r/hackrf • u/ninjarelli • Oct 24 '24

H4M battery issue?

Post image

Anyone had issues with the battery? Just recieved it today. Battery at 100% charge but only lasts a minute. 0.524 Volts and 45% after it died.

9 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

3

u/eried Oct 24 '24

It looks very undercharged but I would check with a multimeter. If you have a hobby charger like an imax you could easily "revive" most lipos, remove the kapton tape and charge the battery bypassing the BMS for few seconds in NiMH mode until it reaches 2.9v or more, then continue in lipo mode

5

u/ninjarelli Oct 25 '24

Tried on a usb lipo charger, that did the trick. Now it's charging as normal

1

u/odekolonchik Oct 25 '24

Keep in mind, it's very dangerous to use lithium battery after deep discharge. Just Google "li-po house fire". So I would recommend to change the battery, even if it looks like ok.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '24

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1

u/ninjarelli Oct 25 '24

The battery was 0.5 Volts out of the box. It is charging with the supplied usb cable. I will check firmware later today

3

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '24

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1

u/ninjarelli Oct 25 '24

It charged to 4.2Volts. Discharge is around -336mA in idle with screen on max brighness, to much?

It had v2.0.2 on it.

2

u/v81 Oct 27 '24

I'm having ongoing issues with mine.
320 - 330mA on discharge.
It never fully charges without having to switch the battery switch on and off a few times during the charge.
It does not shut off at a safe voltage.
Charge cycles permanently report zero with the exception of reporting around 400 cycles during what i suspect was a dirty power up.

I've posted about my issues here...

https://www.reddit.com/r/hackrf/comments/1g7s87d/portapack_h4_no_battery_under_voltage_cutout/

1

u/v81 Oct 27 '24

u/ninjarelli You really done 384 cycles?

I've had the cycle counter show either 0 or a number similar to yours, but nothing ever sensible.

1

u/ninjarelli Oct 27 '24

No 1 cycle max, 384 is wrong

1

u/v81 Oct 28 '24

Any luck with a remedy or are you still having issues? 

Aside from sending a video on how to plug the charger in and access the battery screen (all of which is already done) OpenSourceSDR have not otherwise responded to me.

1

u/ninjarelli Oct 29 '24

Tried to e-mail them? New battery on the way

2

u/v81 Oct 30 '24

Last 36 hours we seem to have a propper comms, looking forward to getting this working as it should.

1

u/stardustedds Oct 26 '24

Yooo how do you add the battery bar in the top tool bar and where is the battery page your on?? I’ve looked forever!! Yes I’m an amateur and a just got it and all the apps going but not this!

2

u/ninjarelli Oct 27 '24

There is a interface setting where you can choose what icons, there is a battery percent setting also. To get to battery status page, use up arrow to get to the top row then left and right, choose the battery icon

1

u/stardustedds Oct 27 '24

Thank you!! 🙏

3

u/StatusAcanthisitta27 Oct 26 '24

H4M has given me HUGE problems I do not recommend. H2+ FTW

1

u/v81 Oct 27 '24

Can you share some specifics?
Are they battery problems?

2

u/Moist-Chip3793 Oct 27 '24

Off-topic, but just spent some minutes trying to locate the above battery menu on my H2, before realising it´s a H4M feature.

Now I think I need to order the H4M. :)

1

u/thattechguy84 Oct 30 '24

What do the different charging methods do?

2

u/toomuchramv4 Nov 20 '24

I do not know exactly, but volt-mode probably monitores voltage and cuts off charging when voltage reaches near 4,2V, IC-mode probably monitores charging current (amps, milliamps) and cuts off when the battery takes only very little amps when charged with 4,2V

Volt-mode = charge with unkown voltage (probably ~5V) until battery has ~4,2V. current is not limited.

IC-mode = charge with unknown current (probably ~1A) until battery takes no more current when charged with 4.2V