Using Lipo Charger to directly power android tablet - Hardware Hacking General

My android tablet suddenly died on me and refuses to power up. Unable to charge the battery as well.
Am thinking of removing the battery from the tablet and then hooking up a lipo charger to the black and red wires on the circuit board. Hopefully this can power it on directly without the battery.
This is a simple and inexpensive lipo charger I'm looking at:
www[dot]sgbotic[dot]com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=999
Few concerns that I have:
Can the lipo charger be used as a direct power supply? I know voltage-wise, it's safe (3.7V). But I'm not sure if circuitry-wise, a charger works the same way as a power supply
Is 500mA current output from the charger enough to power on the tablet? If not, what is the recommended current output?
How do I know if the tablet has any logic to detect the presence of a battery? From what I see on the circuit board, there are only 2 black+red connectors (no data connector or anything)

A proper battery should less than that $15 charger. Even if you did bypass the battery you should be able to find a less expensive power supply.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Spoo76 said:
A proper battery should less than that $15 charger. Even if you did bypass the battery you should be able to find a less expensive power supply.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It uses a 12000mAh battery, which I think cost $40-60. The thing is, I'm not sure whether the issue lies with the battery. So i thought of bypassing the battery and see if it is a circuit board problem.
Here's the "tablet" I have. It's actually the viewing panel of my digital door viewer. Essentially a stripped down Android tablet:
www[dot]rollupcn.com/index.php/iHome4/show/19.html

Btw here're the pics of how the battery and the mainboard look like:
https[colon]//d3nevzfk7ii3be[dot]cloudfront.net/igi/SYJVWTdAPAPBRVCG
https[colon]//d3nevzfk7ii3be[dot]cloudfront.net/igi/q52LQk2X1s6NOaTK
Thing is - I'm not sure if the problem lies with the battery or the mainboard. Any suggestion on how to troubleshoot?

If you want to hack your Power from battery to directly input,
but fails to bypass battery check.
I have a idea that works. (some electricity knowledge required)
You can use a capacitor to "cheat" PMIC, and running on usb cable power.
Go buy a super capacitor (a 4.0F V-type should be OK.)
Charge it with the working voltage. (a few seconds is enough for that.)
Then remove your battery. Strip off the battery controller that you'll need.
Find out the positive and negative on it.(Important!)
And connect the charged super capacitor with battery controller, and put it back battery slot (It's small and fits)
And you can boot on cable power without battery!

In case you still look for a solution, I would connect a functioning Li-Ion battery, either 18650 or from another phone with at least 2000mAh capacity and hook a single cell Li-Ion charger with at least 1A rating.
Things to consider:
- the charger is likely to be noisy and needs a battery to smooth out the wave. It may or may not be an issue. Having a battery connected will dampen it down.
- connecting a smaller battery and powering the tablet via USB may dump too much current into the battery
- the tablet may draw up to 4A on boot, probably 800mA min, so your charger will need a full battery as a backup
- don't use a charger for a different battery chemistry. There is a chance of damage or even fire.
- some devices use I2C interface to talk to the BMS, but this is unlikely in your case
- make sure the temp battery you are using has a BMS

Related

Portable battery charger?

So i have this original n7100 battery that i want to find a use for, and my gf has a low budget samsung phone(and i have a spare charger for her phone) that is always out of battery, and i was thinking if i could just cut the cord of the charger and connect to the spare battery, the output of the charger is 4.75v 0.55A, the spare battery is 3.8v 3.8A, her phone battery is 3.7v and 0.7A
Is it possible or would it be easyer to just mod her phone to use the spare battery to act as the main power source? Then would it be possible to get a transistor to act as battery switcher so she could just unplug the spare battery (i would just create a connection port on her phone)
Saturday night and i can't go out so i really need a project
n7100
kubbur87 said:
So i have this original n7100 battery that i want to find a use for, and my gf has a low budget samsung phone(and i have a spare charger for her phone) that is always out of battery, and i was thinking if i could just cut the cord of the charger and connect to the spare battery, the output of the charger is 4.75v 0.55A, the spare battery is 3.8v 3.8A, her phone battery is 3.7v and 0.7A
Is it possible or would it be easyer to just mod her phone to use the spare battery to act as the main power source? Then would it be possible to get a transistor to act as battery switcher so she could just unplug the spare battery (i would just create a connection port on her phone)
Saturday night and i can't go out so i really need a project
n7100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sory, that text is a little bit confusing for me, but you have to check correct volateg and amparage, lowering voltage and amp, is easy, the reverse is a little harder.
try this way
hi,
use otg adapter and connect to the note. then take charge/data cable and connect the cable to the adapter and the other end with yours girlfriend phone. under 5V there is no worry. maybe you unplugg your phone and there ´s still the charge sign. then u have to restart your phone. but i dont think that will happen.
cheers
:laugh: Maybe Your Rom make Pin drain so fast
kubbur87 said:
Is it possible or would it be easyer to just mod her phone to use the spare battery to act as the main power source? Then would it be possible to get a transistor to act as battery switcher so she could just unplug the spare battery (i would just create a connection port on her phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is entirely possible. But you're not going to find someone who can say how much work it will be to make it happen unless they've done it themselves. These lithium batteries need control circuitry to charge and discharge correctly. I'd try to use the battery to drive something else (like an LED and resistor) first to see if you can get it to work. If there's not built-in circuitry to prevent that, it my work for the phone too.

Nexus 7 Running without Battery

Can someone verify that the Nexus 7 can operates perfectly fine with the battery removed and only powered by the USB cable? I've read some threads eluding to this, but no one has confirmed. Mine is in the dash of my car so i cant verify this myself. If someone can. that would be amazing! Thank you.
look at the thread right below yours.
Old Guy said:
look at the thread right below yours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw that thread, i was still a bit confused as they were talking about USB DAC and other devices hooked up to me.
I want to make sure data can still be transferred from the same USB cable and such.
Yes, it's possible, but has some side-effects
Yes, it's possible to power the Nexus 7 without battery from a USB-cable, but it involves sending power directly to the battery connection inside the Nexus 7, and it seems to have some side-effects.
The battery is a one-cell lithium polymer, which has a max charge of 4.23 V. I hoped the Nexus wouldn't fry when connecting 5 V, and it has worked fine the few minutes I've tested it. No smell of burnt electronics
Here is what I did:
Tear off the tape around the battery cable. You'll see it's soldered to a pcb-board, and the two black and two red wires are soldered together. The two wires in the middle is probably some kind of data-connection to the battery. Will investigate this further later.
Then I soldered loose the cables, so I could use the battery-connector, and soldered both red and black wires to red and black wires in a USB-cable. Drilled a hole in the back-cover right below the NFC-antenna. The back-cover is filled with all sorts of antennas, so scratch carefully with a knife before drilling. Attached some pictures of the process.
Side-effects I've noticed so far:
- It thinks the battery is at 0% and not charging.
- The clock is reset when you turn off the power. But if you have internet it will update from NTP within a minute or so.
- My computer (OS X) can't detect it anymore. So I suspect it doesn't work in USB device-mode anymore, but I'm able to connect a USB-keyboard with an OTG-cable, so it seems to work in host-mode.
Does anyone else have any experience with this, or any ideas why it doesn't work in device-mode? I'm considering adding a small connector so I can use the two extra wires from the battery to the data-wires of the USB-cable (and disconnect when not in use), and then solder a USB female cable to the original battery. That way I can (hopefully) connect the Nexus 7 to my computer when needed, and possibly analyze what the two extra wires is actually used for.
I have CM for Android 4.2, and Timur's USB-rom, but it's probably not needed for this hack, and I will probably install a stock rom if I get this working properly.
Be careful, and don't blame me if you fry your Nexus (or anything else). Be sure to turn off any fast-charge hacks when the battery is disconnected.
Old Guy - look at the thread right below yours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Threads are sorted by last post in each thread, so it's impossible to find which one you are referring to. Do you have an url?
Theory worked
I managed to connect the Nexus 7 to my computer again
I'm considering adding a small connector so I can use the two extra wires from the battery to the data-wires of the USB-cable (and disconnect when not in use), and then solder a USB female cable to the original battery. That way I can (hopefully) connect the Nexus 7 to my computer when needed, and possibly analyze what the two extra wires is actually used for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can confirm that this works. I didn't have any small connectors, so I hot-glued one header-pin and a female connector for a header pin on the data-wires in the USB-cable. Doesn't look good, but it works
When I have it in the car, I disconnect the header-pins on the USB-cable, and connect it to an USB power-source. When I need to connect it to the computer, I connect the header-pins and connect the battery (with the female USB-cable), and a regular USB-cable to the computer.
Sorry to bring up an older thread, but it sounds like the White and Yellow wires of the battery are for data?
if so, if I applied 3.7-4.2 volts on the battery connection and then still had a 5v connection on the USB would this work?
I would like to use Timur's ROM, and have power applied when my car is off (fixed install) for deep sleep and then apply the 5v when the car is on to bring it from the deep sleep. the issues would be faking it to not charge which I am guessing would mean to set the battery input to 4.23 volts to show as being fully charged. then when key on, the 5v would take over and you would still have the 4.23 applied at the battery connection ( probably have a diode on the + side to keep from injecting voltage to that supply
Has any one completed something like this?
The problematic usb port finally gave up on my Nexus 7 (2012). I've opened up it up, connected the black and red wires from a cut usb cable to the 1st and 4th pogo pins without removing the battery. Now charging's fast and stable..
