PiJuice stopped charging after outage

[markdepalma]

I had been using my PiJuice in a setup to monitor a travel trailer. It was working fine and the last time I lost power for an extended amount of time it completely stopped charging. I bought a new battery thinking it may be a battery issue. After putting this battery in it now shows 20% and battery present (was showing 0% and no battery), but it just stays at 20%. It will run off battery power now, but will not charge when plugged in. Not sure what to check.

[tvoverbeek]

First thing to check is charging enabled? (https://github.com/PiSupply/PiJuice/tree/master/Software#pijuice-hat-general-config-menu for the GUI or https://github.com/PiSupply/PiJuice/tree/master/Software#general for the CLI) Where is the external power connected to the Pi or the PiJuice? If to the Pi also check if GPIO input is enabled.

[markdepalma]

Went through software one more time and and found that charging was disabled. Is there any reason why this would turn off on its own? It was definitely enabled before the issue and had gone through multiple charge cycles.

[tvoverbeek]

If the PiJuice loses power and the MCU goes off the 'charging enabled' setting goes off unless it is stored in non-volatile memory. The default is to not store it in non-volatile memory. You can check with this python code:

from pijuice import PiJuice
pj=PiJuice(1, 0x14)
pj.config.GetChargingConfig()

My output is: {'data': {'charging_enabled': True}, 'non_volatile': False, 'error': 'NO_ERROR'} If my PiJuice completely loses power (takes more than a week) then the setting is gone. The CLI/GUI sets the non-volatile attribute to True only if you change the setting. If you never changed the setting the non-volatile attribute is False

[markdepalma]

If the PiJuice loses power and the MCU goes off the 'charging enabled' setting goes off unless it is stored in non-volatile memory. The default is to not store it in non-volatile memory. You can check with this python code:

from pijuice import PiJuice
pj=PiJuice(1, 0x14)
pj.config.GetChargingConfig()

My output is: {'data': {'charging_enabled': True}, 'non_volatile': False, 'error': 'NO_ERROR'} If my PiJuice completely loses power (takes more than a week) then the setting is gone. The CLI/GUI sets the non-volatile attribute to True only if you change the setting. If you never changed the setting the non-volatile attribute is False

Thank you for this! I just checked now it the setting on and it shows non-volatile:

from pijuice import PiJuice
pj=PiJuice(1, 0x14)
pj.config.GetChargingConfig()

{'data': {'charging_enabled': True}, 'non_volatile': True, 'error': 'NO_ERROR'}

Did this change just by flipping that switch (Charging enabled) in the CLI? How would it have been charging before without that switch (Charging enabled) checked? What state would the switch (Charging enabled) have been in before where the device was charging the battery, but not enabled as a non-volatile setting?

Just want to make sure I fully understand. Thank you!