sudomod

Hi there,

So I just installed the battery today, I thought I took precautions when soldering but it doesn't look like its charging the battery.

Is this a clear cut case of the charging circuit is fried? Is it repairable?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks!

Does the CHRG LED (it's blue) blink quickly at all when plugged in?

Have you tried another USB cable or PSU?

With the unit off and out of the case, if you plug in the USB cable and with a multimeter measure the medium sized capacitor that is directly inbetween the micro USB port and the charging IC (black square chip) on the GEM PCB (not the Pi). It is labelled as "C1" but might be hard to see, but it's right between the USB and the chip get a probe on either side.. does it read 5v?

Hi Kite,

The CHRG LED doesn't blink at all when plugged in, and yes I have tried a few different cables and PSU's.

Plugged in, I measured the voltage on C1 and it reads just over 5v.

I assume that you didn't follow all the steps on the step by step guide, as the first 5 steps or so are specifically about checking the charger before soldering anything together!

Also, your speaker is upside down, I'm not quite sure why everyone likes to mount it the wrong way up, you'll get better sound by not having the driver face the pi

I didn't have my battery at the time when I started the build, and when I got it I guess I just soldered it on - figured I would need to check much! But yeh.. technically I skipped steps 4 and 5 on the power section.

Regarding the speaker I did think it was the wrong way actually! I'll switch this around, still decent sound the wrong way round!

So with regards to fixing the charging circuit - what options do I have? Can I replace the chip or similar?

Thanks!

Ok cool I see, it's a lot easier and quicker for me to replace a board without the pi attached because i'd just swap out the boards, what I can do for you is if you return the board I can replace the chip itself. It's not something that can be easily done without the right tools! If you send me an email I'll give you the details and we'll get it sorted. There won't be a fee as I'll assume that it arrived like that anyway

Hi Kite,

Thanks, that would be great! Really appreciate your help with this.

I can see why I shouldn't have skipped the steps and tested before soldering the Pi on!

Thanks again, i'll ping you an email.