Particle Power Shield not charging battery

Troubleshooting
1

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

2

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.

3

Hi,

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

4

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?
Thanks
Kim