OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - Hardware => Topic started by: Paul H on January 30, 2020, 03:16:31 pm
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My Gemini won’t take a charge. The red light comes on when plugged in but it will not charge. The red light is on but. Won’t charge or turn on even with it plugged in.
Does anyone know where I can get a replacement battery?
Thx
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E-mail to "Customer Care (Support)" <hello@planetcom.co.uk> is how I ordered mine. They will send you a PayPal invoice ($79.00) and once you've paid they promise to ship the replacement battery. I ordered mine on 2019-11-29 and received e-mail today saying "We are sorry for the delays with this. We've been very low on battery stock, but we have a few spares now. We will ship you one this week for sure. It will be traceable upon request early next week."
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Thanks. I will go that route.
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Are you sure that the battery is dead? It could be only deeply discharged, it could also be some other problem. If it is deeply discharged then usually keeping it plugged in for few hours will resolve it.
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Are you sure that the battery is dead? It could be only deeply discharged, it could also be some other problem. If it is deeply discharged then usually keeping it plugged in for few hours will resolve it.
Not accepting any charge in case of a bad battery also sounds not very probable for me. In most cases one notices capacity loss first, and it is not that old, yet. I also have noticed some (rare, have not seen this for a long time) times the Gemini not charging despite of being plugged in. I would try anything else first. Replugging many times, rebooting, deleting cache (if on Android), etc. ..., before ordering a new battery.
Battery voltage might be below the charging circuits lower limit. Are you capable of measuring the battery voltage at the battery terminals?
Btw. are you using the original charger? I have noticed with a Samsung tablet, that it won't start charging with my 3rd party charger when it is completely empty. With the original one then it worked.
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I have not used the Gemini that much over the past few months and let the battery sit uncharged. Once I did hear it try to turn on while plugged in but it didn’t. I can’t even get it to turn on while plugged in. I can try a different charger and see if that helps. I did have another charger from Planet Computers but that didn’t make a difference. The weird thing is I reached out to support a week ago and have not heard back.
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Hello,
just to hint to a common mistake: only the left side USB-port can be used for charging.
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I have not used the Gemini that much over the past few months and let the battery sit uncharged. Once I did hear it try to turn on while plugged in but it didn’t. I can’t even get it to turn on while plugged in. I can try a different charger and see if that helps. I did have another charger from Planet Computers but that didn’t make a difference. The weird thing is I reached out to support a week ago and have not heard back.
Try what I wrote above. If the battery is deeply discharged then the phone (any phone using li-ion battery) will not turn ON even when plugged in. Just keep the Gemini on the charger (left USB), for many hours. Most likely it will come to life. Also a good thing here would be an "USB doctor", it will tell you if the USB device is actually consuming any power from USB.
Quick usb charger will not make any difference here.
As a last resort if above does not help is to remove battery and charge it externally, but this needs to be done by someone who knows how to do it.
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I have not used the Gemini that much over the past few months and let the battery sit uncharged. Once I did hear it try to turn on while plugged in but it didn’t. I can’t even get it to turn on while plugged in. I can try a different charger and see if that helps. I did have another charger from Planet Computers but that didn’t make a difference. The weird thing is I reached out to support a week ago and have not heard back.
Recommend try a different charger in case your charger is misbehaving.
If you have a 5V/500mA or 5V/1A old-school "slow" charger, I recommend to try that.
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I will leave it in for a while. When I try to power on the Gemini it does vibrate but does not turn on. Also concerning is I’ve yet to hear from Planet Computers web site and it’s been almost 2 weeks. Send a few emails. Not a peep from them.
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I did hear back finally from a Planet. Told me to hold then ESC and silver buttons down until the device vibrates. Still nothing. They also want me to do a full restore. Not hopeful on that end
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Is there another option, some 3rd party vendor to get the battery? I have the same problem, I'm not sure if I want to get a new battery for $79.
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I hope there is..... Needing a battery so soon is disappointing.
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I have not used the Gemini that much over the past few months and let the battery sit uncharged. Once I did hear it try to turn on while plugged in but it didn’t. I can’t even get it to turn on while plugged in. I can try a different charger and see if that helps. I did have another charger from Planet Computers but that didn’t make a difference. The weird thing is I reached out to support a week ago and have not heard back.
Recommend try a different charger in case your charger is misbehaving.
If you have a 5V/500mA or 5V/1A old-school "slow" charger, I recommend to try that.
Did you try different charger and/or cable?
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Yes, tried a few different chargers... still dead.
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Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I experiencing exactly the same problem.
@Paul H - did you manage to resolve this by replacing the battery?
Sorry, ignore, my Gemini seems to have eventually come back to life.
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I hope there is..... Needing a battery so soon is disappointing.
Mine has lasted a little longer but it has failed quite quickly, and considering how little it has been used it is certainly very disappointing! Only a few days ago mine suddenly would not charge beyond 85% full and then the following day I used it until it had totally run out (thinking it might do a battery recalibration). I tried to charge it up again but it would go no further than 58% and in fact if I left it longer it actually started dropping to 57% and then 56%... Then whilst using it, while it was still plugged in to the charger, it actually lost charge! I gave up once had dropped to 15%. I've tried other chargers but to no avail. On top of the fact that you could never do full proper backups (confirmed by Planet Computers) and the fact it failed to answer phone calls using the side button after only months, (it would only answer if it was open so you could click on 'Accept') I have now given up and it will be scrapped. I'm not going to waste any more time or money on it. It is such a shame as I considered it well made, especially for their first device, but the software never quite did what was promised and it was never well supported as they moved on to the Cosmos and Slide versions before really sorting the Gemini.
