Database Users

Run Universal without battery? (i.e. on A/C Power only)

Hi there!
Does anyone know of a way to operate the Universal solely on A/C power when there is no battery inserted?
I often use my universal as a WLAN media player in the kitchen. It just sits there for hours playing music and I would like to remove the battery from it during this time to extend overall battery life.
Unfortunately the device does not turn on when there is no battery inserted.

This should be fairly easy, if I understood well, you don't want to let the battery in the universal (even if normally the battery chargers apply a tickle current charge when the batteries are already charged to mantain it fully charged), so you just need to connect your power supply directly to the uni's battery contacts -BEWARE the power supply MUST be 3.7V REGULATED / 1A minimum current-.
Personally, I do not like to change the way the objects are, so I would try to keep it like this in this case, this means, no extra holes in my PDA, no extra connectors, etc. so you need a pair of mini alligators clips or miniclips to connect your unit to the power supply, be sure to verify the correct polarity, it's clearly written in the battery's contacts.
Alternatively, there should be a way of doing this by using the uni's own battery charger through it's own mini USB connector, it's necessary to cheat the PDA and let him "think" he's got the battery inserted, this should be fairly easy to do also, but I'm out of my work, so I could provide a complete solution like this until late april.
bye

downloadtest82 said:
Unfortunately the device does not turn on when there is no battery inserted.
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Click to collapse
Why don't you use an old battery?
I use this way in this particolar circumstances!

Why don't you use an old battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I used to do, unfortunately the old battery I have is so worn down by now it won't even support the boot process any more, and the A/C power regulator kicks in only after basic I/O drivers are loaded on the device.
Since the old battery dies before this process completes I can't use that any more.
I don't believe the Universal's "battery detection circuits" are all that complex, in most modern electronic devices they can be fooled by simply bridging some of the connectors in the battery bay.
I don't know if this is true for this device also, however. So I was wondering if anyone else ever tried before I toast my PDA...

downloadtest82 said:
Since the old battery dies before this process completes I can't use that any more.
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Click to collapse
Oh.. I understand.. Sorry..
Well: be careful if you try to solve in other way..

Charging battery while it's in the phone?

Hi guys,
i have a SGH-i780 Smartphone and i am quite happy with it. The only negative aspect is short battery lifetime when beeing always online for push-mail.
Therefore i would like to have a docking station for my device, where i place it and it is been charged. But as the f******g Samsung developers placed the charge/sync connector on the upper right side of the device i would always have to place it in docking and connect charge cable.
Therefore i thought about modifying the phone which means making the 3 battery connectors accessbile from outside to connect the external charger box (including charging electronic!).
And here is my question: do you think connecting a charging electronic directly to the battery while it is inside the phone will harm or destroy parts of the phone? I am wondering whether the internal charging circuit inside the phone will get hurt by connecting another circuit in parallel ...
Thanks for your comments!

For sure this could hurt your device...............

In this case I'd say the risk isn't worth the reward. The risk is that you fry your phone, and at worst it sparks and causes other damage. You can have it check for mail less often, unless you need your email to be live.

such heavy modifications never go without harm to technology.
It simply is not designed to work that way, so you'd be better off with a docking station or a better Powerpack.
You can find those on Ebay for pretty low prices...

thanks for your replies!
I also thought about wiring the +5V and GND pins from the USB connector to the bottom of the device and connect a power supply directly (which but be the way it is thought to be) but the usb connector is very very tiny and i doubt i will be able to connect and solder the cables to the right pins ...
any furhter ideas?

not really no... trying such delicate soldering quests is generally not a good idea without the proper Equipment.
Whatever you do to modify your phone, it will void your warranty and you'll not get a replacement device if you trash yours...

Don't do this!
By bypassing the phone's own charging circuit you are removing any sort of overvolt protection!
Although I am not familiar with this phone and your post is somewhat hard to understand, I take you usually sync it, then take the battery out to charge that separately with another cable?
If that is the case then, no, don't move the connector so you can charge directly to the battery! It will be potentially very bad for the battery and phone.

