharge port, I would try swapping it in there and see if that corrects the charging issue.

    As for the second battery, they are typically shipped with the PCB tripped. The battery should reset once you charge it briefly.
    We all have to start somewhere. The journey is all the more impressive by our humble beginnings.

    http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz for the lazy man's resistor calculator!
    http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...e-to-Ohm-s-Law for getting resistor values the right way!

  3. #3

    Default

    Thank you for the guidance. After some playing with Battery A a little more, I discovered that the recharge is a little bit finicky. Almost like kill keys that need to be aligned right to turn on/off, getting it aligned correctly allowed for proper charging. So that gets a WOO HOO!

    However, not as good of news when it comes to Battery B. I may have neglected to mention that this battery is an 18650, 3.7V battery. I let it charge for 15 minutes or so (all the while, the red light is blinking on the charger, never goes steady), and when I pull the charger, no boot sound, nor can I activate it. I ran my multimeter across the battery leads, and I get ~2.42V.

    Should I leave it charging longer to see if it will reset? Thank you for the guidance!

    Chris

  4. #4

    Default

    If the red light is blinking, on many chargers this indicates a defective battery. It might be FUBAR.

    Tom

    "Mistakes are our greatest teacher."

  5. #5

    Default

    That is what I was afraid of. IS there any recourse for when this occurs?

  6. #6

    Default

    If you got it from TCSS, send an email to Tim. He can get things set straight for you.
    We all have to start somewhere. The journey is all the more impressive by our humble beginnings.

    http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz for the lazy man's resistor calculator!
    http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com...e-to-Ohm-s-Law for getting resistor values the right way!

  7. #7

    Default

    Thanks ... contacted and starting discussion.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •