Replacement battery
Answered
Dear HH,
I see a lot of battery problems around. Will you offer replacement batteries for the unit in the future? I know that you handle it during warranty period, but what happens after that? I think that a good customer support includes parts supply as well to ensure a long lifetime.
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Again , any tips on ways to monitor battery health and power management and if there Android apps that would help?
It would be a good resource.
Charging has a lot of variables.
eg: My K1 appears very sensitive to cable choice, and wont take a lot of the Micro USB's from my cable drawer, and some chargers and power packs won't charge it. It would be nice to have a consolidated discussion somewhere on the variables and trouble shooting.
I am following multiple threads here on this and it appears to continue to be an issue
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Well, I obtained a working but badly damaged Karoo 1 so that I'd have a spare battery. I've taken apart a few phones and laptops in my time so felt fairly confident. I tell you now that replacing the battery is very difficult and I think I've broken the connector or it is too fiddly to reconnect again. Suffice to say the Karoo doesn't work at all now. Fit for the bin. If you look at the top these are the pins that make contact with the pad. Usually these push fit on, but perhaps I pulled these off the push fit, though I don't think so. There is a plastic retainer that goes over the top, but there is no way I can keep this fitted on the pc board pad - they probably use glue first and a microscope. It was also very hard to prise the battery off as it has a glue strip to keep it firmly seated in the void. I put a red rectangle around the battery connector.
Mr Prince was quite correct when they said they don't recommend taking it apart and I can see now why they cannot offer a repair service.
However, they do need to give some thought about future manufacturing, It simply isn't good enough in this day and age to not design with replaceability in mind. It's not green and it's not necessary. Would you pay an extra £20 for this function. I would.
You have to admire the ability of those who put these things together though, it's amazing.
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The connector types and the bonding on the battery are standard practice on mobile phones and not at all difficult if you have some experience with them. So whilst it may not be viable as a diy fix, it is 100% viable for a tech to do it. The problem for HH is they likely have no in house tech to task it to and thus would have to outsource it. It could easily be a bit of a logistical pain in the butt for them given the low number that require fixing. What would be more viable would be giving part sourcing’s details to a competent third party service tech and let them do it independently direct to customers. No hassle for HH and the customer gets a fix.
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@Colin great idea, as there are no shortage of folks doing board level repair of phones and laptops. I even pointed the HH guys to a shop down the street from their HQ in NYC. If you can fix a MacBook, this ain't a big deal to do. I can see the need for shock and vibration protection for the plug, but using adhesives? Ribbon cables are fragile, and don't like forces that are outside of their design range. This is a common cell phone and laptop repair issue. Again , guys who are set up for surface mount soldering may find this a lesser issue, and if the new bat is good, may also just easily bypass the damaged plug. Lou Rossmann's vids on board repair might give you some idea of what's involved. Not plug and play, for sure, but not a huge deal or difficult.
Support for battery replacement from HH would bypass the right to repair angst, and make it a feature. A $400 brick is not good advertising.
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Hi all, just before I binned my K1 I thought I'd have another look and I've made progress, but not got it working again yet. I used the zoom on my camera to get in close to the the battery socket connector and I figured that the plug part was still in the motherboard socket part. Eventually using the finest needle I could find I did indeed prise the connector out - nearly losing it in the progress. So I figure that in removing the battery from the glue in the compartment I ripped the ribbon off the connector. Now I think that is good news because if I can flow solder the connector back on to the ribbon cable I'll be back in business, once I've reconnected all the other ribbon cables. I've invested all of £11 in a usb microscope to help me do this as my eyesight just isn't good enough. So just waiting. There are lots of Youtube videos on non removable battery replacement and they have some good tips and some are frankly very worrying when they start bending the lithium batteries and ripping off battery connectors :) Great fun.
Here are the pics:
Sorry I couldn't get a good enough focus on my old phone camera. When I get the microsocope I'll post some better ones.
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Yes, I've taken it all apart. I need to put it back together. My original intention was to try and replace the cracked and broken screen (which I posted about in another thread.) That looks to be pretty much impossible. Once I've re-soldered or added some link wires for the battery connector I'll (attempt) to put it all back together - should be a laugh!
(Unless you are referring to something else?)
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Oh! The ribbon cable has no connector on the end. I assume it slides in and then does a latch push back on? I'll have a proper look when I get my microscope. Maybe I'll get away with it, but it would have gone in the bin anyway. Hopefully this might help people in the future.
Thanks for the advice and interest :)
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I want a battery replacement for my Karoo 1. I had lots of cold reboots before, got a replacement and this one is doing the same thing. Really disappointing to me, I was one of the first Karoo 1 purchasers and those early software bugs were bad for years, now that the software matures a bit, the hardware fails. Argh.
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Okay. I wasn't able to repair the battery connector. Even with the usb microscope the socket would not solder back on. I found it very difficult to even get solder to flow, even after scraping. and trying to tin the connectors
Also re the latches. Yes I totally misunderstood how these work. Under the microscope I was able to see the pivot. I couldn't get the thing back in and... I had removed the pivot from the other two connectors as well. I snapped one of them and gave up on the other two - they are just so very very tiny. Even surgical tweezers cannot hold them to try and get them back on (even after watching Youtube videos where people have done exactly that.
