Battery Led = Faulty.

[coldfish]

The battery LED indicator has never worked on my MK2 (fw 2.0.0). Ive tested it with Vice and the BattLED test program, no luck.

I heard somewhere, that some GP2X's have the LED soldered in reverse polarity, strange!
Today, I opened mine up and sure enough it was reversed, and broken too, (LED resin case cracked).
Its easy to tell, as the (working) power LED is correctly aligned with the (-) terminal to the right (viewing circuit board from battery side) same as marked on the board, my batt LED wasnt.

So after much fiddling I managed to replace it with a slightly modded 3mm high brigtness LED.

Its nice to finally have some warning before my AA's die.


BTW the GP2X is a real biatch to reassemble!


The situation does leave me wondering, how such a simple manufacturing error could occur?

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[claus]

Mine sometimes is lited when i load a program, but i haven't noticed it as a warning for low battery

 

[Squidge]

Probably due to the fact that the LED's can't be surface mounted, and therefore done by a group of people with soldering irons who don't give a shit?

 

[darkman]

My "low battery led" works on my GP2X. It usually comes on about 1 or 2 seconds before battery death. Very frustrating because you do not have time to save. I have learned to save more often while playing.

 

[peelie]

My "low battery led" works on my GP2X. It usually comes on about 1 or 2 seconds before battery death. Very frustrating because you do not have time to save. I have learned to save more often while playing.

the battery warning does not seem to come on when using gmenu2x?

anyone else seen this?

 

[fusion_power]

My "low battery led" works on my GP2X. It usually comes on about 1 or 2 seconds before battery death. Very frustrating because you do not have time to save. I have learned to save more often while playing.

the battery warning does not seem to come on when using gmenu2x?

anyone else seen this?

Gmenu2x uses the LED only for saving-status display. I hope Ryo will include a working Battery Warning in GMenu2x because the Mainmenu-indicator is useless when you are ingame.
A blinking would be nice near the battery-death, going faster, when the Battery is finaly dying. ^^

 

[Hippo]

My Battery LED works ok, gives me about 5-10 mins warning when watching video.

 

[coldfish]

The LEDs are in a really tight spot, and are weird shaped. I had to buzz down the standard 3mm replacement to get it to fit. Also, the only colour I had in my junk box was a green, so now I have a green battLED, which makes my GP2X sorta' unique I 'spose.

 

[mac_d4di]

The LEDs are in a really tight spot, and are weird shaped. I had to buzz down the standard 3mm replacement to get it to fit. Also, the only colour I had in my junk box was a green, so now I have a green battLED, which makes my GP2X sorta' unique I 'spose.

hello
i also have this problem mine does not work at all. quite annoying when I was 40 mins in on advance wars.
any way Im not being a turnip I can accept that its just a fault with some 2xs
my question is does any one have a guide with photos if possible on how to repair it. im not afraid of opening it up and tinkering but my soldering skills leave a lot to be desired.
many thanks

 

[coldfish]

Its relatively simple, but fraught with disaster as with any case opening tinkering.

---A rough guide to replacing/repairing your battery LED.---

1. remove batteries, leave battery cover off.
2. place the gp2x face down on a soft surface.
3. undo 4 screws.
4. carefully pry back cover off, it comes of fairly easily.
5. remove rubber covers from case suround and L&R buttons.
5. carefully remove glossy LED cover/case surround, theres a small part at the USB/DC ports that cmes loose as well as the power switch, take note of how all these parts fit together!
6. with the gp2x still face down LEDs toward you, you have the LEDs & solder pads exposed (Battery LED to the left, Power LED on the right), you should see white silk screen markings on the PCB denoting polarity: [__]] the rectangle has a vertical line to the right, this is negative.

If your GP2X has an incorrectly fitted battery LED you will notice that the internals of the 2 LEDs (seen through their resin case) is reversed.