Out of the question
DO NOT under any circumstances play with your battery.
What you were taught in your physics class do not apply to microelectronics!
There are many 5V+ out there and ALL are different!
While rms value is the same, the waveforms of the current/voltage can be any imagineable. So, the best thing to do near your cradle is to pin a sign "KEEP OUT!"

Technically, you could create another charger that connects directly to the battery. There are dozens of ways.
BUT, since you asked, then you don't understand how. Assuming it is a liPo or LiIon battery, if you charge it wrong, the resulting explosion and fire will be nasty.
Why not get a second battery in an external charger, and just swap them.

worwig said:
Technically, you could create another charger that connects directly to the battery. There are dozens of ways.
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Click to collapse
Do you mean while it's inside the phone?
worwig said:
BUT, since you asked, then you don't understand how. Assuming it is a liPo or LiIon battery, if you charge it wrong, the resulting explosion and fire will be nasty.
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Click to collapse
I already have another appropriate charger because Samsung ships this phone with an charging box.
worwig said:
Why not get a second battery in an external charger, and just swap them.
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Click to collapse
Because then i would always have to take a second battery with me, every time! That's awful!
I just want to have a docking station, that charges the phone while it's plugged in ... without terrible wiring needed. Then i can make sure the phone is always fully charged when taking it.
I attached 2 pictures showing you my 2 ideas:
1) wiring the external charger directly to the battery (but of course this would also mean connecting it directly to the internal charging circuit of the phone!). I fear this would damage the phone!
2) wiring the power supply to the power supply connector. This should definitely work, but soldering the cables on the tiny connector will be a pain!
Thanks for your help!

MDA Vario Dead

I Have a MDA Vario Aka O2 Mini S
3 weeks ago i have my battery drained, i try to juice boot using 9 volt battery, its doest work
then im using wall charger, yeah its work...........i get welcome screen
but some how i have pull out battery, and then when i try to turn on it wont turn on again
someone ca help me
i have read service manual for wizard but i dont understand at all

It would only be logical to try a new battery then

Is your wizard showing steady red, or nothing at all?
The trouble with Lithium Ion batteries is that once they're all the way dead, the chemical reaction inside of them stops permanently; that's why the batteries are designed to prevent use way before that can happen- not that newer devices get anywhere near close to triggering those hardware safeties.
Digital devices are reliant on transistor-based logic schemes, which require precise voltages to operate. As batteries discharge, the voltages they put out naturally drop, as the potential inside the battery decreases. Beyond a certain point, the battery can't produce the needed voltages to be read properly by the device's logic schemes.
Slightly before this point, the device prevents any current from being drawn from the battery, in order to prevent the device from entering a potentially damaging low-power state, in which binary data is misinterpreted due to low voltage. This is referred to by the service manual as 'Low Drop Out', or LDO.
'LDO charging' is simply the state in which the device requires significant time to recharge, and does not have a correct voltage to safely power the device. It is indicated on the HTC Wizard by a steady red glow of the right light.
If you're getting steady red, make sure you try to let the device charge for at least eight hours; if the problem does not subsist, you'll probably need a new battery. Dozens of discount and/or aftermarket (third party) batteries are available on E-bay, although OEM parts are always preferable if you can get them.
If you're getting nothing, make sure nothing is blocking the battery contacts. You can try applying the appropriate voltage to the appropriate pins of the device, but under no condition should you apply voltage to the battery manually. If this fails, you can try the above.

Thank You All
When first i plugged to wall charger, wizard red glow, after 5 minutes i turn on until welcome screen
but somehow my battery pullout, and then when i try to charging again nothing

@ktemkin-dude, you are like a living encyclopedia! Heh, heh...but thanks for the informative answer, its a whole lot better than us just repeatedly telling people to not let their batteries run all the way down!

[Q] Run NST just on USB charger and take out battery! ?

