Power Boost 500 shield - not working

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ExalCisneros
 
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Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by ExalCisneros »

I have 3 Power Boost 500 shields (PID:2078) that are all encountering the following problem: Whenever I connect the battery to it (3.7 V, 6600 mAh Li-Ion battery PID: 353) the red "Low" lights up but for an instant as I am making the connection, turning off immediately after with the shield not providing any power. One of the boards also turns on the blue "5V" light, but also just for an instant.

I checked if maybe it was the battery that was faulty, but said battery works fine on 2 other shields I have and even trying others of the same battery doesn't solve the issue (all same type of battery). I next checked if maybe it was a bad contact issue on either the board's or the battery's JST PH connectors. This didn't prove to be the case, as I tested using jumper wires to check continuity and proper contact for both terminals. Something interesting is that, as soon as connect the battery to the shield, the voltage reading goes from 4.1 V (fully charged) to 0. I am thinking there may be a short circuit in the boards of some sort.

I tried to look in the forums if someone else had a similar issue as mine but couldn't find it among the several dozens there are.

There is also one other board (seperate from the 3 above) where the power-switch doesn't work. Closing the circuit between the middle and right pin (as explained in the tutorial https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-pow ... ck/pinouts) doesn't turn off the board (blue "5V" light stays on and the board still provides power).

Would you have any suggestions on what may be the cause of this issue? It could be the boards being faulty. FYI, I bought all my shields and batteries off the Adafruit website. I can share you the corresponding order number by email if you so need it. Hope you have a great day and hope to hear soon from you.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by mikeysklar »

Can you post some photos of one of the shield that is not working with the battery connected. Maybe that will reveal something. Please try to show some of the soldering and any customizations you have made to the boards. Which model Arduino are you using these with?

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ExalCisneros
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by ExalCisneros »

Hi mikeysklar,

Attached are the pictures you requested. As you can see the battery is connected, but no LED's turn on, except for the momentary flash of the "LOW" LED I mentioned previously.
Connected battery.jpg
Connected battery.jpg (384.12 KiB) Viewed 241 times
Battery connected
solder pics - Analog side.jpg
solder pics - Analog side.jpg (901.8 KiB) Viewed 241 times
Soldered pins - Analog side
solder pics - digital side.jpg
solder pics - digital side.jpg (124.5 KiB) Viewed 241 times
Soldered pins - digital side

I was trying to use these boards to power an Arduino UNO SMD R3 and a custom built shield, but first need to solve this issue before I can move forward with that.

Thanks for your quick response!

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by mikeysklar »

The soldering and battery connection all look good.

Do you see the same behavior with the Arduino UNO SMD S3? Do you have other Arduino boards you can try this with to confirm the behavior?

It is not clear to me that anything would come on without a controller connected.

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ExalCisneros
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by ExalCisneros »

The PowerBoosts that work don't need to be connected to an Arduino board to do their job, as shown in the picture below.
Working shield - connected battery.jpg
Working shield - connected battery.jpg (342.04 KiB) Viewed 228 times
Here is also a picture of a faulty board connected to an Arduino and not doing anything.
Non-Working shield - connected battery and Arduino.jpg
Non-Working shield - connected battery and Arduino.jpg (361.84 KiB) Viewed 228 times

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by mikeysklar »

Okay, thank you for the comparison with the working and non-working units.

We can replace these three shields for you.

Can you post photos top and bottom of the working and non-working unit for comparison? I’d like to see if there is a serial number or component issue that stands out.

Please e-mail [email protected] and link them to this forum thread. Also provide your original order# when requesting the replacements.

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ExalCisneros
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by ExalCisneros »

Thank you, I included pictures of the three non-working units here, and of the 2 working units in a following post

Non-working
All non-working top.jpg
All non-working top.jpg (399.24 KiB) Viewed 218 times
All non-working - bottom.jpg
All non-working - bottom.jpg (378.57 KiB) Viewed 218 times
Non-working top.jpg
Non-working top.jpg (350.59 KiB) Viewed 218 times
Let me know if you need more detail in any of the images.

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ExalCisneros
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by ExalCisneros »

Here are the pictures of the 2 working units:
All working - top.jpg
All working - top.jpg (405.56 KiB) Viewed 217 times
All working - bottom.jpg
All working - bottom.jpg (389.3 KiB) Viewed 217 times
Working - top.jpg
Working - top.jpg (391.12 KiB) Viewed 217 times

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Power Boost 500 shield - not working

Post by mikeysklar »

Thank you for the photos. Comparing the boards I see minor differences like some of the PCB board info on the bottom and others not. Same for the green SMD chip along the left side when facing up has various orientations, but that probably does not matter for that component. Let's see how the replacement shields work for you. Please let us know.

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