NanoVNA H Battery Failure

In this video, we replace an damaged Lithium Battery in a NanoVNA H, it's the original NanoVNA and it's about three years old.
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👉NanoVNA: amz.run/5gpY
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[@mcgrath16511]

in our household i have a saying.. "it's already 'effed up, i cant make it worse!" if its broke you have nothing to lose, nice video.. its tuff to buy factory smoke anymore!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Lol, agreed. Thanks for watching 👍

[@zingodingo2816]

One big, nice thing about How-To vids is that 'we' see that 'it' is a problem for others, too; and, that it is fixable. Dang, sigh of relief. I thought I'd do a little switch of technique and just cut and re-solder the connecting wires and not solder on the board itself. Thanks for the vid.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks Zingo, glad you got it sorted 👍

[@migsvensurfing6310]

To be safer, solder a resistor to the battery when disconnected from the unit and wait until the battery is fully discharged, then remove it You are going to discard it anyway and it is then safe for the recycling plant to handle. I am not even going to mention the placement of the wires on the soldering pads neither the dabbing several times with the soldering iron to risk cold soldier joints. 😄 Just get a course on how to solder. Else a good video. Thank you.

[@phillyedhrj]

Great job!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks Ed 👍

[@bassangler73]

Glad you got it fixed!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Me too. Thanks for watching BA 👍

[@deankq4adj125]

Well done Ape! Glad you didn't have to battle the "smoke".

[@TheSmokinApe]

Haha, thanks for watching Dean 👍

[@KK6USYHamRadioAdventures]

Glad you decided to fix it, great job!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks 👍

[@HOAHamRadio]

Of course it worked! I didn't have a single doubt!

[@TheSmokinApe]

LOL, I was expecting some goofy curve ball out of left field!

[@AD6DMDennis]

Good transplant. Janky tape has fixed so many things in my life.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Janky tape is the best tape...

[@ronwolenski-n8wcr]

Nice easy job!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Yes it was!

[@drocles]

I replaced both the sma connections, they were getting worn out. If you try it, i recomend chopping them up with a dremal first, much easier and less heat input to remove the 5 pins individually then the whole connector. I almost ripped off the traces

[@TheSmokinApe]

That’s a good tip 👍

[@RadioJimProductions]

Even better, get pair of male-to-female SMA adapters to use as connector savers. Leave them permanently attached and replace them when they get worn out.

[@FEPLabsRadio]

That looks like a LiPo battery. Good work!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks FEP 👍

[@Tump2010]

Disappointed that there was no smoke... 😀 You should have discharged the battery first to make it safer. Good video

[@TheSmokinApe]

Everyone likes the smoke show!

[@theadvacedelectronicsstudi8069]

No

[@ShooterReadyStandBy]

That's a solder bridge you don't want to make. Nice fix.

[@TheSmokinApe]

LOL, right!

[@45auto]

Seeing the magic smoke come out is always entertaining...when it's someone else's equipment.😊

[@TheSmokinApe]

Right, lol 👍

[@PerHedetun]

Almost played into the Hollwood action movie trope, with the careful wire cutting there. 😃 Directed by Michael Bay?

[@TheSmokinApe]

Haha, thanks for checking it out 👍

[@KS0JD]

Those batteries look similar to one of the first drones I bought years back. I probably need to go back and check the batteries to make sure they are not bloated. I know I hand a couple of batteries for one of my Nikon cameras bloat. it made it a pain to get it out of the camera. Now I keep them out unless I am using the camera. 73

[@TheSmokinApe]

Bloating batteries sucks...

[@KS0JD]

@@TheSmokinApe Better to bloat than blow up or catch fire ;-) 73

[@Ressy66]

trick: isopropyl alcohol, and a small syringe, dispense tiny squirts at a time - dissolves the glue, battery just falls away :)

[@TheSmokinApe]

That's a good tip!

[@k9bob]

Solder flux is you friend...you need to use it next time. 🙃

[@propagating-radio]

My battery started swelling up recently also. Enough so that it was putting pressure on the circuit board and causing issues.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Did you replace it?

[@propagating-radio]

@@TheSmokinApe not yet. I removed it and am using the USB port for power for now.

[@TheSmokinApe]

@@propagating-radio gotcha

[@phillyedhrj]

The removal of the battery was sped up to hide the cussing. 😉

[@TheSmokinApe]

Indeed

[@kevinkc3onohelijeepworld953]

Reason it puffed is from leaving it stored at full charge. I think the nano vna guy could write sum code to auto balance to storage voltage 3.7v. Leaving it full makes the dendrites form and crystallize on the anode and short across to cathode internally 😉

[@kevinkc3onohelijeepworld953]

Ps lots of info on lipo batts are battery university online

[@TheSmokinApe]

That could have been it...

[@kevinkc3onohelijeepworld953]

@@TheSmokinApe most common failure of lipo so much stored energy it does t like not being used. Maybe we can convince the software guy to write a few more lines of code to help preserve batt life ?

[@joeshmoe7899]

But, doesn't voltage decrease over time while in storage?

[@RadioJimProductions]

If the unit is going to be stored for some time the battery should be discharged to 50% and disconnected. There is a small but finite current drain even when the VNA is switched off. Lithium based batteries do not like to be completely drained and this will damage them. Ask anyone who has tossed their iPod in a drawer for a few months and later found the battery to have failed. if you only use it infrequently and you don't want to go to the trouble to disconnect the battery then the unit should be periodically maintenance charged to keep the battery from draining completely.

[@subramanianr7206]

My original one had the same issue and I replaced it with a larger but thin enough battery; it is working well. You could have done the soldering of the wire tips to pads on the PCB bit more elegantly. De VU2RZA

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks for checking it out Subramanian 👍

[@ChrisdeHaan]

My H4 now has a bad touch panel

[@TheSmokinApe]

That sucks, I assume you are part the return window? Maybe you can swap it out?

[@ChrisdeHaan]

@@TheSmokinApe nope unfortunately not but NanoVNA saver works fine for now. I’ll pickup another one some time

[@andrewgilbertson4226]

Watching you solder the negative wire without putting a little electrical tape over the positive pad:😬😬😬😬😬

[@TheSmokinApe]

I've got the hands of a surgeon 👍

[@503Nick]

🔋 💥

[@TheSmokinApe]

👍

[@kittony71]

poor soldering

[@LeeMcc_KI5YPR]

Ummmm.....I would have been wearing safety glasses. Just sayin'

[@TheSmokinApe]

Fair point 👍

[@pen25]

a little ipa(isopropyl ) always works

[@TheSmokinApe]

Good call Phillip 👍