Added: Tried 5v2a charging, it doesn't melt anything.. Fully charged in just slightly over1 hour.
This thread has been great help and a motivator for wiring my Nexus 7 to do a (permanent) dash install.
I've just removed the battery and wired it to a Pico-Box X5-ATX-180 carputer PSU with an adjustable voltage converter in-between to get around 3.9 volts to the tablet. Works great, but I found another drawback.
Like mentioned in a post before me, the battery status will show 0% which I thought wouldn't be too big of a problem. However, at the moment there is an Android update (4.4.3) available and when I try to update it first tells that the battery is too low and that I should connect a charger. So I did, but then it tells me too "wait for the battery to charge sufficiently".
So for anyone reading this wanting to do the same, know that you won't be able to update Android without a battery connected.
I have attached a photo of the tablet running without a battery for those interested.
Rutjes said:
This thread has been great help and a motivator for wiring my Nexus 7 to do a (permanent) dash install.
I've just removed the battery and wired it to a Pico-Box X5-ATX-180 carputer PSU with an adjustable voltage converter in-between to get around 3.9 volts to the tablet. Works great, but I found another drawback.
Like mentioned in a post before me, the battery status will show 0% which I thought wouldn't be too big of a problem. However, at the moment there is an Android update (4.4.3) available and when I try to update it first tells that the battery is too low and that I should connect a charger. So I did, but then it tells me too "wait for the battery to charge sufficiently".
So for anyone reading this wanting to do the same, know that you won't be able to update Android without a battery connected.
I have attached a photo of the tablet running without a battery for those interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could use the factory image to update your nexus 7. It's just a bit more work.
Rutjes said:
This thread has been great help and a motivator for wiring my Nexus 7 to do a (permanent) dash install.
I've just removed the battery and wired it to a Pico-Box X5-ATX-180 carputer PSU with an adjustable voltage converter in-between to get around 3.9 volts to the tablet. Works great, but I found another drawback.
Like mentioned in a post before me, the battery status will show 0% which I thought wouldn't be too big of a problem. However, at the moment there is an Android update (4.4.3) available and when I try to update it first tells that the battery is too low and that I should connect a charger. So I did, but then it tells me too "wait for the battery to charge sufficiently".
So for anyone reading this wanting to do the same, know that you won't be able to update Android without a battery connected.
I have attached a photo of the tablet running without a battery for those interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you use to get the voltage down to 3.9 volts?
the exact thread I've been searching for.
Just completed by initial installation and now troubleshooting various problems.
The biggest being this battery scenario. So from what I've read in this thread is to use a DC-DC power switcher PICO for carputers and run that to the battery leads. How is the boot time though?
I've read that with a low battery, the kernal during bootup takes longer for checks to occur?
I have an idea.....:
If we can switch 12VDC to 5VDC during switched (Key On Accesory) with a regulator.....
we should be able to do the same with a sepearate regulator to switch 12VDC to5VDC during constant (Key off) when the switch voltage is lost.
This would retain the time you mentioned gets lost. Also, how much mAh (current) do you get out of that PICO regulator to the battery leads? The TIMUR kernal for FI-mode wants 1800mAh at least. Currently I'm using a cigarette lighter DC-DC adapter that has 2 ports. (2.1A, and 1A). The Nexus 7 is currently connected to the 2.1A and my HUB is connected to the 1A.
any advice?
Thanks
rezmax said:
Just completed by initial installation and now troubleshooting various problems.
The biggest being this battery scenario. So from what I've read in this thread is to use a DC-DC power switcher PICO for carputers and run that to the battery leads. How is the boot time though?
I've read that with a low battery, the kernal during bootup takes longer for checks to occur?
I have an idea.....:
If we can switch 12VDC to 5VDC during switched (Key On Accesory) with a regulator.....
we should be able to do the same with a sepearate regulator to switch 12VDC to5VDC during constant (Key off) when the switch voltage is lost.
This would retain the time you mentioned gets lost. Also, how much mAh (current) do you get out of that PICO regulator to the battery leads? The TIMUR kernal for FI-mode wants 1800mAh at least. Currently I'm using a cigarette lighter DC-DC adapter that has 2 ports. (2.1A, and 1A). The Nexus 7 is currently connected to the 2.1A and my HUB is connected to the 1A.
