GPI Case integrated Ni-MH charger simple MOD

[littlebalup]

Hello,
I'm sharing my light modification of my GPI Case. The goal was to integrate a charger without any modification to the shell, battery compartment or battery door. Very cheap (less than 10€). Reusing the provided USB DC jack plug and cord.

For that I used a cheap Charger Module based on CN3085 IC that can be found on Aliexpress. You have to choose the 3-cells variant (3S).

Then 3 wires need to be soldered to the GPI Case main board to connect:

• B+ to battery +
• B- or GND to any of the main board ground
• VIN to the jack plug DC +5V.

B- and GND are connected together on the module so no need to connect both.
If you have a different version of the main board than mine, you'll have to identify all the soldering points by checking the continuity with a multimeter. On mine, all are accessible without removing the main board from the front shell as shown below.

The wires shouldn't be too thin as up to 1A current can pass through.
Locate the module so the LED light can be seen through the contrast potentiometer aperture.

The charger will charge the batteries once the DC 5V is connected. It will stop and the LED light will extinguish once the charge is complete. You can even power on the GPI Case and play games during the charge but it's not recommended.

Other tips:

• Use a strong enough power supply. The charger module will drain up to 1A. Using a 2A supply is better specially if you want to play games during the charge.
• Only use Ni-MH batteries! Never use alkalines. Thechnicaly you may still use alkalines but you must never connect the +DC 5v with them.
• The batteries are charged in serie. So you should use batteries with the same capacity, age and charge level (fully charge them with an external charger before installing them in the GPI case).

Enjoy

[supernature2k]

Very nice work!

[olivierdroid92]

@littlebalup great !