Minty boost charging, but plastic battery case melting

Ideas and questions about MintyBoost kits

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
hriday
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2013 11:37 am

Minty boost charging, but plastic battery case melting

Post by hriday »

I bought your kit a few months ago, and soldered it yesterday. All the tests were good, and the voltage readings were good too. I was able to connect my iphone, and charge it. But after a few minutes, I saw smoke, and it turned out that the battery case was melting at one end of one battery. I stopped the charge, and changed the batteries, but after a few minutes, it was the same result.

It's heating up at exactly the same place the second time too. I have tried enloop, energizer and duracell batteries (I don't think it has anything to do with it, but...)

I have shorted the middle two connections on the USB connect to allow for the device to be a "valid" charging device on the iphone.

Any thoughts?

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: Minty boost charging, but plastic battery case melting

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Sounds like a short-circuit. Don't try to use it until we get this fixed!
Please post clear detailed pictures of both side of the MintyBoost circuit board, and also of the battery case.

hriday
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2013 11:37 am

Re: Minty boost charging, but plastic battery case melting

Post by hriday »

I think I figured it out. It's not the circuit. It works when the whole thing is out of the case. I think the metal in the case is shorting the circuit. I'll set up a small insulating layer.

Can weak batteries bring up the "device not supported" message? It works for sometime out of the case, and I get this message. Wasn't getting it yesterday.

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: Minty boost charging, but plastic battery case melting

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

hriday wrote:I think the metal in the case is shorting the circuit. I'll set up a small insulating layer.
The double-stick foam tape works pretty well for that.
hriday wrote:Can weak batteries bring up the "device not supported" message? It works for sometime out of the case, and I get this message. Wasn't getting it yesterday.
Yeah, weak batteries will do that.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “MintyBoost”