Eggtimer Apogee Help

[NateB]

My Apogee arrived this afternoon, assembly felt easy, but nothing happens when I connect the battery and arm the switch. I'm sure it is something simple, but I can't see it right now. Can anyone take a look and help guide me to the right repair? Thanks.

 

[heada]

Looks like you missed a leg on the 0.1uF cap in the upper right corner on the first pic (upper left in second pic).

 

[NateB]

Now working.

I touched up the solder joints and still no joy. I tested the battery with a lipo checker and couldn't get anything. I also tried to charge it and the charger only said battery error. I have a few 1s with JST connectors, so I tacked a pigtail on the bottom of the board. With a different battery, it powers up.

 

[cerving]

Are you using the little SparkFun 110 mAH battery that we ship? Did you charge it first? (BTW, we now are selling a micro-USB charger for that battery)

"Other" batteries with a JST-PH connector may not have the same polarity... in particular, e-Flite batteries are wired backwards. That's why we have the step in the directions to check the polarity on your battery with the connector, mark the "-" side with a black Sharpie, and solder the connector in with the black-marked side towards the screw switch.

 

[NateB]

It was the battery shipped with the Apogee kit. I did charge the battery first. When I first tried to charge it, my charger just read "error". Are these supposed to ship depleted? I've always received Lipos at 50% and then charged them to full or make sure they were at a storage level. I was eventually able to get a charge in the cell at a really low rate. Maybe in this case the smart charger is working against me.

 

[cerving]

It was the battery shipped with the Apogee kit. I did charge the battery first. When I first tried to charge it, my charger just read "error". Are these supposed to ship depleted? I've always received Lipos at 50% and then charged them to full or make sure they were at a storage level. I was eventually able to get a charge in the cell at a really low rate. Maybe in this case the smart charger is working against me.

What kind of charger did you use? What rate? It should be charged at 100 mA-200mA. If you have a charger that tries to figure out how much current it can pump into the battery, that's probably not the best charger to use for these small batteries, which also have overcurrent protection circuits built into them too, BTW. That's why we're starting to carry the Adafruit charger, which charges at 100 mA.

 

[NateB]

I have a Junsi iCharger and it is one that tries to adapt the current to the battery. Maybe the circuit was interfering with the chargers logic thinking it was depleted. I got it to charge by forcing a very low current as you would to restore a cell. I do have a small USB charger for 1s batteries that came with a helicopter. I might just change it to a JST so I can use a simple or full featured charger with all of my 1s batteries.

 

[chuck5395]

LiPo Charger question:
Can I use the Sparkfun Adjustable LiPo charger with the Apogee batteries?
This is the one I use to charge my TeleGPS and other AltosMetrum product batteries.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14380

 

[cerving]

LiPo Charger question:
Can I use the Sparkfun Adjustable LiPo charger with the Apogee batteries?
This is the one I use to charge my TeleGPS and other AltosMetrum product batteries.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14380

Yes, adjust it to 100 mA or 200 mA.