7. very carefully desolder the battery LED, the best way (Ive found) is to apply gentle pressure with the soldering iron on one solder pad then the other pushing the LED little by little whilst pulling the LED from beneath, DONT FORCE! Eventually the LED should come free.
8. test the LED with a 2.4V source (a CR2032 or similar 3V coin cell will do) be sure you have the right polarity.
9a. assuming it works, resolder the LED, the right way round (use the power LED as a reference noticing the inner structures).
10. clear the solder pads of solder with a sucker or use a steel pin to clear the solder holes, now you can reinsert the LEDs legs into the holes (you'll need to bend the legs in the opposite direction too, test the LED again after bending just in case). Once in place quickly apply a miniscule amount of solder to the pads with a fine tip iron.
11. your done, now for the fun part...
...reassemble the GP2X case and parts in reverse order to disassembly, its tricky, especially that USB/DC port piece, have patience! Good luck!!!

9b. LED burnt out? You need to swap it for something similar a red, green orange or yellow 3mm, medium-high brightness LED. I dont think the GP2X supplies enough current for a blue or white one?

Modding a 3mm LED; a stock 3mm wont quite fit back in the case, you need to buzz or sand off the lens using a dremel or similar. Take it down to about 0.5mm from the inner structure (anode, cathode and "quantum well" structure for those tech minded). If you're new to this, try it on a few junk LEDs first until you get a feel for how close you can go. Test the LED before and after modding just to make sure you're not wasting time on a dud. You may have to mod the legs a little too to get them to fit into the solder pad-holes which are quite small? And of course, you will have to bend them at an angle similar to the original, use the power LED for reference.

...once done, goto 9a.

Good luck, sorry theres no pix, I may get around to posting some, but I'm loathe to open my GP2X again.

Coldfish.

BTW, can a friendly mod please change my display name from "coldfis" to "coldfish" - with the "h"?

Thanks!

 

[mac_d4di]

Its relatively simple, but fraught with disaster as with any case opening tinkering.

---A rough guide to replacing/repairing your battery LED.---

1. remove batteries, leave battery cover off.
2. place the gp2x face down on a soft surface.
3. undo 4 screws.
4. carefully pry back cover off, it comes of fairly easily.
5. remove rubber covers from case suround and L&R buttons.
5. carefully remove glossy LED cover/case surround, theres a small part at the USB/DC ports that cmes loose as well as the power switch, take note of how all these parts fit together!
6. with the gp2x still face down LEDs toward you, you have the LEDs & solder pads exposed (Battery LED to the left, Power LED on the right), you should see white silk screen markings on the PCB denoting polarity: [__]] the rectangle has a vertical line to the right, this is negative.

If your GP2X has an incorrectly fitted battery LED you will notice that the internals of the 2 LEDs (seen through their resin case) is reversed.

7. very carefully desolder the battery LED, the best way (Ive found) is to apply gentle pressure with the soldering iron on one solder pad then the other pushing the LED little by little whilst pulling the LED from beneath, DONT FORCE! Eventually the LED should come free.
8. test the LED with a 2.4V source (a CR2032 or similar 3V coin cell will do) be sure you have the right polarity.
9a. assuming it works, resolder the LED, the right way round (use the power LED as a reference noticing the inner structures).
10. clear the solder pads of solder with a sucker or use a steel pin to clear the solder holes, now you can reinsert the LEDs legs into the holes (you'll need to bend the legs in the opposite direction too, test the LED again after bending just in case). Once in place quickly apply a miniscule amount of solder to the pads with a fine tip iron.
11. your done, now for the fun part...
...reassemble the GP2X case and parts in reverse order to disassembly, its tricky, especially that USB/DC port piece, have patience! Good luck!!!

9b. LED burnt out? You need to swap it for something similar a red, green orange or yellow 3mm, medium-high brightness LED. I dont think the GP2X supplies enough current for a blue or white one?

Modding a 3mm LED; a stock 3mm wont quite fit back in the case, you need to buzz or sand off the lens using a dremel or similar. Take it down to about 0.5mm from the inner structure (anode, cathode and "quantum well" structure for those tech minded). If you're new to this, try it on a few junk LEDs first until you get a feel for how close you can go. Test the LED before and after modding just to make sure you're not wasting time on a dud. You may have to mod the legs a little too to get them to fit into the solder pad-holes which are quite small? And of course, you will have to bend them at an angle similar to the original, use the power LED for reference.

...once done, goto 9a.

Good luck, sorry theres no pix, I may get around to posting some, but I'm loathe to open my GP2X again.

Coldfish.

thanks coldfish for your reply does not sound to dificult will give it a go and post my results