EnerChip Solar Energy Harvesting Demo Kit
Troubleshooting Test Procedure
1) Using a voltmeter, put the ground lead on J5 pin 4 and probe J7 (left pin). Voltage should be 1.0V. This test
verifies operation of the photovoltaic cell.
2) Probe right side of the tantalum capacitor (brown bar side) on the CBC5300 module. Voltage should be
between 4.5V and 9V depending on ambient light and EnerChip device state-of-charge. This test verifies
operation of the boost converter.
3) Probe the positive (bottom side) terminal of capacitor C2 on the CBC-EVAL-08. Voltage should be 4.06V,
or steadily increasing if there is no output voltage. When the capacitor voltage reaches 3.8V, the output
will turn on from zero volts to the voltage across capacitor C2. Note C2 will not be charging if the EnerChips
are depleted. When the CBC-EVAL-08 is first powered up, the CBC5300 will first charge the EnerChips, then
charge the output capacitor C2, then switch on the output when C2 is charged.
4) Probe J5 Pin 3 (VBAT). This pin should be at 4.06V.
5) Probe J5 Pin 5 (VOUT). This pin should be at 3.5V.
6) Probe J5 Pin 1 (CHARGE/). This pin should be at zero volts if the EnerChips are charged and enough
ambient energy is available to operate the CBC5300 module. Depending on the input impedance of the
voltmeter, a high level on this pin would read between 1.0V and 3.5V.
If none of the above works, check pin 1 on one of the EnerChips on the CBC5300 module (with it plugged
into the solar board), as indicated in the figure below. It should read approximately 3.9V. If the voltage is less
than 3.0V, the EnerChips have been damaged.
In applications where a radio is being used - as in wireless sensor networks - there can sometimes be
external electrical interference with the radio signal that causes the radio receiver to stay on longer than
normal. If this happens, the CBC-EVAL-08 output capacitor C2 will become discharged and the low voltage
cutoff circuit will engage, isolating the EnerChips from the load. If this happens it can take from several
minutes to an hour or more for the EnerChips and output capacitor to be recharged.
EnerChip Pin 1
DS-72-08 Rev18
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