Powerboost unstable without battery connected

[mariovisic]

I'm using helders AIO board, a gearbest screen and a pi zero. When the battery is connected to the powerboost 1000c everything works fine. The battery also charges fine when the microUSB power is connected. If I remove the battery the powerboost works but seems unstable. The green/yellow and red status lights will flicker even though no battery is attached, there is what sounds like a transformer switching scratchy sound,the pi also seems to reboot sometimes. If I connect the battery, everything is OK again. Measured current draw is about 750mA at 5.1v. My wall charger is 2 amp, have tried a different 1A charger, same result.

Anyone seen this before? Is this normal? Not a huge deal as I'll always run with the battery, just seems rather odd.

Here is a picture of the powerboost, the + and - terminals are wired to the powerstrip on the all in one board.

[Lphillimore]

@Mariovisic

Unsure why the battery stabilises things but you have a short somewhere.

I had this recently and got the flickering amber / green lights and managed to track it down to the Pi's micro usb touching one of the Pi's components. (I removed the micro USB charge and data ports but left some of the outer metal which had folded over and touched a component, shorting the pi.)

If its not obvious, re-wire / re-solder all points / check for any touching / shorting.

PowerBoost should stay solid blue when turned on.

[moosepr]

i have seen a similar thing with the tp4056 charge/protect board i use. I think its related to the charging circuit being unable to find the battery. it will be putting power to the battery, then it removes the power to measure its current voltage to decide if its charged or not. If the flickering is steady and consistent, then it is probably just that the charger circuit is flapping because the battery isnt there

[mariovisic]

I replaced the micro USB cable and the problem went away. Solid blue light, others are completely off. Power draw went down to 600mA as well, sounds like the dodgy cable was leaking electrons all over the place.

Thanks for the suggestions.