/var/www/restricted/ssh/stm32/www/stm32circle/ STM CircleOS forum / Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Username:     
Password:     
             

Forum

# 1   2008-12-23 06:56:50 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

tybeede
Member
Registered: 2008-12-17
Posts: 11

Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

I just got my Primer2 today.  I ordered it from Farnell in Europe and got it here in the United States in only 2 days.  On top of that shipping was only about $20 bucks.  I do have one question about the battery charging.  I remember the Primer1, I was able to use it plugged into the computer right when I got it.  With the primer2 I turned it on and played with it for a second.  Then it went dead even while plugged in.  It shows one solid green LED light until I press the button, then it shows the red light.  If I wait a about 5 minutes it goes back to showing the green light.  I'm kinda confused?  Is there not enough current to charge the battery and run the device at the same time when the battery is real dead?  Why does it show the green light if it isn't fully charged, then changes to the red light indicating charging when I press the joystick button, then after a few minutes switches back to steady green light?  The photo above shoes the batter jumper unplugged but I've since plugged it in.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3250/3129596697_5219d46fb5.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3290/3129596719_990b3f5451.jpg?v=0

Offline

 

# 2   2008-12-23 07:55:39 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Francis
Administrator
From: France-Grenoble
Registered: 2007-07-09
Posts: 890

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

The Primer2 has a smart battery charger (http://www.stm32circle.com/projects/fil … l6924D.pdf ) and a Li-Ion battery that can be recharged as often as you want. It's a major improvement comparing with the Primer1.

The LEDs are managed by the L6924D (the battery supervisor). Their meaning is the following:
    When the RED led is ON and the GREEN is OFF, the battery is charging.
    When the GREEN led is ON and the REDis OFF, the battery is full.
If the two leds are ON, the battery is not connected (or dead).

When you connect an USB port, the recharge is started. Just avoid to plug-unplug the USB port every two minutes. But keeping the USB link for a long time is not a problem anymore.

Offline

 

# 3   2008-12-23 08:02:21 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Francis
Administrator
From: France-Grenoble
Registered: 2007-07-09
Posts: 890

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

About the jumper: it can be kept set for a long timer (but not for a whole year if you don't use your primer at all. A Li-Ion battery must never be empty...
CircleOS manages  the low level of the battery by displaying the level on the main screen. When the battery is almost empty, the battery logo becomes red and toggles. When the level is abonormally low, an automatic shutdown is launch by CircleOS.
Note that if you remove CircleOS and uses your own applications...  you have to take care of the battery by yourself.
Moreover, if your Primer is ON without anyactivity (and no application running), CircleOS will shutdown the power supply after 5 minutes.
All this management can be seen in the source files of the CircleOS V3.

Offline

 

# 4   2008-12-23 14:41:05 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

tybeede
Member
Registered: 2008-12-17
Posts: 11

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

umm... maybe I"m having some problems then... for some reason when I try to flash new code to the device I get the error message "Target power failure" Measured 1.000000V" and it won't establish a connection.  It was working right when I got it, maybe I messed something up?  The green LED comes on steady.

Offline

 

# 5   2008-12-23 14:42:46 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

tybeede
Member
Registered: 2008-12-17
Posts: 11

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

it has been on the charger for about 10 hours now and I'm still out of luck.  Maybe I can reset it to factory defaults.  I was playing around with the Primer2 toggle project.  The one without CircleOS was the last thing flashed to the device.

Offline

 

# 6   2008-12-23 16:18:58 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Francis
Administrator
From: France-Grenoble
Registered: 2007-07-09
Posts: 890

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Since the end of last week, we are investigating a similar issue at the factory while testing the devices. It seems that, when tests are repeated, the U9 regulator burns on some units. We found a mistake on the PCB (the wire to the ground pin of the U9 regulator is too light), and some regulators burn.
It seems that the problem occurs on around 2% of the units (probably more with the time going..). The solution consists in enforcing the ground by soldering a small wire to the ground pin of the regulator. We are currently testing the solution on the rest of the production. Of course, the burned regulators need to be replaced too.
For the units that have been already shipped, and if the regulator burns on your board, please contact    support@raisonance.com to see how to proceed.  Don't worry if the solution is not found in the next few days  (most of us will be on vacation for the coming days). Sorry for this problem.

Offline

 

# 7   2008-12-23 21:25:00 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Francis
Administrator
From: France-Grenoble
Registered: 2007-07-09
Posts: 890

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

We received at Raisonance the following message from  'dzingoni'. It could hellp some other users:

<<Thank you for your reply.
Yes, there are news ... after trying for hours to revive the Primer 2 I finally
succeeded. I thought that the problem was during the startup phase because
after a "false start" the Primer 2 actually
did not start (low power red led blinkng fast ... and then nothing). It was
impossible to have the unit ON when launching commands to re-program it or to
download software.
So I tried to start a "debug" of a demo application just after pressing the
button on the unit (during the false startup phase in other words ....) and
miraculously the Ride7 was able to
download the software. Then I reprogrammed the unit to factory setting ... and
now it works ....
The problem is: am I going into the same troubles if I try to install some
other app or debug ?
As a further information please note that the "low voltage" error appeared the
first time when I first tried the unit ... Initially I thought there was a
problem with the Ride7, so I reinstalled it,
then I thought that maybe I was using the wrong demo (maybe one for the
ST7 ...) .... the error appeared for some time, then a "debug start" went OK ..
and then the lock ...
Looks like some problem is present in the driver for the auxiliary
microcontroller. My suggestion, in any case, would be to modify the driver
software in order to be able, in the extreme case, to
bypass the voltage level check and to force the reprogramming of the unit.>>

The problem could be that the application shuts down the power supply by clearing PC13. If the application starts by shutting down the power supply, the embedded RLink cannot controls the Cortex M3. The only solution is to keep the button pressed until the debug session is launched and the FLASH erased.

Offline

 

# 8   2009-04-09 14:44:08 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

noz
New member
Registered: 2009-03-26
Posts: 2

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Today I got a new primer2 and have some problem with starting up.
2 minutes after pluging on to USB, the red and the green leds are both on.
When switching on, the primer goes down after a few seconds, while USB is connected.
With no USB connection it does not start.

After disconnecting USB, the battery voltage is 3.6V (Jumper off) and with the Jumper connected only 2.8V.
What can I do? The battery seems to be ok.

Last edited by noz (2009-04-09 15:52:23)

Offline

 

# 9   2009-04-10 08:08:03 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Francis
Administrator
From: France-Grenoble
Registered: 2007-07-09
Posts: 890

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

It looks like a dead battery: when the two leds are on, it means 'no battery'.
If you are in Germany, the best would be to return the Primer to Raisonance and we will repair it.

Offline

 

# 10   2009-04-16 09:30:52 Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

noz
New member
Registered: 2009-03-26
Posts: 2

Re: Primer2 Photos & Battery Charging Question

Thank you. I got a new one from the distributor and now it works fine. :-)

Last edited by noz (2009-04-16 09:31:25)

Offline

 

Board footer