any advice?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why go through all the trouble? Just snip off any USB cable and connect to the pogo pins.. This way, you can charge at pogo's speed with any wall charger and still bring your tablet anywhere.
Hi guys just wanted to report i used your trick on my nexus 7 and it worked perfectly!
I used this method to check if the problem was the battery or if the screen was dead and it turned out to be the battery!
Now i have another battery on the way from Ebay.
Thanks again good job!
Hi guys me again,
I want to update the software but it wont let me because battery is on 1% for ever.
BUT i was wondering, what would happend if i simultaneously plug in the mini usb to another usb charger?
would that create some sort of an insane weird circut and burn my tablet?
any thoughts?
thanks!
Im thinking to use the Nexus 7 in car without the original battery. Constant 4.2V from car battery via converter to nexus battery pins and using the usb with ignition to switch the tablet between sleep and normal state. One thing i would want to reuse is the temperature sensor in the Li-ion pack. Has anyone some idea if the two extra wires are directly connected to temp sensor or there is a circuit for it on the battery controller? If so how it could be reproduced so i could use this to monitor the temp in car for example or if anyone knows any usb dongles that i could use for monitoring external temp with android.
So now i hav tryed the nexus without the battery aswell. At first i applyed 5v directly to the little black battery connector. tablet worked but showed 0%. Then tryed desoldering the batteryback from the little circuit and applyed 5v to the actual battery connectors on the circuit. It shows 100% battery and works and also the temperature sensor is working. One issue is that i need to plug in the charger before connecting the circuit to the motherboard, maybe the charger im using is just too weak that cant get the voltage up or something. And another thing is that i left it plugged in for the night and now the percentage goes down slowly as it would be discharging. havent figured out why that is. Maybe someone has tackled this before also?
freakadell said:
So now i hav tryed the nexus without the battery aswell. At first i applyed 5v directly to the little black battery connector. tablet worked but showed 0%. Then tryed desoldering the batteryback from the little circuit and applyed 5v to the actual battery connectors on the circuit. It shows 100% battery and works and also the temperature sensor is working. One issue is that i need to plug in the charger before connecting the circuit to the motherboard, maybe the charger im using is just too weak that cant get the voltage up or something. And another thing is that i left it plugged in for the night and now the percentage goes down slowly as it would be discharging. havent figured out why that is. Maybe someone has tackled this before also?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You supplied power to the protection circuit? I'm surprised that worked.
The battery is probably going down because the protection circuit is designed to prevent over and under voltage. Since you're feeding it 5V and a lithium battery is supposed to max out at about 4.2V it must be trying to lower the voltage somehow. The percentage going down is probably nothing to worry about, but I'd strongly recommend connecting to the battery connector instead, and only connecting it like this when you need to have a certain percentage to do a system update etc. Also be careful with the bare battery, if the two pins short it could catch fire.
Hi i tried that works ,however it doesn't boot when powered i have to turn it on pressing power button,any idea why?
As a car dash its pretty useless now
Just a quick message that I have managed to power my nexus 7 2012 from a USB cable connected to the circuit board that was attached to my dead battery. Battery level indicator is permanently at 100%.
Sort of like the above it involves using the battery circuit board but it is disconnected from the battery.
Step 1: Strip back battery wrapping revealing the board attached to the connector cables (that connects to Nexus 7)
Step 2: Cut the metal strips going from the circuit board to the actual battery part
Step 3: Solder USB cable Positive wire to board pad labelled VP and Negative to pad VG(? not 100% on last one, but it's the other pad)
Step 4: Solder short wire from VP pad to other side of the board onto the ++ pad (that goes to the red wires then connector)
Step 5: Wrap board up with elec/other tape to avoid shorts
Step 6: Connect up and power on
Not sure why the last wire is needed but it didn't work for me without it.
Next step for me is to wire it to the onboard micro-usb
Where is the ++ pad ??
dribbleboy said:
Step 4: Solder short wire from VP pad to other side of the board onto the ++ pad (that goes to the red wires then connector)
Not sure why the last wire is needed but it didn't work for me without it.
Next step for me is to wire it to the onboard micro-usb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is the ++ pad mentioned in step 4 ? Can you post some pictures ?