When I am at home using my laptop, I normally plug in the charging cable and take out the batteries. Now for some obscure reasons, I want to be able to do the same thing with NST (or any other eInk eReaders). Is it possible? If not, why not? Can we do something to make it a possibility?
This can be useful for instance for when I am at home... Whenever I know I want to use the NST in USB host mode (as an eWriter, Android tablet, gaming, playing music, GPS whatever), I'd like to take out battery and use it while directly plugged into wall charger or laptop usb port. Possible?

Why take out the batteries? They are doing no harm.
If you want to hang the Nook permanently on the wall, Ok.
If you patched u-boot.bin, you could get the Nook to boot without a battery.
You could also do hardware mods to the Nook to make it work that way.
See:
Curent drain on the Nook
Measuring battery current accurately
Nook Simple Touch - DOA Wont charge/turn on

Renate NST said:
Why take out the batteries? They are doing no harm.
If you want to hang the Nook permanently on the wall, Ok.
If you patched u-boot.bin, you could get the Nook to boot without a battery.
You could also do hardware mods to the Nook to make it work that way.
See:
Curent drain on the Nook
Measuring battery current accurately
Nook Simple Touch - DOA Wont charge/turn on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was exactly that post of yours (and the other one you referred me to) which gave me this idea. It might be just emotional but I want to preserve my batteries as much as I can, when I am on wall charger, so I'll take batteries out. It's been mentioned that for Li-ion batteries you can safely leave batteries in while charging, but... oh well, me being me I guess!
I'm interested to know both how to do u-boot patching AND hardware modding for this purpose. I guess I have so much to read.
You're the man, oops, ehem... woman, dear Renate.

idoit said:
When I am at home using my laptop, I normally plug in the charging cable and take out the batteries. Now for some obscure reasons, I want to be able to do the same thing with NST (or any other eInk eReaders). Is it possible? If not, why not? Can we do something to make it a possibility?
This can be useful for instance for when I am at home... Whenever I know I want to use the NST in USB host mode (as an eWriter, Android tablet, gaming, playing music, GPS whatever), I'd like to take out battery and use it while directly plugged into wall charger or laptop usb port. Possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume you want to preserve your batteries. You will only affect this type of batteries life/effectiveness by constant charging at 100%. Even then it will take a long while to notice. Many newer laptops (last 3-4 years) will give you bios option to charge up to only 80%. This is the sweet spot for charging life.
That said leaving your battery in your laptop/nook gives you some serious benefits. The amount of power surges, brown outs and rf noise on power lines can seriously screw with your system. That click of turning a light switch on goes through to your computer. Ok motherboard will have some filtering etc but I'd still rather have a battery protecting me. As to brown outs and surges these can cause corruption. I get a lot of power cuts and I wish there was a minimum power off length. e.g. If power is disrupted it must be off for at least 2 seconds. This lets devices power off and then switch on. The problem is where power dips for 0.5 second. This is enough time to affect your system. Possibly affect contents of your active memory and harddrive cache. Your system keeps on running and slowly overtime gets shredded.
Bottom line how much does a battery cost? Any battery for laptop is going to be <£50. How much does your laptop cost?
As to a device bursting into flames if you use a third party battery or charger its a possibility otherwise very unlikely.

Crispy3000 said:
I assume you want to preserve your batteries. You will only affect this type of batteries life/effectiveness by constant charging at 100%. Even then it will take a long while to notice. Many newer laptops (last 3-4 years) will give you bios option to charge up to only 80%. This is the sweet spot for charging life.
That said leaving your battery in your laptop/nook gives you some serious benefits. The amount of power surges, brown outs and rf noise on power lines can seriously screw with your system. That click of turning a light switch on goes through to your computer. Ok motherboard will have some filtering etc but I'd still rather have a battery protecting me. As to brown outs and surges these can cause corruption. I get a lot of power cuts and I wish there was a minimum power off length. e.g. If power is disrupted it must be off for at least 2 seconds. This lets devices power off and then switch on. The problem is where power dips for 0.5 second. This is enough time to affect your system. Possibly affect contents of your active memory and harddrive cache. Your system keeps on running and slowly overtime gets shredded.
Bottom line how much does a battery cost? Any battery for laptop is going to be <£50. How much does your laptop cost?
As to a device bursting into flames if you use a third party battery or charger its a possibility otherwise very unlikely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks once again for your comprehensive well-thought-about response.
About the bottom line, you're absolutely right. I read somewhere that the most killing factor for laptop is heat and one part that heats up most is batteries. One of the reasons I took it apart was this. I have to admit that I'm not electrically knowledgeable enough to claim anything. Just trying to be as green and liberally conservative as possible.
By the way, worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD6AiWP2VsY