However without the battery it was all academic.
Lessons learnt? I learnt some things about connectors. I learnt that being confident is no replacement for actual skill, I learnt that my new job will not be as a mobile phone repair person. I learnt that I should have listened to the original advice.
Cost to me, £35 + £11 for usb microscope (which is fun).
So one now totally dead Karoo and it will never brighten up the day again. Oh well I'm sure in a few days I will stop crying.
:()
Gordon
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If your just going to throw them away, I’d be willing to have a go at fixing it for you ( I used to repair iPhones for my job). I couldn’t promise you anything as you may have pulled the pads off the ribbon for the batt connector but nothing ventured as they say. I’m interested to explore repair potential.
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@el_capitan_jumper , yes I have a source in china, unfortunately to make it cost effective you need to buy them in the hundreds. I was looking at doing exactly this but as I'm covid unemployed I don't have the capital to risk right now to buy a couple of expensive batteries to test and then have them not work. Once I have some work come in I will likely buy a couple and if successful offer it as a service to K1 users. Requires de-soldering and re-soldering the ribbon cable off the existing battery as it is karoo specific. Obvs this is a job for someone with a temperature controlled de-soldering station and a brain. Not yr average cowboy, so I have been reluctant to simply offer this as anything other than a service.
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Unless the replacement battery or it’s regulator board ( assuming it comes with one ) is geared up for a 3 pin connection or you mod it, you cannot use the existing ribbon. ( it has 2 power feeds + ground). It would be easier and would solve the problem to take the regulator board over along with the cable and solder that to the new batt as that simply has +ve and -ve.
There are loads of matching batteries out there ratings wise but dimensions is the main stumbling block as there is no room for a bigger battery physically.
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@Colin Vincent this is incorrect, it has DC +- and a temperature sensor thermocouple. The regulator board is pretty much industry standard and you're better with a board made by the specific manufacturer of the battery rather than trying to graft one on as it will be made to the manufacturers spec and manage the charge accordingly.
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If you can get a battery that has the correct board connections that’s even better. ( I suspect it’s third pin ( + 3.7v at room temp) is thermistor controlled not by thermocouple. )
I can find batteries that match the Karoo spec 100% ( confirmed by the supplier ) so not worried about mismatch but they have nothing that matches dimension wise
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Idiot moi. I had been making the assumption that there was standardization among BMS and temp sensors.
Now I have to go look more stuff up . Oh, Curse you, MacDiarmid. Something else I thought I knew. Most of my experience is with bigger ebike batts, and they have been pretty tolerant of generic BMS/sensors, but now I need to validate that. Oh, dread harbinger of doubt.
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@richard, if you source a batt with the required power regulation included, you don’t need to really know as the manufacturer has done the number crunching. If your prepared to pay the price for one offs, the batts with everything needed ( requires cable transfer ) and of the correct size is available from the company below.
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i just wanted to put all the karoo1 battery info here so that it is easy to find:
li-po battery LP655365, 3300mAh, 12,54Wh, 3,8V, 65mm x 53mm x 6,5mm
potential sources: https://www.lithium-polymer-
battery.net and https://www.lipo-battery.com/3000mah-lipo-battery/colin did some great research and suggested this:
The batt source I gave you has a regulator board that looks to have everything needed. I would recommend that a regulator board supplied with the battery is used as that will be tested with that specific batt by the manufacturer. You potentially could use the Karoo board but the new batt would have to be an identical match to ensure there are no compatibility issues and so adds an extra element of doubt.The Karoo cable would need to transferred over and has 3 soldered connections so the regulator board needs to be the same. The 3 pins are for +ve,-ve and a thermistor to limit charging outside of the safe range for the battery. The NTC ( thermistor) pin will read as a +ve on a meter of very similar value to the batt +ve so if anyone uses a batt with a board of different connector pin order to the Karoo they need to be sure they get them right. ( they match the Karoo on the batt supplier I linked) -
My last comment deleted!!!
Do I smell a cover up???
Why do we put up with this terrible customer service. Units failing after 2 years or just over of normal usage (just out of warranty funnily👀).
If that was a fridge freezer or washing machine we’d be at trading standards
Sick of being told I’m a valued customer and hammerhead wants to help me. But the advice is ‘buy another one’. So I’ve wasted £300! And you want me to stump up another £300. What happens if that one fails after 2 years. Shall I keep buying new ones every 2 years!?!? Is this the business model.
Unit in landfill. Not good for the environment. Not good for my bank balance.
Apple keep getting into trouble for programme obsolescence
Il keep posting these messages here and on social media. Hammerhead will keep deleting them.
Thank goodness for copy and paste
I see same battery comes for both Karoo 1 and second version . I have opened the body to change water damaged USB C connectorPlease sign in to leave a comment.
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