Need help troubleshooting, dead rk3066 tablet

Hello,
I need help with my new tablet.
Model is Allfine Fine10 Yoy.
Specs:
Rockchip RK3066, 1.6GHz, Cortex A9 dual core; GPU: Mali 400 MP4
Android 4.1
1GB (DDR3)
16GB Nand Flash
10.1 Inch / IPS
Battery: 7800mAh
It is not so old, about 5 months. Few days ago I have left it to charge overnight (it usually takes 4-5 hours to charge so I always charge it overnight) and in the morning it could not turn on. It is dead, no signs of life. I checked maybe it did not charge, so I changed power socket and tried again.
I can not charge it via USB so I can't test that.
There is not sign of life when connected to PC, adb list's no devices.
There is no sign of life after holding power/lock button for a long time and there is not signs after holding restart button.
It came factory rooted, I've never updated/flashed or anything.
I have not noticed any troubles so far, no lags, no freezing, no overheating.
Are you familiar with debug method for this kind of tablet?
What should I do, what test to make?
Can you help me debug this, please.
Thank you.
cheap china tablets are easy to open up. just pry the back cover off carefully and put a volt meter on the battery. its probably dead.
check your power supply first, it might have croaked too.
Would it be possible to run tablet with removed battery, straight off adapter to check is it working?
mrnjau said:
Would it be possible to run tablet with removed battery, straight off adapter to check is it working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly, at least some part of startup.
Most device processors will start up if they notice power coming from somewhere.
At some point try will try to access the state and source of power.
If they notices that the battery is really dead (that is, the power is only from USB) they will shut down and go into charge-only mode.
It may be more likely that your battery is charged and the processor got wedged somehow.
Disconnect from USB, open the back, disconnect the battery and reconnect it.
Renate NST said:
Possibly, at least some part of startup.
Most device processors will start up if they notice power coming from somewhere.
At some point try will try to access the state and source of power.
If they notices that the battery is really dead (that is, the power is only from USB) they will shut down and go into charge-only mode.
It may be more likely that your battery is charged and the processor got wedged somehow.
Disconnect from USB, open the back, disconnect the battery and reconnect it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply,
I've precedeed as you sugested.
Solder is pretty hard on battery connection, so I unsoldered just one (negative wire, red one) and pluged it to charger and try to start it. I undsolderd just one because I don't want heat to ruin something and I guessed it should be enough to try this.
It still shows no signs of life.
However I've noticed something, when re-soldering red wire I have noticed that there is a spark when wire is near the solder point. So, there is some power in battery.
Any idea how to proceed? I still don't have multimeter to test battery voltage so that will have to wait.
Thanks once again.
Oh, sorry, I thought that the battery was on a connector.
That makes life easier than soldering.
The red wire(s) are always the positive.
The black wire(s) are always the negative (ground).
Any other color wires on a battery are thermistor, id sense or communication.
Yes, finding/borrowing a voltmeter is the next step.
Renate NST said:
Oh, sorry, I thought that the battery was on a connector.
That makes life easier than soldering.
The red wire(s) are always the positive.
The black wire(s) are always the negative (ground).
Any other color wires on a battery are thermistor, id sense or communication.
Yes, finding/borrowing a voltmeter is the next step.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Renate, I hope you still follow this topic.
I'm sorry for 2 months without updates, I've waited for some time for parts from China.
So, what have I done so far...
1) Get multimeter.
2) Test battery.
Battery is designated as 3.7V, however output is 4.15 - 4.16 V.
I've presumed this is fine.
3) Test the charger.
Charger is designated on 5V and 3A. I've tested voltage, it is fine. However ampers dance between 0.5A and 3.5A. I've presumed that charger is faulty, so I've ordered new one. Generic 5V, 3A charger.
4) Put it back together, re-solder the battery and connect charger. Test again.
Voltage on battery connectory is same as before - 4.15V.
After 20min there is no change in battery temperature (source: my fingers), however power jack where new charger is connected is getting warm, but not too warm.
Tried to power it on, no signs of life. Tried holding restart button for forewer, no sign of life.
I'm out of ideas.
3 Amps is a heck of a charger.
Where did that come from? Is it stock?
You have a little round coaxial connector for the charging input on the tablet?
There's no reason that it should be drawing 3 amps or anything getting warm.
The battery is fully charged.
There could be a high resistance in the battery protection module so that it looks charged but can't actually supply any current when called upon.
There's a USB connector on this too?
And nothing appears when you connect a USB cable to it?
I wouldn't expect ADB, but maybe a bootloader.
Run devmgmt.msc when plugging it in and see if anything at all shows up.
Renate NST said:
3 Amps is a heck of a charger.
Where did that come from? Is it stock?
You have a little round coaxial connector for the charging input on the tablet?
There's no reason that it should be drawing 3 amps or anything getting warm.
The battery is fully charged.
There could be a high resistance in the battery protection module so that it looks charged but can't actually supply any current when called upon.
There's a USB connector on this too?
And nothing appears when you connect a USB cable to it?
I wouldn't expect ADB, but maybe a bootloader.
Run devmgmt.msc when plugging it in and see if anything at all shows up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock charger is 3A, so I bought with indetical specs. My research showed that a lot of chinese tabs use 3A chargers (Ainol Hero, etc..)
Yes, charger connector is 2.5mm "needle".
Some 30min after I posted this area around connector and speaker on motherboard got very very hot, I almost injured myself by touching it. So I've disconnected it.
No, nothing on USB. I've mentioned it in my first post, there are no signs of life on adb. Or "dmesg", which should list something even if device was bricked.
Um, are you sure that the polarity of the supply is correct?
For coaxial plugs the center is usually positive.
If it got that hot you probably have blown something.
Renate NST said:
Um, are you sure that the polarity of the supply is correct?
For coaxial plugs the center is usually positive.
If it got that hot you probably have blown something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.amazon.com/2000mah-Adapt...6-6172141?ie=UTF8&refRID=1AED4Q5XRX7QS8JJ91Y9
This is that kind of power connector, 2.5mm. Are we talking about the same thing? Is is possible for this kind of connectors to have non-standard polarity.
Maybe nothing is blown, I would smell that. Maybe there just hi resistance somewhere along the line.
Well, if it's the same charger and it used to charge then the polarity must be ok.
Still, something is not happy.
You should have been able to get it working with just the battery.
The DC input should not be getting hot.
I can only say so much from this distance.
Renate NST said:
Well, if it's the same charger and it used to charge then the polarity must be ok.
Still, something is not happy.
You should have been able to get it working with just the battery.
The DC input should not be getting hot.
I can only say so much from this distance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't find any info on ampers and battery. I can't measure any amps coming out of battery, that's strange. I don't know much about this but should not battery put up some ampers?
Yeah, I understand that DC port should not get hot. Only 2 options.
1) Charger (the new one) is putting up too much electricity, to many amps that is.
2) There is something faulty on DC port or around it and causes too much resistance and thus heat.

