Possible Charging Bug? Just Had This Happen.

[Prometheus]

I've been charging my Pandora for the last couple of hours, in the same way that I usually do (i.e., using it while it charges), and five minutes ago (at the time of writing) I checked my battery percentage - it was a few percent lower than it had been when I had checked it before that. I then noticed that my charging light was off. I suspect that the charger got slightly knocked out of the jack on the Pandora when I put it down in order to go and fetch a drink. It was still plugged in, or at least appeared to be.

The weird part came when I unplugged and replugged the charger into the jack on the Pandora - even though the charging light came on, the battery did not continue to charge - instead, the percentage actually fell as though it wasn't plugged in at all. I had to choose to shut down (so that the unit would restart itself as it does when connected to the charger), and then it went on charging as normal, and is still doing so.

Has anyone else come across this? Do I need to report this on the bug tracker?

 

[hdonk]

I've been charging my Pandora for the last couple of hours, in the same way that I usually do (i.e., using it while it charges), and five minutes ago (at the time of writing) I checked my battery percentage - it was a few percent lower than it had been when I had checked it before that. I then noticed that my charging light was off. I suspect that the charger got slightly knocked out of the jack on the Pandora when I put it down in order to go and fetch a drink. It was still plugged in, or at least appeared to be.

The weird part came when I unplugged and replugged the charger into the jack on the Pandora - even though the charging light came on, the battery did not continue to charge - instead, the percentage actually fell as though it wasn't plugged in at all. I had to choose to shut down (so that the unit would restart itself as it does when connected to the charger), and then it went on charging as normal, and is still doing so.

Has anyone else come across this? Do I need to report this on the bug tracker?

I've seen the same thing several times, but I assumed I was just drawing too much power via the USB port... But given the charger is 2A @ 5V, I doubt it!

 

[jonlad1]

I've also had weird charging issues.

I leave it charging overnight in low power mode, open it up the next morning and battery percentage is at 10%. Turn it onto normal full power mode and the percentage jumps up to 99%.

 

[mali]

^ Maybe the meter is deactivated while in low power mode.

 

[MWeston]

I've also had weird charging issues.

I leave it charging overnight in low power mode, open it up the next morning and battery percentage is at 10%. Turn it onto normal full power mode and the percentage jumps up to 99%.

The percentage on the desktop doesn't update constantly. It only updates once a minute or something like that so you can expect some lag in readings. Now in this case, I would suspect that dropping that clock speed way down is screwing up I2C accesses to the fuel gauge and they are failing the entire time the system is in low power mode (doesn't hurt anything as it's just software). When you flick the power switch and speed it back up, it gets its first valid read (99%) but will still say 10% (where it was when you went to low power mode) until that reading on the desktop gets updated.

...or maybe it is like Mali says and the polling stops while in low power mode. That would make sense to implement but my understanding was that this feature is still pretty basic and just shuts down some power supplies and lowers the clock speed only.

 

[hdonk]

The percentage on the desktop doesn't update constantly. It only updates once a minute or something like that so you can expect some lag in readings. Now in this case, I would suspect that dropping that clock speed way down is screwing up I2C accesses to the fuel gauge and they are failing the entire time the system is in low power mode (doesn't hurt anything as it's just software). When you flick the power switch and speed it back up, it gets its first valid read (99%) but will still say 10% (where it was when you went to low power mode) until that reading on the desktop gets updated.

...or maybe it is like Mali says and the polling stops while in low power mode. That would make sense to implement but my understanding was that this feature is still pretty basic and just shuts down some power supplies and lowers the clock speed only.

I've once again had a problem with the charging - My Pandora was sitting there merilly compiling FF366, with the charger plugged in, but no charging light. The battery drained completely and it shut down. It's now sitting there, the compilation restarted, but the red power light is flashing. Also the % charge is not going up.

 

[hdonk]

Weird. The charge level hit 10%, a popup window came on to warn about the low charge, the charging light came on, but the charge level is still dropping...
I've tried reseating the battery a couple of times just in case, but it didn't help. There is some weird state going on here. I suspect now I'm at less than 10%, if I reboot it'll start charging.
In fact, just tried it and nope. Just hit 5% and it won't stay up Guess I won't get qt built tonight - no battery charge at all left.

 

[TheAtomicCrusher]

I'd say it's a dodgy battery more than anything else right now. D'oh!

 

[hdonk]

I'd say it's a dodgy battery more than anything else right now. D'oh!

I've moved over to my spare battery a few minutes ago. We shall see if it has the same fully charged - fully discharged cycle the other one insists on going through.

 

[tsh]

We shall see if it has the same fully charged - fully discharged cycle the other one insists on going through.

