Hacks Battery bypass advice

superpomme · 01-27-2023, 02:22 PM

Hi, I have some kindle 3s that have duff batteries, and am looking to use them for a project.

I disassembled one battery to wire to its inner 2 battery wires(not the 4 pin kindle facing side) . This boots the kindles (with or without usb), but you have to skip a warning about 0 battery, and part way through the boot sequence it restarts. This is confirmed not to be happening with battery,

I found two guides talking about similar tests,:

this one but it's about paperwhite 3 pin batteries (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=274761), and this one (https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/a..._power_supply/)

With the latter stating:
"Eleanor, SDA and SCL connections are for the I²C bus. The Kindle battery has a battery management chip in it. Original Amazon firmware uses it to determine how much energy is left in the battery.

In my charger I left them open, because I run my own firmware on the Kindle and I don't use it. If your firmware expects to see the battery management chip on the I²C bus it is not trivial to fake that (it would require a microcontroller I guess)."

Do you know what they might be referring to, firmware wise? (or do you have any other tips)

Thank you

superpomme · 01-27-2023, 04:13 PM

this is the point on the boot that it gets to when it resets:

system: I rcS:def:starting /etc/rcS.d/S11chpriority
system: I rcS:def:starting /etc/rcS.d/S11video
Unknown HZ value! (94) Assume 100.
system: W S11chpriority:def:Cannot set priority for IRQ-7
system: I S11video:def:initializing eInk HAL for system use
system: I S11video:def:eink_debug=0
system: I S11video:def:Controller set to broads
▒

superpomme · 01-27-2023, 04:22 PM

I've found this which has interesting stuff about spoofing the i2c, but I'm not sure I have the tools for this http://bloodsweatandsolder.blogspot....e-without.html

superpomme · 01-28-2023, 01:13 AM

ok, I have it working some of the time. This is running with an 18650 connected onto the inner side of a battery circuit. I changed a bunch of references to the battery in various scripts, and now I'm at a stage where it sometimes works. I can't really work out why it fails then it works, and there is still something which is seeing the true battery reading during boot, but eventually I can manage to bring it up. Once up it stays up. Will test it on the others that I have, and look at setting up a power supply rather than a battery. Will post more once I have isolated the file changes that made a difference

superpomme · 01-28-2023, 07:36 PM

method is super flakey and I can't replicate it today. Giving up for now

superpomme · 01-31-2023, 03:52 PM

Ok, sorry to spam this thread, but I just want to leave the conclusion here in case anyone searches again in the future. I tested a bunch of stuff, including building a setup with capacitors in case it needs a surge of power mid boot (as it launches the framework). The answer is that you can wire directly to the pins on the kindle itself and then it doesn't see these drops (I wish I'd tried that properly before I wasted all this time testing).

You still need to disable the option in the power file to tell it to skip shutting down when it can't sense a battery, but then it does work. I am 3d modelling a "battery" that has the pins set up so you can pop it in place and put a little hole through the back so that It makes a nice hot-swappable plug, but then I am done

tlddr - connect to the power pins on the kindle, not the ones on the inside of the battery.

01-27-2023, 02:22 PM	#1
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	Battery bypass advice Hi, I have some kindle 3s that have duff batteries, and am looking to use them for a project. I disassembled one battery to wire to its inner 2 battery wires(not the 4 pin kindle facing side) . This boots the kindles (with or without usb), but you have to skip a warning about 0 battery, and part way through the boot sequence it restarts. This is confirmed not to be happening with battery, I found two guides talking about similar tests,: this one but it's about paperwhite 3 pin batteries (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=274761), and this one (https://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/a..._power_supply/) With the latter stating: "Eleanor, SDA and SCL connections are for the I²C bus. The Kindle battery has a battery management chip in it. Original Amazon firmware uses it to determine how much energy is left in the battery. In my charger I left them open, because I run my own firmware on the Kindle and I don't use it. If your firmware expects to see the battery management chip on the I²C bus it is not trivial to fake that (it would require a microcontroller I guess)." Do you know what they might be referring to, firmware wise? (or do you have any other tips) Thank you

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01-27-2023, 04:13 PM	#2
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	this is the point on the boot that it gets to when it resets: system: I rcS:def:starting /etc/rcS.d/S11chpriority system: I rcS:def:starting /etc/rcS.d/S11video Unknown HZ value! (94) Assume 100. system: W S11chpriority:def:Cannot set priority for IRQ-7 system: I S11video:def:initializing eInk HAL for system use system: I S11video:def:eink_debug=0 system: I S11video:def:Controller set to broads ▒

01-27-2023, 04:22 PM	#3
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	I've found this which has interesting stuff about spoofing the i2c, but I'm not sure I have the tools for this http://bloodsweatandsolder.blogspot....e-without.html

01-28-2023, 01:13 AM	#4
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	ok, I have it working some of the time. This is running with an 18650 connected onto the inner side of a battery circuit. I changed a bunch of references to the battery in various scripts, and now I'm at a stage where it sometimes works. I can't really work out why it fails then it works, and there is still something which is seeing the true battery reading during boot, but eventually I can manage to bring it up. Once up it stays up. Will test it on the others that I have, and look at setting up a power supply rather than a battery. Will post more once I have isolated the file changes that made a difference

01-28-2023, 07:36 PM	#5
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	method is super flakey and I can't replicate it today. Giving up for now

01-31-2023, 03:52 PM	#6
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	Ok, sorry to spam this thread, but I just want to leave the conclusion here in case anyone searches again in the future. I tested a bunch of stuff, including building a setup with capacitors in case it needs a surge of power mid boot (as it launches the framework). The answer is that you can wire directly to the pins on the kindle itself and then it doesn't see these drops (I wish I'd tried that properly before I wasted all this time testing). You still need to disable the option in the power file to tell it to skip shutting down when it can't sense a battery, but then it does work. I am 3d modelling a "battery" that has the pins set up so you can pop it in place and put a little hole through the back so that It makes a nice hot-swappable plug, but then I am done tlddr - connect to the power pins on the kindle, not the ones on the inside of the battery.