Charging issue from USB


PowerGod

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When I plug a cable (from USB) to charge the device (to OTG or Serial Out it's the same), I can see the power button blinking, the battery icon shows a cable, but still it continue to discharge ...

At the first boot the battery was at 37%, now after an hour connected to the cable it's 33% and it keeps going down.

In the quickstart manual there is written that the led should be just static red while charging, but in my case it keeps blinking all the time... is this normal ?


EDIT:

After fighting a bit with the device, now it actually started charging, and the power button is pinkish and not blinking anymore.

I'm not sure what did the trick so I'll list everything I did:

  1. Unplugged the charging cable and shut down the device.
  2. Tried to take out the battery, just to discover that it was almost impossible... the battery was stuck inside very hard and was blocking the lid so I was unable to remove it, to remove the battery ... I did a lot of pulling using also a screwdriver as a lever but then I stopped because I had the fear to damage the battery... so I rotated again the Pyra to try making the battery and the lid to fall down and started shaking the device while punching my arm ... it require a lot of time but in the end the lid and the battery fell down, without signs of damage.
  3. Plugged the USB cable on the Serial Out port, the Pyra turned on and started loading everything but stopped with a black screen before starting the graphic interface, and the power button was a fixed red
  4. Plugged the USB cable on the OTG port, the Pyra turned on but with just a black screen, and the power button was a fixed red
  5. Plugged the USB cable on the Serial Out port, the Pyra turned on and started loading everything but stopped with a black screen before starting the graphic interface, and the power button was a fixed red
  6. Unplugged the USB cable
  7. Inserted again the battery in the device (and it turned on)
  8. I noted that the reported battery charge was different than before removing it, it was 22% instead of 34% ...
  9. Plugged the USB cable on the Serial Out port, the power button now became a pinkish color (not blinking) and the power management reported that the charge was actually increasing.
 
Power button LED state reflects the battery level. Blinking should be low battery iirc... but it's all software so this may differ between OSes or customizations.

I believe the best way to charge is through the micro USB 3 port, but with the system powered down after being on with it plugged in. This enables the charging chip to negotiate higher throughput which doesn't happen with the OS not running in the off-state.
Then again, a powerful enough charger can also charge it while on, just slower.
Above may also be outdated info, not sure. I settled on that years back and it still works at least.
 
After the previous "solution", the Pyra started again to not charge ...

I believe the best way to charge is through the micro USB 3 port, but with the system powered down after being on with it plugged in. This enables the charging chip to negotiate higher throughput which doesn't happen with the OS not running in the off-state.
I'll try.

Anyway, I remembered an "obvious" thing that always happened with my Pandoras, I was never able to charge them when the battery was too hot ... this was reflected by a warning high temperature message on DMESG ...

So, I had a look to DMESG on Pyra but I didn't see any warning ... anyway, I put the device in a plastic bag and left it in the fridge for some minutes, then I plugged the cable and it was charging without issues !!

The strange thing anyway is the reported charge state that constantly changes... before putting it in the fridge the charge was at 34% but after turning it on (before plugging the cable) it became 42% ...
 
The charging while the device is shut down seems working, but the power button blinked red until the battery cooled down a bit, then the light became static red for the rest of the time.

But this way I can't check how much charge the battery has...

Do I have to fear the chubby battery overcharge ?
 
While the device is turned on the battery become pretty hot even if it's doing noting during the charge.

Instead while turned off during the charge it stays cool, also at some point it shuts down completely, so I suppose that a charge control is there and working.
 
Last edited:
I noticed that one port is better for charge than the other (been a long time, can't remember which one sorry).
While charging, I also let the Pyra standing open like a book for better heat dissipation.
It is wise to have a good charger AND a good cable.
 
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