NST battery voltage shutdown treshold hackable?

Hi,
i use a Nook Simple Touch as typewriter with an usb-keyboard,
which works great thanks to the usb host mode app, or, automated:
an old version of tasker with a plugin to deactivate charging and activate hostmode ( and fastmode...) via shell command after booting.
The problem is, this mode drains the battery really fast,
and charging while using the keyboard, so nececessarily with OTG cable attached, is a bit of a pain in the neck,
because there is only 1 possible sequence of actions how you can enable charging with more than around 100 mA (which would be way too low in this case) while the keyboard is active,
which requires a 16k resistor between GND and ID pin, rebooting, temporarily disconnecting some wires via switch, tapping around etc etc,
(and also does not work well when the nook is completely off ),
so i decided to leave the usb port exclusively for the keyboard,
an remove the internal battery an replace it with a external big 7000mAh or so 1S li-ion pack,
which is charged externally with a lipo module
(while charging, the nook is powered by an ac adapter, power source switching is realised with a relay and a really big capactior to avoid any more complicated possibly failing electronics)
which works great and is very easy to handle,
BUT i really dont like li-ion batterys of any kind because of the fire hazard,
nimh eneloop cant be used because charging in parallel is not a good idea,
so i would like to use lifepo4 chemistry instead,
which has a working woltage between around 3 and 3,6 volts,
but the nook powers down at around 3,65 volts.
A boost/buck converter isnt possible because as the battery drains, the voltage must sink slowly for the nook to make a normal shutdown
and not crash, damage the file system etc, (and also a converter drains quite much battery even if the nook is completely off.)
Question: it would be VERY kind if anyone who has a clue about this could share his opionion on that:
is it possible (if the hardware itself can handle it) to lower the android/nook shutdown voltage to about 3 volts with some rom/software modifications ?
threshold not treshold
Wow, this all seems a bit complicated.
I had never heard of this 16K resistor stuff.
As far as I could tell, the ID pin is only sensed high or low..
Unless I'm mistaken the OMAP3621 ULPI registers only indicate high/low.
The TPS65921B (which is the actual PHY) list 90K as the typical break point.
Of course, there could be a circuit completely external to the ULPI/PHY.
Where did you find out about 16K?
Changing the voltage of everything seems the difficult way to go.
You'd have to modify uboot as well as the charger daemon.
A note: The USB charge pump is pretty inefficient, 55%.
If you were to load the USB to the maximum speced 100mA with a 3V battery, it would be drawing 303mA from the battery!
5V × 100mA / 3v / 55% = 303mA
Oh, you got me confused with your two posts.
When you were talking about ID and 16K did you mean the ID on the battery pack or the ID on the USB OTG?
Renate NST said:
Where did you find out about 16K?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wired a 50k pot between gnd and id pin,
in the usb mode app tapped "host" and watched if the led goes an stays on,
if not, lowered the resistance, tried again etc,
as soon it stayed on (at 16k at my device ) used this value as permanent fixed resistor.
with that otg mode keyboard use is possible,
but also at the same time the nook doesnt really believe its in otg mode so charging with 500mA is possible,
if done in this order:
- feed 5v to the + - of the usb cable
- reboot (not always required)
- remove an reinsert usb plug
- hit "host" 2 times, keyboard works and charging with around 500mA works (measured it)
but charging doesnt work when nst ist powered off,
and automount of the keyboard at startup via shell is not possible,
and cable acrobatic is required,
and as you say, usb charging is inefficient.
the other solution with an external battery (at the nst batt terminals) with external charging logic with a relay is a much easyer way,
but depends on a li-ion cell because of the 3,7-4,2 voltages the nook can use,
a lifepo4 ( or 2s li titanate + diode) would be safer and has more cycles but would require the nook
to work with 3 to 3,7 volts, which seems too complicated, changing demons etc whatever that is...
after some research it seems its not really an issue, the newer sanyo/panasonic, samsung, sony, lg powertool/ebike cells seem to be quite safe, as far as youtube shortcircuit etc tests demonstrate.
thanks for the orientational infos
Renate NST said:
Oh, you got me confused with your two posts.
When you were talking about ID and 16K did you mean the ID on the battery pack or the ID on the USB OTG?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, i should have used one thread, i suggest ignoring the other one,
where the only request was if the nook battery terminals can survive up to 5v,
here was the request if the nook can be modified to accept at the battery terminals a voltage down to 3v and stay on.
so 3v too complicated, 5v too dangerous,
so i stick with the relay and the li-ion cell, no problem, i was just curious if an improvement would be easily possible.
the battery id resistors have nothing to to with all that, 10k and 30k work fine,
i meant the 5 pin micro usb otg connector, not shorted zero ohms as usual, but 16k.
(but thats obsolete now)
another observation: in some thread you mention you charge the nook while using an usb keyboard,
i tested it and with a normal otg cable, and the usb mode app set to 500 mA oder 1,5 A,
and a 50% charged normal internal battery,
the device draws around 250mA, and the battery gets charged very slowly, or not at all, depending on cpu usage etc.
and if the battery reaches 100% , it continues to draw around 250 mA, which is strange,
because when using a normal, non-otg usb cable,
the device draw only around 100mA when the battery had reached 100%,
so the difference must be used for heating purposes somewhere or overcharge the battery,
which might be a reason for swelling lipos.

