Boron 404X gives battery charge fault when on USB

Hardware
1

My boron is not charging when connected to a power source by the USB plug and gives a Fault error. The yellow charge status led flashes about 1/second also indicating a fault.

So far I have:

  • used several different batteries that came with boron or electron orders

  • used several different cables and chargers

  • run SystemPowerConfiguration conf;

    SystemPowerConfiguration conf; System.setPowerConfiguration(conf);  to reset the PMIC

  • run diagnostic commands:

    Log.warn("Current PMIC settings:");

Log.warn("VIN Imax_current_mA_max_limit: %u", power.getInputCurrentLimit());

Log.warn("VIN Vmin_V_input_lowest: %u", power.getInputVoltageLimit());

Log.warn("Ichg_current_mA_value: %u", power.getChargeCurrentValue());

Log.warn("Iterm_charge_termination_V: %u", power.getChargeVoltageValue());

int powerSource = System.powerSource(); waitMS(100); 

int batteryState = System.batteryState(); waitMS(100); 

float batterySoc = System.batteryCharge(); waitMS(100);

  • which generated the following results:
    0000001333 [app] WARN: Current PMIC settings:
    0000001334 [app] WARN: VIN Imax_current_mA_max_limit: 900
    0000001335 [app] WARN: VIN Vmin_V_input_lowest: 3880
    0000001336 [app] WARN: Ichg_current_mA_value: 896
    0000001337 [app] WARN: Iterm_charge_termination_V: 4112
    0000001640 [app] WARN: Power source: usb host
    0000001640 [app] WARN: Battery state: 5-fault
    0000001640 [app] WARN: Battery charge: 77.984375

Any suggestions for something that might fix this fault is appreciated.

john

2

The battery fault is determined by the bq24195 PMIC in hardware. If swapping out the battery did not solve the problem, it could be a hardware failure.

Under normal conditions, the steps you have done should have cleared the fault.

3

Thanks for the feedback. After much more poking around my code I finally have the problem solved: It was that I had “hidden” among my code a command:

SystemPowerConfiguration conf;

conf.batteryChargeVoltage(3504); as part of an effort to stop charging when temperatures are below -10C. So even though I reset the PMIC to default, I later set the termination charge voltage to 3.504. This caused the system to indicate a fault (error 5) for battery state. I’m not sure why it didn’t just report battery charged but my approach to cold weather was misguided in several ways. So I deleted that code and the boron now charges the battery fine.
My code has gotten too bulky and messy to debug easily so I think I need to do some major code clean-up. john

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