Repair massage gun - not charging

[IDKWhatImTalkinAbout]

Hi,
So a friend gifted me this massage gun, but it doesnt charge. I can turn it on and use it, but eventually its going to tun out of charge and I won’t know what to do with it. I'm guessing it's quite a cheap one since I can't find the model or even the maker of the device. So I’ve decided to try and fix it, but I’m not exactly sure where the problem is (bare with me for the next part please, I am quite clueless in this field).
So for this type of error I’m guessing the problem is either in the battery or the board with the charge port (pics down below), but the battery seems to work since it powers the device, so could there be something wrong with the board? If so do you know where can I buy a new one?

 

[kellys_eye]

Commonly a battery problem but 'sometimes' you get issues with the micro USB socket. The likelihood of finding spares and/or replacing parts on that board seem pretty slim!

 

[Martaine2005]

Do you have a multimeter?.
What battery is in the device?.
What power supply is it?. (Mains Adapter).


Martin

 

[IDKWhatImTalkinAbout]

Do you have a multimeter?.
What battery is in the device?.
What power supply is it?. (Mains Adapter).


Martin

-Unfortunately I do not have a multimeter, but they are pretty cheap so I might consider getting one. What would you suggest I measure with it?

-About the battery, not exactly sure what type it is, but I have attached a picture of it.

-About the last question, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. I have tried charging the device using multiple different cables and adapters, but none of them seem to work.
Thanks!

 

[Martaine2005]

The battery is 18650 cells.
If you remove the tape/pad from the battery it will reveal more.
Does the device only have a 5V USB input?.
A really cheap multimeter would suffice for this. Check the battery voltage first. Using these below a certain voltage can destroy them. And circuitry can/will stop any charge efforts if the battery voltage is too low.
I’m not sure of the exact voltages but say a 3.7V battery will have a fully charged voltage of approx 4.2V. The lowest voltage the charger may detect is 2.4V or thereabouts. Somebody here will correct me.

Martin

 

[IDKWhatImTalkinAbout]

So I ordered a multimeter, waiting for that to arrive. I checked the battery, its a 12V, 2500 mAh. And yes, the device only has one input, which is the 5V type c port I posted before.

 

[IDKWhatImTalkinAbout]

The battery is 18650 cells.
If you remove the tape/pad from the battery it will reveal more.
Does the device only have a 5V USB input?.
A really cheap multimeter would suffice for this. Check the battery voltage first. Using these below a certain voltage can destroy them. And circuitry can/will stop any charge efforts if the battery voltage is too low.
I’m not sure of the exact voltages but say a 3.7V battery will have a fully charged voltage of approx 4.2V. The lowest voltage the charger may detect is 2.4V or thereabouts. Somebody here will correct me.

Martin

So I got the multimeter and it reads close to 10.6 V from the battery, do you know if there is any way I can check to see if the charging board works as intended?
Thanks

 

[Bluejets]

3 x fully charged 18650 should be close to 12.6v.
Nominal voltage would be 11.1v and low around 9v maybe a bit less (tested under load naturally)
Plug the charger in and see if the battery voltage rises.
Possible with extra internal circuitry however doubtful it would have been designed to take a 5v usb as charging input.

 

[IDKWhatImTalkinAbout]

Sorry this may be obvious, the way I tested was by the plug connected to the battery pack, but how do I test it if it’s plugged in?

 

[73's de Edd]

Sir . . . . I ( YOU ) DON"T KNOW . . . . . ya-da-ya-da-ya

Looks like the board contains a boost converter IC which contains both the drive electronics AND ALSO an internal power FET which pulse drives the L3 inductor that then rings and produces a considerably higher voltage with each driven pulses back EMF outputs. The D2 diode then rectifies the resultant constant string of higher voltage levels and they get filtered by the HIGH density ceramic MMIC capacitor C6. .
A monitored feedback of the resultant voltage then causes the control IC to vary pulse width and frequency being fed to the POWER FET portion, so as to to result in a final constant charge current and max voltage limiting so as to not exceed a total of 12.75 volts on the three cell Li Ion battery pack.

WANNA DO A CONFIRMATION ? . . . . .

Take meter in hand and have negative meter lead to P1 batt ground. Meter the positive probe to the input DC voltage from the plugged in USB as being 5VDC. . . . . . . . confirm . . . . .5VDC is present . . . .right ?
Then swing the positive probe up to the silver / white ? banded end of D2 and expect your battery charging voltage level. It should be at its present state of charge voltage, according to the degree of discharge of the cells.
Unplug the Li Ion cells connector P1 and expect to see the final max charge voltage . . . . . . the meter probe stayed at that same previous D2 cathode..

So o o o o o o it looks like your MEAN MACHINE portion hand unit then plugs into P2, and if that is its activation slide switch at the center bottom, looks like they are completing the ground connection to the hand unit.

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaassit . . . . .

How do you use the hand unit . . . . . . and are there any "snake oil " claims made about the units efficacy ?
Additionally . . . . .if readable . . .the numbering of I.C. would be nice .

ILLUSTRATIVE MARK UPS . . . . .

https://i.ibb.co/CQJMzhz/Hand-units-Power-Supply.png




73's de Edd . . . . .

It takes a lot of balls to golf the way I do.

.

 

[IDKWhatImTalkinAbout]

3 x fully charged 18650 should be close to 12.6v.
Nominal voltage would be 11.1v and low around 9v maybe a bit less (tested under load naturally)
Plug the charger in and see if the battery voltage rises.
Possible with extra internal circuitry however doubtful it would have been designed to take a 5v usb as charging input.

Well turns out there was nothing broken, I tried a 5V wall adapter, and that seems to charge the device. Doesn't do so with any of my other adapters, which is a bit weird, I haven't come across a device like this before.

Thanks to everyone who tried helping!