Fixing Xiaomi 5200 battery bank
Fixing Xiaomi 5200 battery bank… by David HK August 2016
The other day one of my Xiaomi 5200 battery bank was not
working, no LED nights, not charging nor discharging. It was working perfectly fine, the battery body
didn’t feel warm when charging or discharging, and didn’t notice any drop in
the amount of amp being stored. It just
suddenly stop working / responding in one morning.
So I search the web / YouTube to see anyone has similar
problems, and how to disassemble the battery.
Most issues found in the web were the disconnected pins in 1 of the USB
ports, caused by prolong usage of connecting / disconnecting. Anyway, I decide to open up the battery to
see if I can find any issues with mine, at least to see what is inside. :)
The 5200 is the old thick body model, with 2 x 2600 mAh 18650
batteries inside (has been replaced by the ultra-thin 5000mAh model almost a
year ago), to open up the battery shell, need to use a cutter knife to peel
open the front and back white covers (there are many YouTube videos show you
how to do this), and for the 5200 model, the 2 screws that hold the components
together is in the back, just insert the Philip screw driver into the 2 large
holes at the side of the shell in the back of the battery, once the screw are
taken out, you just shake the whole shell a few time, then the inside
components will come out of the shell.
First I used a multi-meter to check the 18650 batteries voltage;
it was showing 4.x volt, so looks normal.
Then upon close inspection of all the connections, I noticed the left
hand battery-to-circuit-board connection has come off, wasn’t connecting at
all, and I don’t see any soldering residue in the connection, just 2 tiny dots on
the battery wire, which is a bare piece of metal strip. Looks like the
connection was done by a machine that somehow has a punch-n-solder action
during the manufacturing process, creating the 2 tiny dots that supposed to
hold the connection.
Whether this is the root cause of my problem or not, I need
to soldering it back first. So I tin the
bare wire and the circuit board connection point, I applied some flux 1st,
but both refused to take on any soldering because of the reflective and shiny surface. So I use the cutting knife to scratch their
surface, applied more flux, then was able to tin them and soldering them
together.
After inspecting the newly soldered connection, all tight,
then I pressed the battery white button, hoping to see some LED lights
flashing, but nothing happened, was very disappointed. Not given up, I connected a charger micro USB
output to try to charge it up, guess what, 2 LEDs is solid on, 1 LED is
flashing, so it is working again! I guess somehow the battery circuit needs
some kind of external power to reset before start working again, that’s why
there was nothing happened immediately, reconnected the battery wire.
So, if you have a non-working Xiaomi battery bank, open it
up, inspect, you may find the problem is due to some loose connection!
BTW, the Xiaomi battery bank is a high quality product at
budget price.
Cheers!
David.
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