MintyBoost Actually DE-CHARGING Phone.

[stevemaclean]

My newly-assembled MintyBoost v2.0 works wonderfully on my LG P500 phone, but only for a while before it starts to de-charge the phone's battery. At least that's what seems to be happening.

So...

I plugged the MintyBoost into the phone, it started charging. After I watched it charge from 25% to 55% I turned the phone off to allow it a better charge. When I booted up the phone an hour later the battery was at 17%. The following day I plugged in the MintyBoost with fresh batteries (rechargeable AA) and it went from 22% up to 35% before I turned the phone off to allow it a better charge. When I booted the phone up two hours later it was again at 17% (which is either a coincidence or very creepy, or both).

Help?

[adafruit_support_bill]

This is usually more of an Apple issue, but other phones do it too. Most people report that a fresh set of cells will give them a 20-25% charge. If you went from 25% to 55% (30%!), there was probably not much left in those batteries.

http://learn.adafruit.com/minty-boost/f-dot-a-q

It works! But then the iPod/iPhone/device gets drained...what's up?
This is a common problem with iPods/iPhone/iTouch. These devices have very large batteries and they have an annoying bug that if they -think- they're being charged they'll stay on and not 'go to sleep' conserving power. That means that if the AA batteries die before the device is done charging, the device will stay on at full power because it thinks it is plugged into the wall. This can cause it to drain the battery. The best suggestion is to use fresh/charged batteries and don't leave it plugged in overnight.

This is especially true of iPhones, as they suck out all the battery power in a little less than an hour in order to 'quick charge'. This reduces the capacity of the batteries, but means that your phone will be up and running faster.

Once you see the charging icon change from a plug, the mintyboost is 'dead' and you must unplug it. For more information, see the user manual.

[stevemaclean]

Thanks! Glad to hear it's the phone not my soldering skills.