Can you clarify the behaviour you see?
* How much charge do you loose in 30 min of use (expect 5%)
* Does it charge with screen off over 1 hour (expect 5%)
* Does it charge in low power state30 min (expect >5%)

Or are you saying that at some point an internal switch trips, and it stops charging, only getting reset at <5%?

 

[hdonk]

We shall see if it has the same fully charged - fully discharged cycle the other one insists on going through.

Can you clarify the behaviour you see?
* How much charge do you loose in 30 min of use (expect 5%)
* Does it charge with screen off over 1 hour (expect 5%)
* Does it charge in low power state30 min (expect >5%)

Or are you saying that at some point an internal switch trips, and it stops charging, only getting reset at <5%?

The impression I'm getting is what you said in your last sentence. Charge up to 100%, stays there for a while, stops charging, discharges all the way, turns off, turn it back on, charges all the way up to 100%, etc.
Except I've taken the power out a couple of times when it's not reached 100% and had it not start charging again.
Totally totally weird.

 

[tsh]

The impression I'm getting is what you said in your last sentence. Charge up to 100%, stays there for a while, stops charging, discharges all the way, turns off, turn it back on, charges all the way up to 100%, etc.

So, as it is discharging, what does the battery meter show over an hour? I expect the time to be 00:00 (indicating it thinks it is charging), but the charge% should still be shown. If you see less than 10% charge drop in an hour, it is charging, just not fast enough. I don't know enough about the power management, but this may be enough to give MWeston some insight into the problem. Could be the temperature sense for the battery is faulty?
Edit:
Try
cat sys/devices/platform/i2c_omap.3/i2c-adapter/i2c-3/3-0055/power_supply/bq27500-0/temp
and the other info detailed here http://pandorawiki.org/Data_provided_by_Battery_and_Power_driver

 

[chame]

¿but you mean charging from USB?

I dont know wich usb plug should I use for that. I used the miniusb connector (the host/slave usb), but no charging light turned on. ¿should I use the other one (only host)?

 

[hdonk]

The impression I'm getting is what you said in your last sentence. Charge up to 100%, stays there for a while, stops charging, discharges all the way, turns off, turn it back on, charges all the way up to 100%, etc.

So, as it is discharging, what does the battery meter show over an hour? I expect the time to be 00:00 (indicating it thinks it is charging), but the charge% should still be shown. If you see less than 10% charge drop in an hour, it is charging, just not fast enough. I don't know enough about the power management, but this may be enough to give MWeston some insight into the problem. Could be the temperature sense for the battery is faulty?
Edit:
Try
cat sys/devices/platform/i2c_omap.3/i2c-adapter/i2c-3/3-0055/power_supply/bq27500-0/temp
and the other info detailed here http://pandorawiki.org/Data_provided_by_Battery_and_Power_driver

After 35 minutes, the battery has dropped from 58% to 46% - 12 % down. Deffo not under charge I'd say! Temperature is at 28.5C. The charging current is -823000.

 

[tsh]

How about 'status'? Mine says 'Full', cause it's at home
Certainly sounds like there is a fault with your hardware somehow.

 

[hdonk]

How about 'status'? Mine says 'Full', cause it's at home
Certainly sounds like there is a fault with your hardware somehow.

Status: Discharging

And the red charging light is actually on now!

Edit:
I'll try my PSP charger after the weekend, see if it's that. Although I've just tried it with my USB charger and same problem...

Event weirder - I've just stopped a copy that had been going on for several hours (SD to SD, lots of GBs) and the charge has started! Is the charging controlled from a userspace daemon running with too much niceness? I guess running several day compilations might be why I'm seeing this problem.

 

[tsh]

I had assumed that the low-level power management was all external, in the PMIC.

 

[Prometheus]

Ok, further to my original post, I have now been able to reproduce the exact same behaviour flawlessly multiple times: My Pandora will not start charging if I plug the charger in when it's already powered on. Is this normal or is it a bug?

 

[hdonk]

Ok, further to my original post, I have now been able to reproduce the exact same behaviour flawlessly multiple times: My Pandora will not start charging if I plug the charger in when it's already powered on. Is this normal or is it a bug?

Just to be absolutely clear - is that with the charger already powered on, or the Pandora already powered on?

 

[Prometheus]

Oops, sorry. This is with the Pandora already on.

Even though the red light will come on, if I plug the charger in whilst the Pandora is already running, I will need to restart it (or choose the Shut Down option, which has the same effect as restarting when the charger is connected) in order for it to actually start charging - otherwise it will just keep running from the battery (and running it down), even though the charging light is on.

EDIT: To be clearer, I don't recall seeing this mentioned in the many discussions about how to charge and the fact that the unit comes on when charging. To that end, I still don't know whether this is to be expected, or whether I should be reporting it as a bug.