Product # 259 LiIon/LiPoly charger has failed.

[Fluyt]

Bought I believe just before this last Christmas. Worked well for many hours after getting the proper USB cable A/mini B cable from you in early January. Failed two days ago.

When working properly both Red power light and Yellow Charging light were full....blindingly bright when charging. Solid in appearance. Two (+/-) wires connected via header pins soldered into BATT. board positions.

Since fail, Red power is only partial bright and pulses when not connected to battery and Yellow is just a pinpoint size light.....and I mean pinpoint!

Plug into bat and R-power goes full blindingly bright solid appearance and Yellow-charging say half as bright as it had been when working.

Checked voltages and input is just about 4.6 volts in.

Tried going in on BATT. JST plugin but that gets same in every respect.

Looking the 259 over a minute ago and I discovered the USB in connector has two broken to board solder soldered tabs....one each side nearest entrance end and when home later will try to re-solder and then see what we have....! Though seemingly touching now when I press down nothing is the better for it. Think (read HOPE) just that the things need solder attachment to make this baby work again.


Any IDEAS Anyone?

[adafruit_support_mike]

Debugging is a process of fixing problems as you find them. Make sure the solder joints are good, then test again.

[Fluyt]

Connecting solder tabs did not fix it. I am not sure what else to consider as everything seems ship shape. I have voltage of 4.9 DC coming from the board with it not connected to a battery but nothing is different about the scene from when I posted first. Must be an internal problem that is not visible.....with one of the components.

[adafruit_support_mike]

Post a photo showing the hardware and connections please. Maybe that will hold some clues.

800x600 images usually work best.

[Fluyt]

Red wire is to second wire on JST balancing plug (Red)

Black wire is to first wire on JST balancing plug (Black)

After each sell is charged move two to next. So now black is where red was and red is to yellow.

I think something may be wrong with the conditioning monitor which I read is part of the charging evaluation before and during charging. I think this because as I said, there is approx. 4.9v DC at the JST connections but no charging takes place.

Hope this helps

IMG_8654.JPG (999.73 KiB) Viewed 529 times

[Fluyt]

Correction.....after charging first cell moving over one BLK to Red....Red to White.

I used the charger like this for probably 500 hours the past 2 months and it worked without complaint.

Hope I can get the thing working again!

[Fluyt]

OK, here is my latest idea about my problem.

I just minutes before the problem arrived soldered the two pins +/- to the back of the board with what was at hand/quickest and I'm thinking the wrong tool for the job. ......my 1960's Weller soldering gun ;( ! I was in a hurry and instead of waiting for my weller iron to ready....well you know.

I knew the Well Gun every time I trigger becomes one hell of a electro magnet sucking on to its tip anything within an inch if its light enough to loose the Tug 'O War with Well Gun.

Could this maybe have erased my firmwear? Maybe that is why the wires are putting out a 1/4 second fluctuation of 4.05 - 4.2v but the beast will not charge. It is permanently (at present) stuck in assessing and since it is a zombie now it just sits there....doing nothing.

If this sounds like a good guess as to my problem...then since on the board there is a program callout how or can I flash the firmware back to the board? Where do I get the aforementioned firmware and can I use my Arduino NANO just like I do with my QuadCopter ESC's to connect to the charger and the flash to it with AVRDude?

Best idea I have come up with so far. Can anyone help steer me to the FW and method to flash?

[adafruit_support_mike]

The LiPo charger doesn't have any firmware to erase.. its operation is all in hardware.

I see something that looks like a bump in the upper-left corner of the main chip in the photo above. Is that a physical bulge in the plastic, or something like a drop of flux that happened to land on the chip?

[Fluyt]

Yes a bump! Did you spot that after having seen this before with the charger? It is not all that noticeable in the photo....can you tell me why that bump would develop?

It would appear to be something caused from inside the chip wanting outside.

Is the chip replaceable and where can I find (OK Digikey....Mouser) but need specific product call out since #s often seem to yield no finds when searching their sites. Need the specifics as only a pro can know and then maybe I can replace and get this baby back to work for me.

I did order another from adafruit and it should be here Monday....but as I say...two would get my charging done in half the time of one.

Appreciate any information that is helpful in knowing the cause of my broken board (not to repeat) and the fix details if possible.

Thanks All!

Gus

[adafruit_support_mike]

Bumps like that mean something has short-circuited inside the chip. For circuits that carry a lot of current, that creates a spark that vaporizes some of the silicon and melts some of the plastic. The expanding gases create a bulge on their way out.

The chip is an MCP73871-2CCI, like these:

https://www.digikey.com/products/en/int ... ageSize=25

It's made for LiPos whose full-charge voltage is 4.2V and low-voltage limit is 3.1V

It's a 20-pin QFP package, so you'll need a hot-air rework station to remove the existing one and put in a replacement.

[Fluyt]

YOUR RECOMMENDED LINK TO DIGIKEY PART IS WRONG. AM OUT $6.00 AND WANT EITHER A REFUND OF AMOUNT OF $6.00 OR YOU MAY PURCHASE THE PROPER PARTS (TWO OF) AND SHIP AT YOUR EXPENSE TO ME TO PROVE THAT ADAFRUIT INDUSTRIES LLC IS A GOOD BUSINESS TO DO BUSINESS WITH AND I SHOULD CONTINUE TO BELIEVE THAT AI LLC STANDS BEHIND THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE AS QUALITY BAR NONE. THE ACCOMPANYING PICS PROVE THAT AN ERROR HAS BEEN MADE ON AI LLC'S PART.

THANK YOU,

GUS

[Fluyt]

THANK YOU....AGAIN

GUS

[adafruit_support_mike]

That was my mistake. The USB charger uses an MCP73833, while the MCP73871 is used on the Solar Charger.

Send a note containing a link to this page to [email protected] and the folks there will get you a new USB LiPo Charger.

[Fluyt]

OK, bought the 1304 thinking it would save me from what has now taken every #259 charger....reverse polarity....I have. Well, wouldn't you know the 1304 seems to have a problem! Both Red and Green are equally on when I try to charge. Think it is not charging as I have it bridged to .5A and now 5 hours in getting nowhere. Any advise about what might be the problem?

[Fluyt]

1304 is only putting out 3.67 volts at present....five hours in. Both lights equally on.