Jan "Jenkings" Škoda - blog

In addition to the phones, there was also a tablet in the mystery box I received. It's a Galaxy Tab 3. It's quite old, but I like the size of the screen, and so does my son.



Unfortunately, the tablet was dead when it arrived, and nothing happened even when it was plugged in. I plugged the detector into the USB charger and it detected zero current. I therefore concluded that the battery was dead. However, I tried the donor to see if it worked. He replied that he had powered it on just before packing the box. I tried to disassemble the back, but I was a bit nervous about the plastic. My colleague did it for me as he had more strength and it wasn't his device! So, after that, I found a battery connector with doubled wires connected by an unusual connector. I plugged the testing wires from my multimeter into the wires of my laboratory power supply, carefully pinning the needle directly to the battery connector, and started to charge it slowly. The voltage was under 3 volts at first, so the reason it wouldn't charge via USB was probably a security mechanism. I started with 40 mA, and once the voltage had risen to 3.5 volts, I increased the current up to 600 mA. As soon as I reached 3.9V, I plugged the battery back in and connected the USB charger. The tablet started charging immediately without any problems and, after turning it on, it showed that the battery was at about 50%. I fully charged it, and it has now been working for a week with just one charge when it dropped to 40%.



I have traditionally installed some games, but only a few so far. For example, I installed Sprinkle Island, which is one of my favourite games and is still funny. I also tried Liero, a game I played on DOS. It's quite tricky to play with touch controls, but it still brings back nice memories of the past. The last interesting game I tried was World of Goo. It's a logic game that I struggled with after a few introductory levels. Maybe I would have more luck with a bigger screen.