bGeigie Nano not charging, no reaktion at all on plug in

[inwe...@gmail.com]

Hi,

I am using my device since several months, love it and never had a problem. But a few days ago after using it up to end battery charging was not possible any more. There isn't any reaktion on plugging it it. No light and no charging at all.

We tried to figure out if it`might be a problem of fio, but connecting over a FTDI bGeigie reacts with turning on and screen shown normaly.

Could anybody think of what the problem could be or have a solution, please?

Note that I am an amateur, but could activate people to help me when having more possible hints of how to fix the problem.

Thank you.

[Alberto Villa]

Hi,

Supposing that your USB cable is ok (recently one of my cables of a cell phone charger got interrupted), your description remembers me what happended several months ago, when I damaged the battery charger integrated circuit. The very probable cause was a voltage spike from a defective power supply unit.

Unfortunately this device is mounted on the lower side of the FIO module, close to the battery and USB connectors. Thus, first of all you have to carefully unsolder the FIO from the motherboard. I enclose a document showing the schematic and identifing the chip on the PCB to help you repairing the bGeigie. I sent a similar one to Sparkfun, because after removing the failed IC I saw that the PCB traces were quite narrow, thus with poor heatsinking capabilities. Maybe this could be a potential weak point...

Note that the charger circuit type depends on the FIO module release. In my case (an Arduino-Fio-v23) it is a  MCP73831T-2ACI/OT form Microchip Technologies (see attached datasheet). You can buy it from several sources. For instance, Digi-key code MCP73831T-2ACI/OTCT-ND.

Hope to have been helpful,

Best regards

Alberto