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Hello, I registered to make this topic more helpful for new users of Gemini PDA.
I recieved new Gemini with dead battery. Tried slow charger as 5V/1A, but not slower in my reach.
I contacted Planet Computers, because I was little triggered by this situation, and they give me tip which eventualy worked.
Try to connect Gemini to PC/laptop USB for few hours.
I was not sure if new USBs 3 will solve this, so I found old USB 2 on my father's computer.
I kept it there for some time, and Gemini woke, so I waited to have capacity 3 percent and then switched to slow charger 5V/1A, and was able to fully charge Gemini.
Lets explore!
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considering how little it has been used it is certainly very disappointing!
While the number of charge cycles matters a lot, a Li-ion battery keeps aging somewhat, even when not used. From what I have read, if kept nearly full for a long time (weeks), it degrades faster, which is why it is recommended to charge a phone to about 50% before putting it into storage. Having a Li-ion battery go completely empty is apparently even worse. Phones will typically shut off a bit before that, but if then left like that for long, that remaining charge will leak away and that can damage the battery severely. Temperature and the quality of the individual battery also matters. What I'm trying to say is that it can be quite hard to know why a certain battery ages quicker than it should.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to directly to directly measure the charge level of a Li-ion battery (its voltage only gives a hint). By trying to guess how the battery ages and somehow measuring the energy flowing in and out, a phone can indirectly track the approximate charge level, but small errors adds up over time. Only when the phone gets fully charged, or runs until it shuts off will the charge controller get any authoritative information on the actual state of the battery.
If your device stops charging at weird values and suddenly has begun losing charge even when connected to a charger, I would suspect your immediate problem is that the charge controller inside the device has lost track, and has locked itself into a kind of "safe mode" where it drains the battery until the device shuts down, to make sure it doesn't accidentally overcharge the battery. While I haven't experienced it with my Gemini, it has happened to at least one other device I have.
I would try keeping the Gemini on until it shuts down and then, much like nitrem suggested, connecting it to a PC/laptop USB (or other a non-fast charger) over night and see if anything useful happens. If the battery is very low, seemingly nothing might happen for a while, when connecting the charger. Some of my old Nokia phones could need half an hour or so to even light up the charging LED, if the battery was very low to begin with.
I have read various suggestions about (trying to) charge a phone to 100% and run it until it shuts off a few times to "re-calibrate" the charge controller. For me, running it until it shuts off once and then leave it on the charger for a few more hours, when it says it is full, has been sufficient, provided the battery wasn't actually dead for real, but given the sudden onset of your problems, I think your main problem lies elsewhere
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I will try this interesting approach on both my Gem and Cosmo. Batteries appear to be shot and I can't find replacements anywhere in the world.
Jake
Follow-up: this did not work for my battery
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Also had the problem, not charged my Gemini a few months and now it wouldn't accept any charge. Plugged-in the charger, the red light came up, a few seconds later it vibrated, what seems to make the battery brake again, light goes off and a few seconds later the same again and so on.
Regardless which charger or USB-Port for hours, no chance.
My last try was to use 2 chargers, one on each USB-C-port of the Gemini. And what happened? No vibration, the Gemini charged, after a few minutes I removed the right charger, the Gemini charged as usual from the left side and it booted again! So if anyone also has that problem, you could try that too.
Nevertheless, it is sad to know that one day my Gemini and Cosmo won't boot again because there will be no replacement battery to buy :(
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Nevertheless, it is sad to know that one day my Gemini and Cosmo won't boot again because there will be no replacement battery to buy :(
Indeed — but isn't that pretty much the situation for any phone (or indeed any device with built-in, custom batteries) these days? Of course, the most popular devices will be supported for longer, but nothing lasts for ever…
(FWIW, I used my Gemini every day for 5 years, and the battery never misbehaved or lost any appreciable capacity. I attribute that to a) charging it every night, without waiting until it looked low, and b) using a bog-standard slow 5V 0.5A USB1 charger and not a fast charger. All batteries warm up a bit while charging, but heat kills them, and so to a very rough approximation the slower you charge, the longer they last.)
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Also had the problem, not charged my Gemini a few months and now it wouldn't accept any charge. Plugged-in the charger, the red light came up, a few seconds later it vibrated, what seems to make the battery brake again, light goes off and a few seconds later the same again and so on.
Regardless which charger or USB-Port for hours, no chance.
My last try was to use 2 chargers, one on each USB-C-port of the Gemini. And what happened? No vibration, the Gemini charged, after a few minutes I removed the right charger, the Gemini charged as usual from the left side and it booted again! So if anyone also has that problem, you could try that too.
Nevertheless, it is sad to know that one day my Gemini and Cosmo won't boot again because there will be no replacement battery to buy :(
A bit late to respond, but for context I wanted to confirm that the above solution worked for me as well. Otherwise dead Gemini with no way to turn it on, would charge again after plugging a charger to the right port as well. I assume its due to some grounding / earthing that is taking place on the right port.