M5Stick CPlus Battery Replacement

greenleaf

I've got an M5Stick CPlus whose battery seems to have died. The factory test software shows a voltage error when I power it up. I tried shorting the BAT pin to GND as others have suggested but it just won't hold a charge.

Is it even possible to get a replacement battery?

ajb2k3

@greenleaf If you have a small tip soldering iron and good hand eye coordination, yes you can just desolder the old one and add a new battery.

greenleaf

I'm ok with a little soldering, is it a standard battery? I guess I can take it out and look for a serial or part number...

felmue

Hello @greenleaf

a while ago I took my M5StickCPlus apart and took some pictures which might help you. See here.

Thanks
Felix

HWTaro9

@felmue I just noticed that my StickC Plus doesn’t have a RTC backup battery. Is that a problem?

felmue

Hello @HWTaro9

The RTC backup battery is meant to keep the RTC powered (and with that to keep date and time) even if M5StickCPlus isn't plugged into USB and the main battery has run out of juice. Or in other words even after the main battery has been depleted (and the M5StickCPlus no longer can run from the main battery) the RTC still keeps date and time as long as the RTC backup battery has some juice left.

So no, a missing RTC backup battery isn't a problem per se. The M5StickCPlus still works normally except for the fact that date and time (in the RTC) gets lost when the main battery runs out of juice.

I am just curious. When your write 'doesn't have a RTC backup battery'. Do you mean the RTC backup battery is physically missing or do you mean it is dead or not functioning?

Thanks
Felix

greenleaf

@felmue This is awesome, thanks for the teardown photos. I might even have one of those batteries already...

HWTaro9

@felmue it’s physically missing from the board. The main board of my StickC-PLUS

felmue

Hello @HWTaro9

hmm, I guess you'll need to check with M5Stack support.

Thanks
Felix

HWTaro9

M5 said that the battery lasted for not a lot of time, meaning that after about 12 hours it’s dead. So they removed it from later versions. If anyone has a later version and wants to solder their own battery the model is MS614SE-FL28E .
(My StickC-Plus is a V1.2, so all 1.1-1.2 versions don’t have it)

greenleaf

@hwtaro9 makes sense. The battery is tiny, probably only useful for small toy drones or maybe low power LCD displays

HWTaro9

It was meant for keeping the RTC accurate, but it even did a bad job at that.

drewbp

Did anyone find a place to order the battery for the M5stick CPlus?