Has anyone tried connecting 5 Volts directly to the internal battery terminals ?

Does it damage the Board or not?
I accidentally did connect 5v for a second or so,
it did power on, i disconnected immediately, and after that it didnt power on for several hours,
but not sure if it was because of the interruption during boot, or overvoltage.
Can somebody confirm?
(i cant use a diode for voltage reduction, its a bit complicated, i use a load sharing capable solar charger board etc)
its a nook simple touch
Yow, don't do that!
Ok, it should be able to take it, but still.
I've often fed 4V to devices which had their battery blow up.
In worst cases I've used a diode for drop, but the voltage can be pretty variable over load.
The uboot on most things will not continue if there is zero voltage on the battery.
Also, the peak current of a device can go up to 600 mA or more at times.
That kind of current often can't come in through the USB connector.
Finally, battery packs have ID connections and thermistor.
Entirely disconnecting a battery pack will often prevent booting even when voltage is present.
If you have a dead battery pack always keep the the connector, cable and tiny PCB inside.
Attach a power supply to where the naked cells used to connect to the PCB.
For wiring of the battery pack see: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=42552349&postcount=5
thanks, 2 weeks ago i prepared to measure possible resistors but did a google search before, found your description...
i use the protection board with a 18650 3000mAh lithium manganese (to prevent blow (up)) etc cell and charge it externally,
which requires switching between charging the batt + powering the nook over the batt terminals,
and using the batt for powering the nook , all that while the usb keyboard is connected and in use,
this is done via relay and a really big capacitor, which works great but is a bit ghettostyle.
i tried to use another charger board with load sharing circuitry instead,
but the only easy available module requires 5v minimum input, passes this 5v to load if the ac adapter is plugged in,
if not, it passes the battery voltage to load,
so a diode(+ parallel resistor to maintain voltage drop) or LDO doesnt work because it would at least steal around 0,5 v,
which is to much reduction for the battery voltage, because the nst powers off at ~ 3,7v,
easiest would be to just let the 5v to the nook but seems no good idea.
anyways, it works with the relay

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