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Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 5:44 pm
by kryan
Good day All,

I'm testing out my first build and I'm encountering the above mentioned problems. Here's some background on the parts I used...

[*] 4000 maH Battery + Banggood PSU + ADS1015 for battery monitoring. Wired according to the following diagram:
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The only difference is that I'm using a DPDT switch so I can disconnect Bat+ from the ADS1015 when power is turned off. Here's a picture of my wiring for reference:
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[*] BW Screen Variant 10. No 5v mod. Instead, power is routed to the 5v pin on the side.
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I have the Mintybatterymonitor script successfully installed. According to the battery indicator, I go from 100% charge to the safe shutdown trigger voltage in an hour consistently, despite having a large battery.

The build also overheats during this time. Heat emanates from the front half of the case, right in the screen area. I'm unsure if it's the screen, the Pi Zero, or the Banggood PSU that's the source of the heat. I didn't encounter this problem during testing before the Banggood PSU was connected, and was using only a portable USB power bank to provide power.

Is there anything evident in the wiring that could be causing this issue? Are there any steps I can take to troubleshoot the problem?

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 7:37 am
by rodocop
hmm, I have had one similar issue on one of my builds, battery would last approx 1-1.5 hours. It did get warm, but no hotter than any other build (typically the pi sits at about 62 degrees (with a heatsink added). I attributed it to the screen board, since it was one I had never used before (Variant 11 that I added to the wiki). I had tested with different batteries and power boosts, which is why I assumed it was the screen itself. I always used the gearbest screen and usually get 3ish hours with those.

My setup was very similar,

Tinkerboy V3
banggood power boost
3500mah battery
minty battery monitor script (w/ ads1015)

Can you access the HDMI port? Maybe disconnect the screen, and boot of the system on the tv. See how long the battery lasts without the composite screen. If you get a significant gain, the screen may be the issues as well.

You could also try the mod listed here, and see if it helps:

https://www.sudomod.com/wiki/index.php/ ... rd_Mod.jpg

Re: Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 5:59 pm
by kryan
Hey rodocop. Thanks for the feedback.Tried running the system with the screen removed and an external HDMI display as you suggested. It ran for 1hr 45mins before the safe shutdown sequence was initiated. An improvement, but a bit disappointing for a 4500maH battery.

Also, the system still runs warm. Pi zero is hot to the touch but I didn't experience any CPU throttling, so temperatures maybe within range.

Will perform the 5v mod to the screen to see if the battery life gains can be retained.

Re: Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2019 4:51 am
by Russian_master
I also get heating in the screen area, I have a 2000mah battery, enough for 2 hours, maybe a problem in your battery

Re: Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 6:54 am
by salami738
Hi, I think you have a battery with much lower capacity than specification suggest. Maybe the battery is bad from production.
I would suggest using a multimeter in current mode between battery and power boost.
Then you can measure how much current is drawn and see how much capacity your battery has.

Re: Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:25 am
by GunZi
I dont have the same screen as ypu but I have the Gearbest one. When I bypassed to 5V regulator on the display’s PCB I found a day and night difference. Before my build would get so hot that it could make all the hot glue soft and thus parts could come loose. And the battery didnt last long. I had also 4000mAh battery.

Now I rarely need to charge it and the gameboy case barely feels lukewarm to the touch.

I would thus recommend you check that your 5V input does not enter the 5V regulator on your screen.

Re: Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:49 am
by kryan
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I performed the mod suggested in the wiki and routed the 5v wire directly to the highlighted pin on the IC. Unfortunately the battery life remains the same, approximately 1 hr.

I checked the battery voltage after the safe shutdown sequence and was getting 3.7v consistently, making me think that the script needs tweaking to read the voltage correctly.

For the purple board pictured above (labeled GY-ADS1115/ADS1015), what modifications if any should be made to the script?

Re: Overheating / Rapid Battery Drain Issue

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 9:51 am
by infinitLoop
kryan wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:49 am
For the purple board pictured above (labeled GY-ADS1115/ADS1015), what modifications if any should be made to the script?
that depends on the battery - I don't think there is a universal answer. there are VOLT0 - VOLT100 variables in the script to set the levels of the indicator:

https://github.com/HoolyHoo/MintyComboS ... Monitor.py

i don't know if anyone else might have suggestions on the best or easiest way to figure out your numbers. my method when it seemed like it was way off was to manually check the voltage periodically with a multimeter from a full charge to where the pi would get a low volt indicator or just shut off.

have you tried disabling the monitor to see if it would last longer than that without the shutdown trigger?