dead oqo 01+ battery, what now?

[Guest]

[arock]

I bought an oqo 01+ off expansys a bit over two weeks ago (18 days, more then their 15 policy thing).  I was travelling yesterday and the lousy soft case it ships with (haven't had time to get another) decided to turn the oqo on in my back pack.  I noticed this too late, the battery had already gone to 0% and now it wont charge.  Its been at least 12 hours of charging and still nothing, no lights, nothing.  I tried to remove the battery and hold the reset button down and then hold it down again, but no lights flashed, nothing happened.  If I plug it the unit works fine, no problems there.

First off, I dont understand why a company would sell something that could easily kill its own battery other then to take advantage $$ wise of this flaw.  The oqo killed its own battery rather quickly after working perfectly fine.  Second, how does the warranty work.  I have heard its under 6 months warranty (the battery, not the model), but expansys just says the have a 15 day warranty (according to their site, I have not talked to anyone).  What am I covered under, as buying a device for $700 only to have to spend $200-$300 to replace a battery 2 weeks later is a bit ridiculous.

Please help.  This little bugger has been wonderful for what I have needed it for, but right now I need it and having it not being portable is totally defeating the purpose of it.

[bumblebee]

I also have a dead OQO e2. I learned my lessons now and never buy something from OQO.

All i heard up until now is, this is dead, that is dead, etc.

You paid lots of money for something which lasts only for a couple of months.

Sorry if my mail does not help you. I just got irritated with OQO.

Michael Ang

[arock]

The machine works fine still. I am using it while going down the road right now. Unfortunately I will have to drag around my huge 17in laptop in a backpack once I leave the car.  I have no problem buying a new battery but if its just going to die again in two weeks its not really feasible.

Also about half the time the battery says it is still charging half the time it remains undetected.  about 15 hours have passed though

[arock]

and still no signs of life

[Ronc]

I bought an oqo 01+ off expansys a bit over two weeks ago (18 days, more then their 15 policy thing). 
...I need it and having it not being portable is totally defeating the purpose of it.

Buy a spare battery, unless you are thinking of buying a Model 02.  (I ordered my OQO with a spare double battery.  I even bought a spare BT keyboard since its battery is not replaceable, and a BT mouse that uses non-rechargeables.)  Also, return the original battery since it's still under the 6-month warranty.

Be glad the OQO is not made by Apple cuz then you'd have to buy a spare OQO!!!

[sonic]

Have you tried the instruction from oqo support site?
http://support-intl.oqo.com/cgi-bin/oqo_e2.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=588

[arock]

I tried the reset the battery thing many many many times, never had LEDs flash, never saw the battery ever have the LEDs light up again plugged in, reseting, or anything.

[Picasso]

For those looking to have a little fun with a dead battery, Check out what has been happening in this post http://www.oqotalk.com/index.php/topic,2315.0.html

[chadbh74]

For those looking to have a little fun with a dead battery, Check out what has been happening in this post http://www.oqotalk.com/index.php/topic,2315.0.html

Ahh yess..  I've rebuilt 2 double-capacity units and 1 standard battery so far with full success.   If anyone has a dead OQO 01/01+ battery they would like rebuilt, I would be willing to do this for them for a small fee.  ($50 for standard battery, $75 for double capacity.)  This number includes S/H back to you.

[Ronc]

If anyone has a dead OQO 01/01+ battery they would like rebuilt, I would be willing to do this for them for a small fee.

According to your instructional web page: "Once the soldering is complete you will get a single flashing light." This assumes the problem was with the cells and that the charging circuit board is good.  I recently attempted to repair a dead battery in which one of the two cell terminals broke loose from the circuit board.  After soldering there were no lights working so I verified that the cell's voltage (fully charged since it was over 4 volts) did appear at two different points within the circuit board.  Neither the reset nor the wakeup procedure would revive the lights or deliver power to the output terminals.  Apparently, the cells were good but the board was bad.

[chadbh74]

If anyone has a dead OQO 01/01+ battery they would like rebuilt, I would be willing to do this for them for a small fee.

According to your instructional web page: "Once the soldering is complete you will get a single flashing light." This assumes the problem was with the cells and that the charging circuit board is good.  I recently attempted to repair a dead battery in which one of the two cell terminals broke loose from the circuit board.  After soldering there were no lights working so I verified that the cell's voltage (fully charged since it was over 4 volts) did appear at two different points within the circuit board.  Neither the reset nor the wakeup procedure would revive the lights or deliver power to the output terminals.  Apparently, the cells were good but the board was bad.

Yes the PCB board needs to be good as well.  Fortunately, the connectivity problems I've experienced so far with these was on the conductive ribbon connections itself.  I put the information out for those that have a "Working" unit, just wore out cells, or have broken connection at the ribbon.   While it is definitely possible to get a defective PCB, I feel it would be more common to see connection failure at the ribbon points.

What would I do in the event of PCB failure such as in your case?   Well, I could always get a new battery, but then we are back up to full expense.  I suppose I would first grab my multimeter and test the pathways on the board to see if there was a simple trace that had burned out, this could potentially be repaired and I could resurrect the board.  If I could not determine where the problem was, I might look at doing a "conversion" on the unit.  This would involve taking a volt meter and determining which outputs on a working battery are the +3.7v and which are -3.7v.  Then I could make the direct connections from battery leads to the underside of the connector in the casing.   Of course this would most likely bypass the charging status system of the PCB, which would no longer be functional.  I don't know for certain if the OQO AC/Charger requires the battery PCB to be fully functional or not in order to charge.  If so, I would acquire a small RC connector and insert it into the end of the battery pack in order to charge the cells from another charger without opening the case.

Of course this method would be somewhat of a hassle having to take the battery off the OQO and connecting it to a 2nd charger.  But at least I would be able to use the battery pack again so I guess it's still better than throwing it in the recycle bin.