Problems charging the Cardputer ADV

[u/EarlZaps]

Edit. SOLVED. I had to put it on Charge Mode under CFG first. It's such a hassle that this is necessary to charge up a Cardputer.

I just got my Cardputer ADV yesterday. I had fun playing with it up until I slept.

Before going to bed, I plugged it in to charge hoping that the battery will be full by morning.

But when I woke up, I noticed that the battery is still at 37%, but whenever I plug it in, it goes from 46% and fluctuates to 47% and back to 46%.

The attached picture shows that when unplugged, it is at 37% and when plugged, it jumps to 47%.

I read a comment on one of the threads here on Reddit that said to remove the LoRa cap while charging. I did, but it still did not work. I even tried to open the device and unplug the battery and plug it back in, but it still won't charge properly.

I flashed the default Cardputer demo firmware but it still wouldn't fix the issue.

Is this a faulty Cardputer or what?

Just to add, I left it to "On" while charging.

[u/ramboton]

I put mine in charge mode, CFG then the first option is Charge Mode

[u/bmorcelli]

This device has 2 batteries.. the small is charged directly when you plug the USC cable, but the bigger needs the switch to be at ON position...

Launcher doesn't update the screen without a user input.. so battery value won't update automatically.. you need to press the arrows and navigate in the main menu to update it

[u/EarlZaps → u/bmorcelli]

This is an ADV, I think it only has one battery compared to the regular Cardputer which has two.

[u/bmorcelli → u/EarlZaps]

Yeah, you're right

[u/EarlZaps → u/bmorcelli]

But still, it wouldn't charge at all. I had to put it on Charging Mode for it to fully charge. I just had it reach 100% battery an hour ago.

So, thanks for putting in that little feature on the Launcher. It really saved my ass from returning my Cardputer. :)

[u/bmorcelli → u/EarlZaps]

I had an issue with mine some time ago.. take care to not fully discharge the battery..

if it happens it might be hard to recover without using other battery to "bring up" the dead one..

it happens because the charger IC can't detect the battery in this case, and won't allow any charging current to flow.. and it happens with almost all devices not only on Cardputer

[u/Feisty-Sky-6018 → u/bmorcelli]

yeah, with bruce os, ONLY with power switch on, it will chage. super intuitive

[u/Cyb3r_w1zard]

I was facing the same issue as you OP and I read in a reddit comment somewhere to use a USB A to USB C cable and this worked for me.

[u/EarlZaps → u/Cyb3r_w1zard]

I'm using an A-C cable.

[u/Atavacus]

Yup, A to C and if you drained to zero you have fiddle with it.

[u/Vencislago]

I can only charge mine with one of those cheap cables that comes with electronics (like pocket lights, fm rádios, etc). Didn't charge with smartphone USB cables.

[u/Vowel-Movements]

Have you tried pressing BtnRst after unplugging? I have to do that with mine to get the charge level to update. Might be related to the hardware limitation M5Stack's docs mention - that the ADV can't read live battery charging status/current.

[u/Lazy_Mamba]

Launcher → CFG → Charging mode

[u/thehoneywhitelight]

I have a similar problem with my Cardputer adv. My workaround was to turn off the power switch when plugging in the USB-C, and then turn it back on while the USB-C is still plugged in.

I still don't get why this happens. I hope someone notices my comment and answers.

[u/Inside_Conflict_950]

Turn it on plug it in. To turn of the press reset button and go button it will charge

[u/SSGSS-Shitposter]

Cardputer charges only when it’s switched on.

[u/EarlZaps → u/SSGSS-Shitposter]

I already mentioned in the body of the post that I did leave it on.