Guide to fix the issue of phone not charging

If your battery isn't charging properly, don't immediately assume your phone charger or your battery is broken.
Based on personal experience, the problem and solution may be much simpler than you think.
If your phone or tablet isn't charging properly or at all, take a look at these 12 ways to fix a phone that won't charge.
Why a phone doesn't charge
The problem occurs in various degrees. Either your phone won't charge at all when it is plugged in, or it will only charge very slowly (sometimes barely faster than it is discharging). It’s a very common complaint, so here are a few solutions.
1. Do-It-Yourself USB port fix
The quickest, easiest, and often most successful solution, is to do a little DIY repair on your actual hardware. The problem is often that the metallic surfaces inside the USB port and the micro USB charger are not making good contact, either through a manufacturing defect or because of the continual plugging and unplugging of the charging cable.
All you need to do is shut down your device, remove the battery if possible and use something small, such as a toothpick, to 'lever up' the little tab inside the USB port on your Smartphone or tablet. Do so very carefully and gently, then reinsert your battery and plug it in again. Nine times out of 10 this is all that is required.
2. Remove lint, candy and dust
Do you keep your phone in the pocket of your jeans? If so, lint could be the culprit: we've lost track of the number of times the reason for unreliable USB charging turned out to be lint from the pocket of our Levis.
We've seen phones with charging ports choked with chocolate after they were chucked in a handbag alongside a packet of sweets. A can of compressed air can blow out the offending irritants and get your USB connection back to normal.
3. Switch cables
The flimsiest part of a charger is the cable, not the adapter that plugs into the wall socket. Apple users are particularly vulnerable here because Apple's proprietary (and expensive) Lightning cables appear to have a life expectancy of around 15 minutes. But all cables have a tough life, and endless flexing and curling can take its toll. Substituting a random USB cable for the one that came with your phone is another shortcut to an unenjoyable charging experience.
The easiest way to diagnose a faulty cable is to try a different one and see if that works properly with your device. If it does, you know the original cable was at fault. If it doesn't, that's another potential villain we've ruled out.
4. Diagnose a dodgy adapter
If the cable doesn't seem to be the problem, check the wall plug adapter – especially if it's one where the charging cable can be removed. We've encountered issues in multiple chargers where the USB port becomes a little loose after endlessly plugging in and unplugging the cable.
Also check whether the same charger/cable combination works on a different device because this will help you eliminate the possibility that it is your device at fault, rather than the cable or charger. You should also make sure there isn't a problem with your wall socket.
5. Remember – safety first
Don't charge your phone near water or in excessively hot or humid conditions. Also, if you're replacing a charger or cable, be wary: the internet is stuffed with reports of cheap third-party chargers that went bang in the middle of the night or turned smart phones into toast. As with any electrical equipment, make sure that anything you buy complies with all the relevant safety standards.
To give you an idea of how much energy is stored in your battery, check this video out (but don't try it at home).
A previous version of this article warned users of charging devices overnight, but I want to clarify that this is not because you can overcharge your device. Modern smartphones have measures in place to prevent damage when batteries continue to be charged at 100 percent capacity.
That said, charging a battery does generate heat and, if a smartphone is in a tight space – like under a pillow or inside a case – there is a chance it could become too hot. Essentially, if you're going to charge your phone overnight, just make sure it's out in a safe place.
6. Replace the battery
Batteries don't last forever, and after a couple of years they start to struggle to hold a charge. The more often you discharge and recharge them, the sooner they'll need replacing. If your battery's busted after just six months, it's probably faulty and you should make a warranty claim for a free replacement, but if the battery's older than two years, it's probably approaching the end of its lifespan.
Some defective batteries are easy to spot because they start to bulge or leak fluid. If nothing like that is obvious from the outside, remove your device's cover and inspect the battery (if you can; some devices have sealed battery compartments).
