Recently bought a Micro Lipo and it pretty much immediately smelled like it was letting the smoke out when plugged into a USB3 port on a Dell XPS with a 3.7V 400mAh lipo I bought from Core when I was trying to charge the Lipo (no modifications to the 100mA charging circuit).
When “charging” both the Red Charge and the Green Done lights were on and the board got very hot (FLIR images attached). Thing is when not charging the cell seemed to power the 5V point correctly (however the charge light was on?). This leads me to believe the charging part of the little MCP73831 has shuffled off its mortal coil. I’m at loss however why it may have done that ?
If you don’t have a spare charger or battery to half-split what the issue might be (it’s not likely both products), then it might be best to hit reply to your order confirmation email with a link to this forum topic so that we can help with figuring it out.
Hiya Graham, done. Turns out I have 2 more batteries … all are 3.7V (measuring around 4V no load). None of them will charge and in fact the little charger circuit lights up both LEDs even without a battery attached (and heats up to ~80 degrees in about 20 seconds …) power supplied by a charger that I use for my phone =\