I tried to charge my pocket reform before upgrading the firmware. However, I was unable to boot. For some reason, the battery status was showing 0% and at 3.0V. I tried to boot for a few times. The keyboard lighted up, but the screen was dark. I tried to “reset the keyboard” with the “r” command. After a few rounds, the keyboard was not even on, and the charging LED was not even lighting up.
I tried the following:
several different charger
on and off the Standby Power switch on the side
Unplug and replug the battery packs
But nothing happened. It goes all dark now.
I need help for trouble shooting.
First thing, can someone confirm the position of the Standby power switch? If I want to turn the device on, should I push the switch up?
It could be that your batteries got too low. I would leave a charger plugged in that has worked in the past plugged in. It might need a while to “wake” the batteries.
Maybe disable power on the side, open up the back of the display. Disconnect the two batteries, and replug them in. Lid back on, and then flip the switch again for power. Try charging.
Are you sure the charger you are trying to use works? The Pocket Reform can be very picky about what it will accept.
You could check if you have a defective charger board like on my Pocket Reform (MNT Pocket Reform doesn't boot). If that the case and you just received yours you can send it for RMA (I’m still waiting for a new one) and use the Pocket Reform without battery.
TL;DR: access the battery compartment and see if the main IC (U1) of the charger board is super hot (check with a thermal camera of thermometer as it could be 125+°C so very hot to the touch). If yes it might be defective.
This same thing happened to me. I think i got a faulty board. The main chip on the charging board fried while it was charging. I might try the jumper bypass for power after I hear back from them. Was so excited to get my pocket today too…
I do not know if this is good advice, it might even lead to your batteries catching fire but this is what I did and helped me get out of a pinch":
After a few months turned off the pocket wouldn’t charge, nothing showed signs of life, not the OLED, neither the charging LED. So I opened the bottom lid, disconnected the batteries and connected them directly to the red/black terminals of a cut usb cable (red to red, black to black) connected to an old dumb usb charger (5v 1A).
I held the connection for a couple of minutes, not more, then connected the batteries back to the reform, connected the charger and the charging LED went on and charged up to 88%. I guess the % will go up to full after a few cycles.
Don’t leave the batteries connected to 5V for long, I don’t think they are meant to be charged directly.
Don’t know if this will help, my Pocket discharged completely, I didn’t use it for days neither disconnected the physical standby button. I put it to charge, and it apparently didn’t charge, but I left it connected to the charger and left it there while doing other things. Some minutes later the red led (charging) went on.
The first charge went only up to 65% or so, and with a slightly different battery voltages, but after a couple of cycles it went all ok.