If the cover doesn't come off, you could try laying the device on its back and spinning it. A bulging battery will deform the case – you might not be able to see this bulge, but it might be enough to allow your phone to spin. If you suspect your battery might be swollen or leaking, get your phone to a repair shop and buy a reputable replacement.
7. Charge from the right source
Charging from a wall socket will always be faster than charging via PC or laptop, because computers' USB ports don't deliver very much power. A wall socket can deliver twice as much power as a USB port, and fast chargers it can deliver as much as five times the power – which means much, much faster charging. So if your phone is charging slowly and you're connected to a laptop: there's your problem.
If your wall charger doesn't appear to be delivering the goods, check that it's appropriate for your device. A charger from another phone might not deliver the right amount of juice — for example, a charger for a Bluetooth headset won't put out as much power as one designed specifically for smart phones. In the case of recent high-end phones, you might have a phone that supports fast charging but a charger that doesn't deliver it. Read the fine-print.
8. Update or roll back
Software updates and new Android versions can wreak havoc with your battery life, especially when upgrading an old device to current software. Newer devices are often optimized to take advantage of the latest software, whereas a two-year-old device can struggle when it gets updated.
If this happens to you and you can't troubleshoot the problem, consider rolling the device back to an earlier Android version; though be warned that this carries security risks. The latest software versions are always recommended to keep your device protected, and while the risk of keeping your smartphone on an older version is often negligible, it’s worth noting.
Similarly, sometimes device battery life can be significantly improved by an update, so if you think you might be way behind on your Android software version, head to Settings > About phone to check for an update.
9. Switch it off
Using battery-intensive apps/features while you are charging your device will affect how quickly it gains battery life. If you are charging while Skyping somebody at 100 percent brightness, the device will naturally take longer to charge than it would with its screen, Wi-Fi and 4G turned off.
Switch the device to airplane mode, or off completely, when you are charging if you want to see the fastest energy injection. Think of it making your device take a power nap.
10. Calibrate your battery
Sometimes the battery level your device 'thinks' it's at is wrong. The effect of this is that your phone may function differently, including limiting performance before it needs to or taking an hour to chew through the last two percent of battery.
We’ve already written an extensive guide on how to calibrate your Smartphone battery, so I won’t retype it all here, but this is a thing to try before completely ditching your defunct power pack.
11. Check your battery pack's voltage and amperage
This tip was pointed out in the comments below by Patrick and it can help you quickly identify a defective cable. Download the free Amperage app from the link below and open it. Now, connect your charger and the interface should go green and the text at the top should say "measuring". If you don't see this, or nothing happens, it means there is no current going to your device.
If it identifies a current, the app will now show the charging statistics for that charger, including the minimum and maximum load levels (in milliamps), voltage and maximum current. This is also a great way to find out which of your chargers is performing best.
Try connecting the different charge packs you own, including portable battery packs, to see which has the highest maximum charge value, or the highest average (the app makes it fairly easy to get an idea of this). It's not an exact measurement but it's an indication if nothing else and the app is completely free.
12. What about water damage?
A number of people in the comments asked about battery problems caused by water damage. If your phone fails to charge after falling in water you don't have many options: your best bet is to try and replace the battery – if that's even possible.
You should, however, try to prevent this from ever happening. Read our article explaining what to do when you drop your phone in water to find out the first steps you should take when trying to rescue it.
If all else fails, double-check that you have the power point switched on. That is the first thing they will ask you if you call your manufacturer for help, which might need to be your next step if none of these solutions has worked for you.
This guide is not specific for Honor 5X. This is for all mobiles.