HOT Minty boost!?

[epicelite]

Yes the chip is in the correct way.

So I was charging my phone with minty boost and my phone was making the "beep" it makes when you plug the charging cord in, it should make 1 beep but it made a beep once ever second.

So then I was like "cord must be loose" and I wiggled it in the phone, nothing, then I grab the altoids tin and it is HOT!

So I took the batteries out and like?

What the shizzle?

Charging in my computer now and it works fine so I dunno?

[yeoj4151]

Ya, a short is your most likly issue, i had one on accident and did not notice until my leg was feeling a bit warmer then normal, so I checked the MB, the tin was painful to handle,but i got it open, and it got hot enough for the plastic around the battery - termanal spring to melt and deform the entire clip. Also if you are running on a MB v2.0 with that new chip I read that it can get pretty smoken', I saw pictures of a temp reading and it was at like 130 degrees F-140 Degrees F. Mabey a heat sink, or some ventelation may help? (I know it does not seam practical for a heat sink or ventlation on a moble device, but... ya only thing I can think of running on 4 hours of sleep for the past 4 days )
Hope this helps!

[epicelite]

Well it charges my DS lite with no problems...

I dunno?

[epicelite]

Well I dunno?

I decided to shorten the wires from the battery thing, just because I wanted to try and make the minty boost close more. So I shortened those, but when I was going to put the foam tape back on I grabbed my hot glue gun instead.

First I lied down a piece of duct tape inside the altoids tin(after checking for conductive-ness) and then I just put hot glue on top and quickly slapped down the PCB!

Now it closes just as good as if it had candy in it! =3

Also I dunno phone seems to charge fine now. I think what happened was is...

Charge = 100% MINTY BOOST OFF!
Charge = 99% MINTY BOOST ON!
Charge = 100% MINTY BOOST OFF!
Charge = 99% MINTY BOOST ON!
Charge = 100% MINTY BOOST OFF!
Charge = 99% MINTY BOOST ON!
Charge = 100% MINTY BOOST OFF!
Charge = 99% MINTY BOOST ON!

Ect...

I dunno it doesn't do that with my DS.

[somekindarobit]

So it's normal for the new chip to reach temps of 50-60 degrees C? I'm sure it can take it, but what worries me more is the batteries reaching temps of 45-50 degrees C (115~120 F). I have everything connected right and soldered right with no shorts and it seems to work properly. But it just gets HOT!... and that's with the case open. Now I might make a tiny heat sink for the chip, but the batteries still gets really hot and I can't really put heatsinks on them. I'm charging a T-Mobile G1 by the way. I think maybe it's just charging waaay too fast and that's what's causing the heating up. Can we slow down the charging a bit? Or should I not worry about these temps?

[crysys]

Hey, this thing does get hot! The smell of hot rosin tipped me off and I was worried there might be a bridge but all joints look good.

This is my first MB2.0 and am charging my phone with it. It's a Samsung T-219 flip phone and I'm using a USB charging cable. It seems to be charging fine but even sitting out on my desk the MB board and batteries are getting pretty warm.

I just measured 1.4A power draw at the batteries. Yes, 1.4 Amps.

I only register about 200mA when charging an iPod Shuffle. This is destined as a gift to primarily charge an iPod Nano(fat) so I'm hoping they are smart enough to limit their power draw.

Seems some phones just are not that intelligent and will charge up with all the juice they can get and the MB will abide.

The MB was assembled and tested according to the instructions on the site.

[WallyTgoat]

Hi Everyone,

Kinda the same thing here... HOT! I first connected the iPhone to see if all was ok. It looked good. Since the phone was fully charged, I decided to find my old gen 4 iPod. The puppy was dead, but as soon as I plugged it in it went to charging. After about 15 min the iPod had enough juice to run on its own so I disconnected the plug and walked away leaving the PCB in the jaws of the helping hand. When I came back about 10 min later I noticed the batter pack was wicked hot and had melted the plastic clip. The batteries looked like they had started leaking, but the PCB was cool to the touch. I double checked for board for shorts but couldn't find any...

I just wanted to see if anyone else had experienced the same thing. Thanks

PS. On a happy note I loved the quick project. The directions were spot one and I felt very confident from beginning to end. Thanks ladyada. Here is a link to the pic at on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25847005@N04/3321132218/

[adafruit]

umm, the holding hands are conductive, you could easily be shorting out something when its in the jaws
dont ever turn on electronics while they are in a third-hand type tool

[WallyTgoat]

Fair enough... I was careful to avoid making any obvious contacts, but your point is valid. I should be able to swing by RadioShack tonight and pick up an new battery clip. Once I make repairs I will take care to isolate the circuit before applying power. Will let you know THX!

[rj44319]

i have a ipod touch and when it charges the baterys get sooo hot that u cant handel them for a few sec. then the chip it self gets blistering hot. this is put together right, and was setting on top of wood

[The_Don125]

Sounds like you either a) have a solder bridge somewhere that is making two things connect that shouldn't be, or b) you connected the battery leads backward, causing the batteries to short circuit through the chip. Mind posting a couple photos of the top and bottom of your mintyboost?

[rj44319]

Sounds like you either a) have a solder bridge somewhere that is making two things connect that shouldn't be, or b) you connected the battery leads backward, causing the batteries to short circuit through the chip. Mind posting a couple photos of the top and bottom of your mintyboost?

here is a you tube video with pics on it to show the chip, if you look at the bottom, not one pin touch's another
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrXcXF4ciHU

[Len17]

I've noticed that the MintyBoost gets really hot when the batteries are low and it's charging a device that draws a lot of current (e.g. iPhone, iPod touch). If you find that happening, try a fresh set of batteries. Or check the voltage across the battery pack - if it's <= 2V (instead of 3V) then new batteries may fix the problem.

[speedracerbubba]

I got my kits today (ordered 2; one for me and one for my fiance that i plan to run 4 aa's to charge her 3g iphone) and without any load, the chip got very hot within about 10 seconds at which point i quickly removed the batteries. Everything is soldered properly, no shorts, and everything is connected as the schematic and instructions say they should be. I am hesitant to solder up the 2nd kit for fear it will do the same thing once assembled (putting it in a closed container scares me with as hot as the chip got).

Any ideas on what the underlying problem is or the one critical mistake we are all making without realizing it?

[The_Don125]

Did you use 4 alkaline AA batteries with the first kit, or just 2? If you used 4 fresh alkaline batteries, you very well could have hit the poor chip with 6.5V, which is 2V more than it was meant to take.