Auto-shutdown on battery and wall power

Support RACHEL-Plus 1.0 (2015 - 2016)
#1

Hi, I purchased a RACHEL plus (v1) in 2016. It was unused for about a year while I was out of the country and when I came back I couldn’t get it to stay on. It would turn on and then shutdown within a couple of minutes, even when plugged in. When I opened it and disconnected the battery it worked fine, when plugged in. Can you help me get battery capability back?

I read at one point in these forums that there was some sort of battery check/verification in the firmware that might have been causing it to shutdown? Or maybe it really is a bad battery. Thankfully it shows no signs of swelling, etc.

Thanks,
Josh

#2

Hi @joshuawagner – did you do this RACHEL-Plus Battery Issue category? I see we chatted their last at the end of last year.

If you’ve done the update and are still having trouble, it is almost certainly a dead battery. That happens to rarely used batteries: https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/low_voltage_cut_off

#3

The firmware is “1.2.16-rooted”, according to the admin page at 192.168.88.1:8080
Is it up to date?

#4

I htink this is a battery issue. I’ve been trying to figure it out, but it seems like this can happen pretty normally. In fact, Google recently sent out an alert about their similar batteries here: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9139543

Do not let the Chromebook battery fully discharge over the summer. Even when a Chromebook is off, its battery continues to slowly lose charge. If left long enough, the batteries might no longer function and can’t be recharged.

At the same time, you shouldn’t keep Chromebooks plugged into a cart or charger while in storage for months. This can reduce battery life and lead to other issues. If you’re storing Chromebooks for a long time, charge them to at least 80% and unplug them from a battery source, following the instructions below.

#5

Thanks. Do you have spare batteries that could be shipped to Minnesota that I could buy?

Also, the firmware is “1.2.16-rooted”, according to the admin page at 192.168.88.1:8080
Is it up to date?

#6

That firmware is, yes, but the battery feature was one implemented by us. So you’d want to check in the admin section of rachel my.content/admin.php and look and see if it says RACHEL Installer 1.2.1

I don’t have a device that old to confirm.

The reformat usb is here: http://rachelfriends.org/downloads/public_ftp/other/

In CAP 1 RACHEL recovery

#7

Sorry, we don’t have any batteries from then.

#8

So I flashed an image of the unzipped installer to a usb drive but I don’t think it did anything.

Current firmware is 1.2.16-rooted, according to the admin page at 192.168.88.1:8080
RACHEL installer is 1-2-16-20161213.1836, according to the admin page at 192.168.88.1/admin/version.php

Is that what it should be? The name of the installer was CAP1_RACHEL_Recovery_USB_1.2.1.img.zip so I think it should be saying 1.2.1 but I don’t know what I did wrong. The light on the RACHEL immediately went to the normal breathing pattern as soon as I booted it up with the USB firmware drive. I left it overnight, but still nothing changed.

I created the usb in linux using UNetbootin (I’m new to Linux). The attached screenshot shows the files that are at the root of the drive. Any ideas what went wrong?

I guess with all of this, I’m hoping that the 1.2.1 firmware might remove a low voltage limitation and the device might come on again with the battery installed. I don’t know if I misunderstood that part though.
20190523_043839-Screenshot

1 Like
#9

Hi @joshuawagner – this means the device did not recognize the USB. I should have linked the process here: Update Firmware on RACHEL-Plus 1.0 (WRTD-303N Model)