HQRP battery

[slartibartfast]

Having read good reports about these batteries I ordered one from Amazon and it was delivered today. After installing it I checked Settings/Advanced/Power and found the Battery Voltage Monitor values are different to a genuine Logitech battery.

Battery Vmon1 = 1.8V instead of 4.1V
Battery Vmon2 = 4.0V instead of 8.2V
All of these readings are at a battery voltage of 14.3V. If the cells are balanced properly 1.8V should not even be possible.

The taps are obviously in the wrong places. This raises a few questions

1. Are they all like this?
2. Does the Radio use these voltages for anything important?
3. Do they test them?

I think I know the answer to number 3. After waiting 10 days I would rather not have to return it.



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[bpa]

IIRC Battery charging and conditioning are managed through battery voltages & temp and Radio uses a microcontroller MSP340 to do battery charging so not all the code is in the Radio source.

To get a better answer I think you may need to look at code.

Diagnostic will show where Vmon1 and Vmon2 are found (i.e. what device)
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...ticsApplet.lua

The code which access battery when Radio running is here
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...BabyApplet.lua

[slartibartfast]

IIRC Battery charging and conditioning are managed through battery voltages & temp and Radio uses a microcontroller MSP340 to do battery charging so not all the code is in the Radio source.

To get a better answer I think you may need to look at code.

Diagnostic will show where Vmon1 and Vmon2 are found (i.e. what device)
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...ticsApplet.lua

The code which access battery when Radio running is here
https://github.com/Logitech/squeezep...BabyApplet.lua

Thanks, I had a look at the code in the two links and it looks as though the Voltages are only read and displayed in the first one and there is no reference at all to the Vmon values in the second. So it might be safe but I am still tempted to return it.

I still wonder if this is a one off or they are all like this.


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[bpa]

I think all the info read by lua code is supplied via the MSP430 which controls the actual charging.
The MSP430 can be used to charge a variety of battery types ( http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/sluu369/sluu369.pdf ) . If the MSP430 board & code is mostly standard reference code supplied by Ti, then the Vmon1 & VMon2 might be needed by the MSP430 to determine cell type, cell capacity, etc. and so adjust its charging algorithm,

[drmatt]

I am sure it is normal, and will work fine, despite readings being odd. They are the best known 3rd party battery supplier and I can't see them being fatally flawed.

Interesting insights into the battery code though. Anyone got any clues from that as to why Radios routinely fail to charge the batteries when plugged in?

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[bpa]

I am sure it is normal, and will work fine, despite readings being odd. They are the best known 3rd party battery supplier and I can't see them being fatally flawed.

Interesting insights into the battery code though. Anyone got any clues from that as to why Radios routinely fail to charge the batteries when plugged in?

Transcoded from Matt's brain by Tapatalk

I don't use battery so I don't know normal operations but if it happens "routinely" you could have a look at the info provided by the MSP430 directory "/sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-1/1-0010" and perhaps you can identify the bad state. You might be lucky and find it is lua code but if problem is in MSP430 nothgin will happen.

# ls  /sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-1/1-0010
adc_0                   adc_2                   alarm_time              battery_vmon1_voltage   fw                      power_mode              time
adc_1                   adc_3                   ambient                 battery_vmon2_voltage   gp_register             rtc:rtc0                uevent
adc_10                  adc_4                   battery_capacity        battery_voltage         input:input2            subsystem               wall_voltage
adc_11                  adc_5                   battery_charge          bus                     ir                      sys_voltage
adc_12                  adc_6                   battery_charge_rate     charger_event           kill                    test_1
adc_13                  adc_7                   battery_disable         charger_state           modalias                test_2
adc_14                  adc_8                   battery_discharge_rate  driver                  msp_buffer              test_4
adc_15                  adc_9                   battery_temperature     flash                   name                    test_8
# cat  /sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-1/1-0010/power_mode 
3
# cat  /sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-1/1-0010/battery_capacity 
2000
#

[drmatt]

I guess I would say it seems to happen once they reach about a year of age or so, sporadically at first but increasing in frequency as they age. It may even just be a problem with the physical socket detecting the plug being inserted, but my feeling is that it's not since waggling the plug doesn't help, whereas removing electrical power and reinstating it does help, sometimes.


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[slartibartfast]

I am sure it is normal, and will work fine, despite readings being odd. They are the best known 3rd party battery supplier and I can't see them being fatally flawed.

Interesting insights into the battery code though. Anyone got any clues from that as to why Radios routinely fail to charge the batteries when plugged in?

Transcoded from Matt's brain by Tapatalk

Are you saying you are sure all Radio batteries made by HQRP have incorrect taps? The 1.8V reading is really odd as it is far too high for 1 cell and far too low for 2 cells.

Does anyone else use one of these batteries? If so could they post their readings for Vmon1 and Vmon2.

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[slartibartfast]

I guess I would say it seems to happen once they reach about a year of age or so, sporadically at first but increasing in frequency as they age. It may even just be a problem with the physical socket detecting the plug being inserted, but my feeling is that it's not since waggling the plug doesn't help, whereas removing electrical power and reinstating it does help, sometimes.


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I've seen this quite frequently although more with one Radio than the other.

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[drmatt]

Are you saying you are sure all Radio batteries made by HQRP have incorrect taps?

That is not something I'm sure of no, it just seems to be a slightly unlikely manufacturing fault and seems more likely to be a design fault to me. Something they are likely to overlook when copying the real thing.. ( "what does this do? No idea, let's just connect it here...".)


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