1
\$\begingroup\$

I have an old Nokia Mobile that has a dead battery. I am trying to power it up to see if it works without having to purchase a replacement battery.

enter image description here

I have a bench power supply but am confused as to what the 4 battery terminals are doing, do you think I would be able to power up the phone using my bench supply or is their some other circuitry involved?

UPDATE

I have tried powering up with my bench supply by connecting to VBat+ and GND at 3.6v. When the power button is pressed it draws current for a second and then nothing. I am wondering if the BSI pin and BTemp provide some sort of signal that is required before it will power on

\$\endgroup\$
6
  • \$\begingroup\$ It is likely that the phone will power up when you just power it over the Vbat terminal. However, the phone might complain about the battery not being working, or go into a "safety shutdown mode" because the battery is not responding to the phones monitering signals. \$\endgroup\$
    – Joren Vaes
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 10:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ Does it not power up using the original power supply? There's a lot less risk of damaging it that way. \$\endgroup\$
    – Finbarr
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 10:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't have the original supply unfortunatley \$\endgroup\$
    – fightstarr20
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 10:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ Well, if you can get the right connector used by the original supply I'd use the bench supply to power it that way. \$\endgroup\$
    – Finbarr
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 10:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think you can power the phone from the power jack without a working battery \$\endgroup\$
    – fightstarr20
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 10:50

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3
\$\begingroup\$

Is that a Nokia 6310i (or one of it's re-branded brethren)?

If so, then I believe the answer is no. It is not possible to power this phone up using only a bench PSU. You would have to provide some electronics to trick the phone into thinking there was a real battery present.

I have just tried mine on a benchtop PSU (connecting +3.6 V and GND only, 200 mA current limit) and it refuses to power up. It momentarily draws about 130 mA when I press the power button but, as has been said in the comments above, it is likely that the battery needs to be proven to be "healthy" and responsive before the phone will allow itself to be used.

I put my battery back in and it works fine. It only has the 4 connections at the top. So you can ignore the ones at the bottom for your purposes.

For your information the battery bears the following information (verbatim)...

RECHARGEABLE Li-Polymer

Type BPS-2 3.6V

BL0893213E

My battery still lasts a long time (2 weeks of standby time from a full charge) and it's probably 15 years old. It's likely that you can just buy a battery and charger second hand.

Ahhh, they don't make 'em like that any more! :)

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you for checking it on yours, at least it confirms what I am seeing. Guess it's time to try and revive that current battery or buy a new one \$\endgroup\$
    – fightstarr20
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 11:32
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Is there no way of probing those other points with an oscilliscope to see if its an actual signal, or just a low/high voltage. \$\endgroup\$
    – Pop24
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 11:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Pop24, certainly there is. I have answered the question as it was originally asked. To go into details about actually accomplishing what is required to make this phone work without it's battery would be better served as an entirely separate question. Whether that would be on-topic or not for EE.SE is a matter for debate. :) \$\endgroup\$
    – user98663
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 13:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Wossname sorry the inner engineer trying to fight its way out and see this working :')... good answer! \$\endgroup\$
    – Pop24
    Commented Jan 18, 2018 at 14:15
3
\$\begingroup\$

I know the question is not very recent, but:

Yes, you can power the phone up using a pull down resistor from bsi to gnd (82K). Connect VCC and Gnd to 3,9 volt powersupply.

Without a working sim you're only able to make emergency calls. I had a SIM which I put in. When you start you get the handshake screen and then the phone goes blank. I pulled the sim out the moment the handshake screen came up and then the phone started up. after een error message about SIM registration , you can enter the menu.

First the phone checks if the BSI is pulled low. If that's OK the next step is to register the SIM. After succesfull registration the phone want's to pull the bsi high to communicate with the battery. Since there is no battery this doesn't work.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ This does seem supported at least in principle by information elsewhere online, various resistors indicate various battery types. There's also a design intent of it sequencing shutdown on battery removal, apparently the contact used there is physically shorter. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Stratton
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 19:47

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.