Have I fried my freerunner?

[Al Johnson]

On Wednesday 09 March 2011, John O'Hagan wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Mar 2011, Chuck Norris wrote:
> > 04.03.2011 06:27, John O'Hagan пишет:
> > > On Tue, 1 Mar 2011, Thomas HOCEDEZ wrote:
> > >> On Tue, 1 Mar 2011 13:16:54 +0000
> > >> 
> > >> "John O'Hagan" <research at johnohagan.com> wrote:
> > >>> Hi,
> > >>> 
> > >>> After a couple of years of fairly trouble-free
> > >>> qtmoko-FR use, I used a cheap in-car charger on a
> > >>> recent trip. The charger died, and the FR itself
> > >>> began exhibiting a number of odd behaviours such
> > >>> as not coming back from suspend, indicating
> > >>> charging status when it was not charging,
> > >>> crashing, and after a couple of days, not booting
> > >>> into qtmoko at all.
[snip]
> I needed to reflash both Qi and the rootfs to get a bootable
> phone, but to no avail: although the reflashing went fine, the FR
> will no longer charge, although the battery indicator showed
> charging status. Both my batteries are now dead.
> 
> Looks like my poor FR took quite a beating from that cheap
> charger.
> 
> Any advice how to diagnose/repair this?

Since you're asking I assume you don't have much/any electronic diagnostic 
skill, and wouldn't find the schematics much use. If so, your best bet is 
probably to find someone with the right skills as you'll need someone skilful 
to do any repairs anyway. If you can recharge your batteries with a nokia or 
universal charger there is a functional test that can narrow down the problem 
a little. 

Schematics and component placement:
http://downloads.openmoko.org/developer/schematics/GTA02/Schematics_Freerunner-
GTA02_A5-A7cumulative_public_RC0.pdf
http://downloads.openmoko.org/developer/schematics/GTA02/component-
placement_by_lindi/
Opening the Freerunner is the same as the Neo1973:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Disassembling_Neo1973
The charge controller is under the same can as the capacitors for the bass 
fix: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GTA02_bass_fix

The USB connector and protection is on page 7 of the schematics, and its 
connection to the power controller and battery is on page 4. If you're lucky 
one or more of the protective diode clamps has failed short circuit, and can 
be replaced relatively easily. If you're unlucky you have a power controller 
that is only partially working. Replacing that isn't an easy job even if you 
can get a spare part.

If you have a working battery then you can try a battery swap to see if the 
power is getting to the power control chip. Boot the phone, plug in the 
charger, then remove the battery briefly as if you were changing batteries. If 
it keeps running than the power is reaching the power controller which is most 
likely partially broken. If it powers down then the problem might be in the 
protective bits before the power controller.

Good luck!