Fast battery drain
Hi, I built a wireless corne recently and the battery is draining quite fast. The right side is draining just as fast as the left even though the ZMK power profile says it should last a month. I fully charged it a day ago and now the nice!view battery indicator shows that the right side is down to less than 50% charge and the left side is around 20% charge. How do I go about diagnosing for a short on my keyboard? Or any other ideas what the issue is? All the keys on the keyboard work properly. Appreicate any help I can get, thank you!
20 Replies
do you have a multimeter handy?
are you often traveling with your keyboard?
Yes I have a multimeter. Not traveling, just leaving it on the desk
can you check the resistance across the B+ and B- pins as well as the VCC and GND pins?
These are the numbers I get when checking for resistance
interesting, could you take a closer up picture of all your joints?
if you swap nanos does the power drain follow the nano?
Should I reflash the firmware when swapping Nanos?
Hi @Nick , without flashing firmware for each sides the power drain is still going down at nearly the same rate for both sides after swapping
I meant swapping firmware too 🙂
sorry
but generally I think that indicates the nano is bad
@Nick I swapped the firmware and the drain for both sides still go down at the same rate, anything else I should try and troubleshoot?
same rate would indicate you have a short in the right side PCB rather than the nano
can you take pictures of the soldering on the right side pcb?
The pictures I took above are of the right side
The batteries on left and right side drain out within 3-4 days, the right side only lasts one day more
sorry my bad, let me look again
this is so strange… 3-4 days is within reason for the left side depending on usage. 3-4 on the right is not
but if the swapping of nanos doesn’t fix the right side, that’d indicate you have a minor short on the right side
but I’m not seeing anything wrong with the soldering
How should I test for a short with a multimeter?
I haven't connected the keyboard to computer yet. Just leaving it on all day on the desk
oh… this would be why the left side isn’t lasting very long
it uses more power while advertising and not connected to a computer
but the right side shouldn’t have this issue as long as it’s paired with the left side
I think at least, I’d have to double check connection settings on zmk
finding shorts is usually finding the smallest voltage difference between places that shouldn’t have a low voltage difference
Yes, the right side is paired with the left
Do I set my multimeter to the 20v slot for this?
it could be anything from 0-5v
Hi @Nick I believe the nicenano is defective. I put the defective nicenano onto a pcb I know has no issues and the battery continues to drain quickly.
I then moved my working nicenano onto the pcb that's suspected to be defective and the battery drain does not occur anymore.
I did not detect any shorts on the defective nice!nano... Not sure what is wrong with it, would you have any ideas?
we can send out a replacement nano
send a dm to @Micky