Particle Power shield

Hi,

I just received a Particle Power shield and have some issue. I put the following on the Particle forum and got the reply below. Do you agree the battery is the issue?
Thanks

Kim

Hi,
I have just received a particle power shield and cannot get it to “see” the battery.

Photon will not power with battery only connected, only with USB on either Photon or shield.
With USB power to shield and Photon connected charging indicator red light is solid blue is flashing.
With USB power to shield and NO Photon connected charging indicator red light is flashing, blue is flashing.fast.
Same as above with or without battery connected?
Battery voltage measures OK with voltmeter, and behind the JST connector on the shield, but no idea under load. Don’t have another battery here to try.
Tried running Power shield code, shows voltage as 4.69 and SoC at 175% with or without battery connected?
Tried disconnecting and reconnecting battery several times as suggested in previous posts. Not really ready to solder on the capacitor.
My first thought is the battery unable to take any load but will take a while to get another.

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks
Kim

=======

I just received two Power Shields that I never tested, so I thought I’d share what I see on mine? If I remove the Photon as well as the battery, I can see what you mention in your second example. I would guess that this means that your battery is defect? I’d contact Particle via the contact form to hear if they can send you a replacement?

Other observations:

  • Both my shields behave identically.
  • Both shields will power the Photon with battery only connected. When operated from battery, all the LEDs on the Power Shield turns off.
  • With USB power to shield, Photon connects, red LED (marked as “USBPG”) is solid read. Red LED marked STAT2 is off. Blue led (marked as STAT1) is solid blue.
  • With USB power to shield, no Photon connected, red LED (marked as “USBPG”) is solid read. Red LED marked STAT2 is off. Blue led (marked as STAT1) is solid blue.
  • Unplugging the battery from the shield turns on the red LED marked STAT2 and turns off the blue led marked STAT1. The Photon is still powered.

When powering the Photon directly from USB, no charging occurs (no LEDs on Power Shield are lit). When the Photon is powered from USB, the PowerShield sketch reports 4.14V. When powered from the Power Shield battery, it reports 3.88V. The SOC value was initially around 101, but then fell to 79.9.

Hi Kim,

Hmm, when you say that the SoC is ‘at 175%’ what exactly are you measuring there?

4.69V is too high for a single cell LiPo, they are generally fully charged at around 4.2V, so it sounds like there could be something going on with your battery. The best step would be to grab a new LiPo and see how that goes.

Hi Sam,
My first thought was the battery. But as you say the values are rubbish especially when it is the same whether or not the battery is connected!? So I was thinking it might be the power shield.

I have an order pending so will add a new battery to that order and see what happens.

Thanks

Kim

Hi Sam,

I got the new battery today and still the same. It is as though the power shield completely fails to detect the battery.
Some posts on Particle forum say there is an issue with the battery sometimes being detected as a short and they suggest to solder a capacitor on the shield. Am very reluctant to do this,
Any other ideas.
Thanks
Kim

Hi Kim,

After taking a dive through the Particle docs, I’d recommend trying the capacitor fix as that should fix the power on issue you’re experiencing.

Hi Sam,
I already looked at doing this but have a few problems with this solution.

First it seems that disconnecting and connecting the battery should allow to photon to power up. This does not work. So am not sure this is the problem.
Second the pins are very, very tiny and in a cramped area so I have no confidence in being able to solder the capacitor properly.
Third what would happen to any warranty if I solder the board?
What do you think?
Thanks
Kim

Hi Sam,
Today I attached a solar panel to the DC input terminal and the ACPG LED came on. The main LED on the Photon came on but did not power up properly. I tried resetting restarts etc and no luck. I disconnected the solar connected the USB works fine.
For me it looks as though the Power Shield is not working properly, and I do not think adding the capacitor will fix it.
What are my options, with this shield and how does the Sparkfun Power Shield compRE.
Thanks
Kim

What is the voltage of the solar panel that you used?

It is the 1W SOLAR PANEL 80X100 (SEEED STUDIO) SS313070005 which I bought from you. It says typical voltage is 5.5 V and I measured it at 5.8V
Thanks
Kim

Ok, I’m taking a look at a power shield as we speak so I’ll report back with my findings, however, the Vin on the terminal pins is rated between 7-20V so I’m not surprised that it didn’t work.

Sorry my mistake, no wonder it did not power up properly, but at least some power was seen by the photon. Which is definitely not the case with the battery.

So I tested a power shield out today to see if I could replicate the issue, and I could. As per the description in the Particle documentation, the problem is solved by re-connecting the battery. I’ll solder a 10nF cap to the board tomorrow morning and let you know how the fix goes.

Thanks for doing this but in my case reconnecting the battery does not solve the issue.

Hmmm, so just to be clear. If you have just the Photon connected to the shield, and you connect a fully charged battery, the Photon doesn’t power on. If you desconnect the immediately reconnect the battery, it still doesn’t power on?

Yes no matter how many time I connect reconnect it does not power via the battery. It will power thru the USB on the shield. But if I try to monitor the battery with it powered by USB I get the same result whether the battery is connected or not it shows voltage as 4.69 and SoC at 175%.

As I said it seems the shield just does not detect the battery.

Hi Sam,
Just as an aside. I was going to use the Particle Power Shield to power the Photon and Sparkfun weather station and to charge the battery with solar.

But am now not sure this is the best option. Would it be better to power the photon from the weather station and use a solar charger (e.g SKU: DFR0264 ) connected to the weather station.

That way I don’t need the power shield?

Thanks

Kim

Hi Sam,
Have just mailed back the Particle Power Shield for you to check.
The tracking # is R260494000682350. It is marked for your attention.

However I now have doubts that the problem is the shield but maybe the photon as I was unable to power the photon via the Sparkfun weather shield as well. It is not an issue as I am now using the solar charger connected to the USB on the photon. When I get some time I will try to troubleshoot some more.
If you find that my shield is OK except for the “detected short” on start up perhaps you could swap with the one on which you soldered the capacitor?
Thanks

Kim

Hi Kim,

We’ll be in touch when it arrives :slight_smile: