Hey.
For many power users (buyers), the topic of electronic defectiveness is as important as performance and price. Sometimes we can fix a marriage at home, and the price advantage makes it take a risk, and sometimes not. Most often, devices from not very well-known manufacturers, who are just starting their struggle for buyers' wallets, suffer from a large number of defects. This includes most of the Chinese brands sold on Internet sites under names that are strange for the Russian consumer and do not have a Russian certificate of conformity. However, there are also examples when marriage becomes a mass phenomenon among well-known brands. Most often this happens when the manufacturer is not doing well with the sale of its devices (for various reasons) and he begins to save on both components and testing new models (hello, one well-known Japanese company).
There is another situation – when only one, less often several device models differs in an increased number of defects. In this case, we can talk about a miscalculation in the design. A striking example of this is the hot news about a Korean manufacturer, which at one time did not leave the news pages.
Potential buyers pay close attention to such information and, based on this, make a choice in favor or against the purchase.
In this case, the issue of the availability of a guarantee is especially acute, and this point should not be neglected.
But all this is true when choosing relatively expensive devices, such as phones, tablets or accessories, the purchase of which entails significant expenses, which cannot be closed. If we are talking about electronics, which are perceived by many as an additional, optional and at the same time inexpensive accessory, then the risk of getting a defective device does not have such a strong influence on the purchase decision. An additional factor in favor of a positive decision is the purchase price through gray channels, which for gadgets of this group often turns out to be twice as low as compared to official sales channels.
The principle already works here: if you are not even lucky, it's not a pity. The buyer is willing to part with a small amount of money in exchange for substantial savings associated with risk.
In this case, I mean Mi Band – a series of smart bracelets from Xiaomi, messages about marriage in which began to appear on the network since the release of the first generation and continue to appear to this day. Moreover, judging by the specialized forums, one might get the impression that this phenomenon is not so rare, and even frequent. But not everything is so bad – let's not forget about the volumes of devices sold and about such a feature of our psyche, thanks to which, if everything is fine with you, then you will not write about it on the forums. Moreover, the main, and perhaps the only complaint about bracelets Xiaomi is that at one point the gadget simply stops charging and does not show signs of life. It is difficult to say what this is connected with, since there were no comments from Xiaomi, and employees of third-party service centers did not conduct research on this topic, since few people thought to carry this non-separable capsule for repair.
And the cost of the time spent by the master, most likely, would be higher than the price of a new gadget. That is why, for most, the most obvious solution to the problem was to buy a new device, and again from Xiaomi. In this case, the effect of a low price triggered, which neutralized the loss of brand loyalty.
But, as they say, the world is not without kind people, and among the owners of such gadgets there are a large number of curious fans of experiments. It was such enthusiasts who found ways to restore the working capacity of seemingly irretrievably dead gadgets. Let's look at these methods and try to understand their effectiveness. Not without pride, I can say that one of these methods was invented by the author of these lines, and judging by the reviews of people on the forums, it really works.
But I will not say which one is this method from the ones listed below. Let it be a secret.
Okay, aside the lyrics, let's move on to the practical part of today's story.
Before considering the methods of resuscitation, in the absence of reliable data on the causes of the malfunction, let us take it as an axiom that the main reason is a deep discharge of the battery, in which the controller puts the battery in the storage mode to prevent the destruction of lithium. Due to its small size and capacity, such a battery may not have a reserve volume, which should subsequently allow the controller to 'start' the device as soon as an external power source is connected. Therefore, the controller reserves the last crumbs of charge available in the main battery capacity in order to save this very battery, and they are no longer enough to start. At least the methods that animate the device fit into this theory. Now, about the methods of restoring operability, which will be listed in descending order of risk of finally killing the device.
Method one, the most controversial and dangerous – electric shock
The essence of this method is to completely reset the bracelet and reset the statistics on the controller.
For this, it is proposed to use the most natural stun gun, albeit in miniature. It is proposed to use a piezoelement extracted from a conventional lighter as an execution tool. I think many in childhood amused themselves by trying on each other and themselves such an improvised stun gun.
For the method to work, you just need to close the contacts of the bracelet with the contacts of the piezo element and shand the bracelet with an electric current. After that, it is recommended to connect the bracelet to the charger and check its performance. In theory, the bracelet should work – start charging and then turn on.
It's up to you to try or not, but personally I would not recommend this method, since the success rate is 50-50 here. You will either be lucky and the bracelet will work, or you will not be lucky and you will completely burn all the electronics inside the capsule. Reviews on the network confirm the effectiveness of this revival option – some have earned it, some have not. Moreover, the percentage of the latter is higher.
The next way is temperature
If you look at the characteristics and operating parameters of lithium, it turns out that when the temperature of such a battery drops to negative values, it ceases to perform its function, since the chemical processes inside the battery practically stop and energy ceases to be generated. The way out is to make the battery completely lose charge so that the charge data is reset to zero in the controller. After that, the bracelet should start life 'from scratch', as if it had just been made or as if a new battery was connected to it.
To do this, it is recommended to put the bracelet in the freezer (the colder the better) and leave it there for several hours, or better overnight, so that it freezes thoroughly and completely loses its charge.
After that, the bracelet must be taken out and left to warm up at room temperature for half an hour or an hour, in no case warming it up with a hairdryer or on a battery. Rapid heating after freezing can lead to damage in the structure of electronic components, this should be known to everyone else from a school physics course. After the bracelet has warmed up, we try to turn it on. This method has a lot more positive reviews on the net. Many who used this option wrote that after freezing the bracelet began to charge and then turned on. I myself used this method after I received a first generation bracelet from AliExpress, which did not show signs of life. After freezing, the bracelet came to life.
The third way is scientific
It relates more to chemistry and physics than to electromechanics, and is about speeding up a chemical reaction by increasing the temperature. However, in this case, simply raising the temperature is not enough. It should be combined with the creation of an electromagnetic field. Sounds scary. But in reality everything is elementary. If the bracelet does not turn on after a full discharge, then to revive it, you should first leave it on charge for an hour or two, and then, after removing it from charging, quickly and quickly rub the capsule on a woolen cloth until it becomes very hot and immediately connect it to the charger.
The bracelet should start taking charge. Apparently, during heating from friction, the speed of chemical processes in the battery accelerates and additional energy is generated, which is enough for the controller to 'allow' the device to start. Possibly, static electricity also plays a role, which occurs when the capsule frictions against woolen fabric.
In any case, judging by the reviews on the network, the method is working and allows you to reanimate a capsule that has gone into a deep discharge.
The fourth and easiest option is waiting
This method is connected with the already familiar principle of full battery discharge to zero the data of the charge controller and the subsequent start-up, suitable for very patient users.
To use this method, it is necessary to leave the capsule alone for a long period of time, during which the battery must be guaranteed to use up its entire charge, thereby resetting the controller data. After that, it is recommended to simply put the capsule on charge. The waiting time in this case ranges from a couple of weeks to a month. The easiest way to have positive reviews on the net. I think you can use it if the previous ones did not work, or if you do not really need the bracelet at the moment and there is time to wait.
In such simple ways, you can bring back to life the Mi Band bracelets of different generations, which at some point stopped showing signs of life. It is possible that none of the above methods will work, and then there will be little choice – try to repair the bracelet by disassembling it, or buy a new one. Personally, I was faced with both the need for repair, as I once wrote about in the article 'Notes of the Master. Frankenstein 'and with the need to revive the bracelets. And in all cases, the result was a working gadget.
Instead of a conclusion
In addition to cases of sudden death, bracelets Xiaomi have one bad feature – being tied to one account, for subsequent connection to another account, they require unlinking from the previous one. And often this becomes a real problem for the user who, during the initial setup, created an account, as they say, 'from the bulldozer', then safely forgot about it and, if you accidentally reset the settings or change the phone, faced the impossibility of connecting a bracelet that did not untie from the previous account.
For such a case, there is also a solution – a special service application sent by a Chinese bracelet seller to one of its buyers and concurrently to a user of the w3bsit3-dns.com forum under the nickname “rawin '' in response to a problem with unlinking from an account.
To untie the bracelet, you need to download the application file. After that, rename the downloaded file, removing the numbers after the dot so that the extension will end in .apk, and install it. Then connect the bracelet to the phone using the system dialogue Bluetooth. Launch the application, making sure that the connected bracelet and its mac-address are displayed in the application, tap on the line with the bracelet. Then, in the window that opens, click on the bottom button, as in the screenshot.
After that, according to rawin, the bracelet will 'make scary sounds (squeaks) during its operation' and will be reset to factory settings and forcibly unlinked from the previous account.
In such simple ways you can bring the bracelet back to life. And the unlinking method can also help in the case when the bracelet does not want to connect to your account, not only because of forgetfulness, but also for no apparent reason – after all, in this case, a complete reset of the settings occurs.